United States Office of Solid Waste EPA530-F-93-022
Environmental Protection and Emergency Response September 1993
Office of Solid Waste
f/EPA Environmental
Fact Sheet
EPA Proposes Treatment
Standards for Newly Listed
and Identified Wastes and
for Hazardous Soil
This proposal presents an innovative approach to the
regulation of hazardous soil under the LDR program.
It also proposes ways to simplify existing rules by providing
a set of universal treatment standards that are to be applied
to virtually aH wastes.
Background
The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) to the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) enacted in 1984 prohibit
the land disposal of untreated hazardous wastes. HSWA requires
EPA to set levels or methods of treatment for hazardous wastes to
substantially diminish the short-term and long-term threats to human
health and the environment. Wastes that meet the treatment standards
established by EPA may be land disposed (i.e., placed in a landfill, surface
impoundment, waste pile, injection well, land treatment facility, salt dome
formation, salt bed formation, or underground mine or cave).
The statutory schedule for land disposal restriction (LDR) rules for those
wastes identified or listed as hazardous before HSWA was enacted was
completed on May 8, 1990. However, a number of hazardous wastes have
been newly listed or identified since 1984 for which LDR treatment
standards are needed.
This notice proposes land disposal restrictions for a number of these
"newly listed and identified** wastes and proposes alternative treatment
standards for hazardous soil. The schedule for newly listed and identified
wastes in this proposed rulemaking is part of a settlement agreement EPA
entered into with the Environmental Defense Fund.
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Action
This notice proposes LDR treatment standards based on Best
Demonstrated Available Technology (BDAT) for 42 newly listed or
identified wastes, including the Toxicity Characteristic fTC) wastes. In
addition, the Agency is proposing alternate treatment standards for soil
contaminated with hazardous wastes and to establish treatment
standards for TC soil. Furthermore, in a move to simplify the LDR
program, the Agency is proposing a number of changes, including setting
universal treatment standards for over 200 constituents. These standards
would apply uniformly to the treatment of the constituent, regardless of
the listed waste in which the constituent is found. Finally, EPA is
proposing that highly concentrated ignitable and TC pesticide wastes be
treated, and not merely diluted, prior to injection into a Class I deep
injection well.
Public Comment
EPA is requesting public comment on this proposed rule. Comments
should be sent to EPA within 60 days of the Federal Register
notice publication date. For instructions on submitting written
comments, please see the Federal Register notice. It is available free of
charge by calling the RCRA Hotline or by visiting EPA's RCRA Docket
in Washington, DC.
Contact
For further information, or to order a copy of the Federal Register notice,
please call the RCRA Hotline Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30
p.m., EST. The national toll-free number is (800) 424-9346; for the
hearing impaired, it is (TDD) (800) 553-7672. In Arlington, VA, the
number is (703) 920-9810 or (TDD) (703) 486-3323. Or write to the RCRA
Information Center (OS-305), US EPA, 401 M Street SW, Washington, DC
20460.
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