United States Solid Waste and
Environmental Protection Emergency Resonse EPA530-F-95-029
Agency (5305W) December 1995
Office of Solid Waste
&EPA Environmental
Fact Sheet
EPA ENCOURAGES RECYCLING OF
MINERAL PROCESSING MATERIALS
BY PROPOSING TO MAKE CHANGES TO
THE DEFINITION OF SOLID WASTE
The EPA is proposing controls over toxic by-products of mineral
processing operations. For those materials identified by the EPA as
hazardous, the Agency is requiring that before the materials can be land
,.-.-. disposed, they must meet stringent standards preventing leaching of toxic
constituents into ground water. EPA estimates that over ten million tons of
toxic wastes will be controlled by these disposal standards. EPA also has
provided that these materials may be recycled safely under special
provisions that allow the mineral values to be returned to the processing
operations for use in producing metal products.
The proposal is intended to encourage recycling and remining of
minerals contained in secondary materials from mineral processing. The
proposal attempts to reduce regulatory constraints to the recovery of mineral
values from mineral processing wastes and has been< drafted to provide
industry with a wide range of options to meet the conditions noted in the
rule. As a result of this rule, clean-up costs maybe reduced at Superfund
and other sites that have mineral processing.
As part of the Administrator's initiative to provide recordkeeping relief
to the regulated community, this notice proposes to reduce paperwork
requirements for the Land Disposal Restrictions program by approximately
1.5 million hours.
Background
In the 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) of the Resource
Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA), Congress specified that land disposal of hazardous
waste is prohibited unless the waste meets treatment standards established by EPA.
HSWA requires that treatment standards must substantially diminish the toxicity or mobik
ity of hazardous waste, so that short and long term threats to human health and the envi-.
ronment are minimized. '
Under the terms of a proposed consent decree with the Environmental Defense Fund
(EDF), the Agency was required to propose LDRs for particular newly listed and identified
wastes by August 11, 1995. For one class of newly identified wastes, characteristically
hazardous mineral processing wastes, EDF provided an extension to the Agency until
December 15, 1995 to propose treatment standards. Those proposed treatment standards
are one of the major elements of this supplemental rule.
-------
Action
This proposal clarifies which mineral processing materials are solid wastes (and there-
fore potentially hazardous wastes) and it applies treatment standards to those which are
hazardous wastes. In addition, the Agency is proposing a conditional exclusion for some
of the materials. The proposal would allow primary mineral processing residues to be
temporarily placed on the land and excluded from the definition of solid waste, as long as
the materials are handled in an environmentally sound manner spelled out in the proposal,
and are destined for recycling. The intent is to encourage recovery of mineral values from
mineral processing wastes. This proposed rule also allows mineral processing residues to
be added to the feedstock of a mining or mineral process that generates a Bevill exempt
waste, without changing the exempt status of the resulting Bevill waste, provided that
minerals are legitimately being recovered. However, mineral processing wastes directly
disposed of with Bevill exempt wastes would remain subject to RCRA Subtitle C hazard-
ous waste controls.
Several associated mineral processing or recycling proposals are included in the
proposal. EPA is proposing that the Toxitity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP)
be the appropriate test for determining the hazardousness of mineral processing wastes.
EPA is proposing to not list five smelting wastes as hazardous wastes, but rather rely on the
wastes' hazardous characteristics to ascertain the wastes' hazardousness. Iron chloride
waste acid generated from the chloride-ilmehite process of titanium tetrachloride produc-
tion would be classified as a mineral processing waste. The Agency is also proposing to
classify air pollution control dust and sludges generated form lightweight aggregate produc-
tion as mineral processing wastes. Additionally, EPA is excluding from the definition of
solid waste scrap metal and shredded circuit boards bound for legitimate recycling.
In addition, this notice proposes to reduce the record-keeping requirements for the
Land Disposal Restrictions program. Specifically, EPA is proposing to require one-time
notification and certification of hazardous waste versus requiring generators to complete
the notification and certification with every shipment
More Information
The Federal Register (FR) notice and this fact sheet are available in electronic format on
the Internet System through EPA Public Access Server at gopher.epa.gov. For the text of
the FR notice, choose: Rules, Regulations, and Legislation; then FR-Waste; finally, Year/
Month/Day. This fact sheet is available under: EPA Offices and Regions/Office of Solid
Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER)/Office of Solid Waste/Hazardous Waste-
Subtitle C/Land Disposal Restrictions.
For additional information or to order paper copies of the FR notice, call the RCRA
Hotline. Callers within the Washington, Metropolitan Area must dial 703-412-9810 or
TDD 703-412-3323 (hearing impaired). Long-distance callers may call 1-800-424-9346 or
TDD 1-800-553-7672. The RCRA Hotline is open Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.,
Eastern Standard Time.
Copies of documents applicable to this rule may be obtained by writing: RCRA
Information Center (RIG), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste
(5305W), 401 M Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20460,
------- |