United States Solid Waste and
Environmental Protection Emergency Response EPA530-F-97-016
Agency (5305W) . April 1997
Office of Solid Waste '.
&EPA Environmental
Fact Sheet
TREATMENT STANDARDS PROPOSED FOR
TOXICITY CHARACTERISTIC (TC) METAL
AND MINERAL PROCESSING WASTES
Background
The widespread practice of disposing of hazardous waste in units located directly on
the land has been regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) LDR
program for many years. A major part of the LDR program is to adequately protect
public health and safety by establishing treatment standards for hazardous wastes
before they can be disposed of in land disposal units. These treatment standards either
specify that the waste be treated by a specified technology, or that they be treated by
any technology as long as the concentration of hazardous constituents is below a certain
level. Universal Treatment Standards (UTS) specify the concentration levels for
hazardous constituents. '
In addition to setting new .treatment standards, another continuing task of the EPA
is to better define which industrial materials are wastes, thus subject to regulation, and
which should be excluded from regulation!
Action
EPA is re-proposing LDR treatment standards for metal-bearing hazardous wastes,
including wastes from mineral processing operations. Since the original proposal in
1995, EPA received new data indicating that the universal treatment standard (UTS)
levels for 12 metal constituents could be modified to better reflect the entire universe of
wastes that are subject to the treatment standards. These revised UTS levels would
apply ,to hazardous wastes that contain any of the 12 metal constituents above defined
levels.
The standards also would apply to wastes from mineral processing operations, a
group of wastes not currently subject to treatment standards. The Agency has collected
new data that reaffirms the Agency's position that the mineral processing wastes are
no harder to treat than, those wastes for which the UTS were established.
" Additionally, this proposal seeks comment on three very specific issues related to
recycled secondary materials from mineral processing, and wastes excluded by the
Bevill amendment under Section 3001 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA). ^
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The first issue is determining which materials are wastes, thus subject to full
regulation of hazardous waste management, and which are in-process materials that
are outside EPA's jurisdiction. The proposal would allow recycling of secondary
mineral processing materials without complying with .hazardous waste requirements,
but the material generally could not be stored on the land during this recycling.
Rather, it would have to be stored in tanks, containers, or containment buildings that
meet minimum specifications.
The second issue is whether the Bevill exclusion should extend to Bevill-exempt
mining facilities in which mineral processing wastes or other materials are part of the
feedstock, along with the ore. EPA proposes that such co-processing (e.g., hazardous
waste plus raw materials) in Bevill-exempt mining units invalidates the Bevill
exemption for the resulting wastes. In other words, for a waste to qualify for the Bevill
exclusion, all feedstocks entering the unit would have to be solely derived from the
extraction, beneficiation, or processing of virgin ore or mineral.
The third issue is whether the risks posed by some Bevill-exempt wastes warrant
future regulatory controls. EPA is seeking comment on whether to re-examine the
Bevill exemption for certain wastes.
On other issues, EPA is proposing to: (1) exclude from regulation certain recycled
wastewaters from wood preserving operations, and (2) ban the use of hazardous waste
as fill material.
For More Information
The Federal Register notice and this fact sheet are available in electronic format on
the Internet through the EPA Public Access Server. The notice is available at
http://www.epa.gov/rules, regulations, and legislation. This fact sheet and other
documents related to this rule are available under "EPA Offices and Regions." For
additional information or to order paper copies of any documents, 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 operates weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. v
Write to the RCRA Information Center (5305W), US EPA, 401 M Street, SW,
Washington, DC 20460. .
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