United States Environmental NESHAP: Final Standards for August 1999
Protection Agency Hazardous Air Pollutants for EPA530-F-99-039
Hazardous Waste Combustors;
Final Rule
Office of Solid Waste (5305W)
Hazardous Waste Combustion (HWC) National
Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) ^
Final Rule Fact Sheet: £
REVISED TECHNICAL STANDARDS FOR
HAZARDOUS WASTE COMBUSTION
FACILITIES
To further reduce exposure to hazardous air pollutants, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing national-wide
emissions standards for hazardous waste burning incinerators, cement kilns and lightweight aggregate kilns. These standards
will significantly limit future emissions of many hazardous air pollutants of concern, including dioxins andfurans, mercury, and
other heavy metals.
Background
Today's final standards will increase control over emissions of hazardous air pollutants at 172
incinerators, cement kilns and lightweight aggregate kilns now operating in the U.S. These facilities burn
about 80%—approximately 3.3 million tons—of the 4 million tons of hazardous waste being combusted
each year. The remaining 15 to 20 percent of waste is burned in industrial boilers and other types of
industrial furnaces that will be addressed in a future rulemaking.
We are finalizing this rule under the joint authority of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). In doing so, we establish a common-sense approach for
coordinated CAA and RCRA permitting of hazardous waste-burning facilities. This final rule ensures
that combustion facilities will be able to avoid two potentially different regulatory compliance schemes
by integrating the monitoring, compliance testing, and record keeping requirements of the CAA and
RCRA into one permit—the Title V CAA permit. The only exception would be extra, site-specific
permit conditions as needed to protect human health and the environment under a RCRA permit.
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In developing this final rule, we met with affected stakeholders to elicit their feedback on a wide range
of regulatory approaches. These groups included owners and operators of affected facilities,
environmental and other community-based citizen groups, nonprofit health organizations, and states.
Action
EPA's final rule creates a comprehensive set of clear national emission limits under the CAA. This
action fulfills our commitment to substantially upgrade the emission standards for hazardous
waste-burning facilities, as stated in our Hazardous Waste Minimization and Combustion Strategy.
Today's standards are based on the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) approach
required by the CAA. MACT reflects the maximum degree of hazardous air pollution reduction that
can be achieved considering the availability, current use, costs, and non-air environmental impacts of
emissions control technologies. We estimate that
the costs of compliance for hazardous waste burners will be between $50-63 million annually.
The revised standards will limit emissions of dioxins and furans, mercury, semi-volatile metals (cadmium
and lead), low-volatile metals (arsenic, beryllium, chromium, and antimony), particulate matter, acid gas
emissions (hydrochloric acid and chlorine), hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide. Within the next 3-4
years under the final emission limits, hazardous waste burners must significantly reduce emissions of top
priority pollutants. For example, dioxins and furans will be reduced by 70%, mercury by 55%,
cadmium and lead by 88%, four other toxic metals by 75%, and particulate matter by 42%.
This rule will complement the Agency's other combustion regulations for municipal waste combustors
and medical waste incinerators. Overall these three rules will provide reductions of 95% for dioxin,
80% for mercury and 83% for cadmium and lead.
Children exposed to lead can suffer from damage to the brain and central nervous system, slow growth,
hyperactivity, and behavior and learning problems. Adults exposed to lead can suffer difficulties during
pregnancy, high blood pressure, nervous disorders and memory and concentration problems. Mercury
exposure can lead to similar nervous system disorder, particularly in newborn infants whose mothers
are exposed during pregnancy. These toxic substances all accumulate in the environment, leading to
potential long-term health impacts.
Other key provisions of the final rule include:
• An alternative PM standard for incinerators that have de minimis levels of metals in their
incoming feed streams; and
A compliance time line that allow for coordinated testing that might be needed to satisfy risk
assessments under RCRA and the performance demonstrations under the CAA.
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In an earlier related action, we adopted other regulatory provisions in a companion final rule— known
as the "Fast Track Rule", promulgated in June 1998—that dovetail with the provisions of this MACT
rule.
Three significant features of the fast track rule are: (1) a comparable fuels exemption for hazardous
waste fuels that have constituent levels comparable to those in traditional fossil fuels; (2) a streamlined
permit modification process to facilitate compliance with the final standards adopted in this MACT rule;
and (3) encouragement of waste minimization by extending compliance deadlines for worthy
compliance-oriented facility changes that will reduce the amount of hazardous constituents going to
combustion units.
Applicability
This final rule applies to hazardous waste incinerators and cement kilns and lightweight aggregate kilns
that burn hazardous waste as fuel.
• Hazardous waste incinerators are enclosed, controlled flame combustion devices used
primarily to treat organic and/or aqueous wastes.
• Cement kilns receive liquid hazardous waste to burn as fuel to run their cement processes.
Cement is produced by heating mixtures of limestone and other minerals or additives at high
temperatures in a rotary kiln, followed by cooling, grinding, and finish mixing.
• Lightweight aggregate kilns produce lightweight aggregate and burn liquid hazardous waste
as fuel to run their processes. Lightweight aggregate refers to a wide variety of raw materials
(such as clay, shale, or slate) which, after thermal processing, can be combined with cement to
form concrete products. It is produced either for structural or thermal insulation purposes.
For More Information
The Federal Register notice and this fact sheet are available in electronic format on the Internet at our
Web site—www.epa.gov/hwcmact. For additional information or to order paper copies of the
Federal Register notice, call the RCRA Hotline at 800 424-9346 (outside the Washington, D.C.
area), or 703 412-9810 in the Washington, D.C. area or TDD 800 553-7672 (hearing impaired).
Copies of documents applicable to this rule are also available on our Web page at
www.epa.gov/hwcmact or can be obtained by writing: RCRA Information Center (RIC), U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste (5305), Ariel Rios Building, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC 20460.
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