United States solid Waste and EPA/530-SW-90-070A Office of Solid Waste " ' ' • v°/EPA Environmental Fact Sheet AGENCY RELEASES REPORT TO CONGRESS ON SPECIAL WASTES FROM MINERAL PROCESSING BACKGROUND Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), mining wastes from the extraction, beneficiation, and processing of ores and minerals are solid wastes. RCRA Section 3001(b)(3), the "Bevill Amendment," temporarily excludes these wastes from regulation as RCRA hazardous wastes under Subtitle C until the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completes a Report to Congress assessing the wastes, followed by a regulatory determination within six months. In 1985, EPA completed a report to Congress on extraction and beneficiation wastes and determined in 1986 that regulation as hazardous waste was not warranted. The Agency committed to developing a mining waste management program under Subtitle D. As part of this program development effort, the Agency recently released for comment a Strawinan II draft approach to a mining waste management program. Under a 1988 Court Order, the Agency was directed to narrow the scope of mineral processing wastes covered by the Bevill exclusion before completing a Report to Congress on processing wastes. As a result, final rules published in September 1989 and January 1990 defined "high volume" and "low hazard" criteria and applied these criteria to processing wastes to determine which wastes remained within the Bevill exclusion. In particular, for high volume wastes the criteria used volumetric cutoffs of 45,000 metric tons per year per facility for nonliquid wastes and 1,000,000 metric tons per year per facility for liquid wastes. For low hazard wastes, the criteria used pH levels between 1 and 13.5 and the synthetic precipitation leaching procedure. Out of more than a hundred possible mineral processing waste streams, 20 specific waste streams have been retained within the Bevill exclusion. These 20 wastes are the subject of this Report to Congress, and are listed in Attachment A. ------- ACTION EPA is releasing a Report to Congress on 20 mineral processing wastes generated by 91 facilities in 29 States, representing 12 mineral commodity sectors. The Report characterizes and presents flndincs for each waste; and solicits comments on the findings nnaings tor st Boh 0 decision-m*king approaches for these wastes. Both approaches have a series of three questions in common: 0 What are the risks and damages associated with the waste? Is additional regulation needed? 0 What are the costs and impacts of more stringent regulatory controls (comparing regulation under Subtitle D, full regulation under Subtitle C, or a flexible Subtitle C regulation using the authority of RCRA Section 3004(x))? Under the first approach, the Agency found that 16 of these wastes would be regulated under Subtitle D. For the remaining four wastes n n ^T7 f°Td ^ re^ulation under Subtitle C or D would depend on whether full or flexible Subtitle C requirements were considered: ° Process wastewater from hydrofluoric acid production- Calcium sulfate wastewater treatment plant sludge from primary copper processing; * y 0 Slag from primary lead processing; and 0 Chloride process waste solids from titanium tetrachloride production. Tlie second approach adds consideration of impacts on development of State programs for mining and mineral processing wastes Regulating special wastes from mineral processing under the Subtitle ^aStG Pr0gram may facmtate devel°P™nt and maintenance State programs. Under this second approach, all 20 wastes would be considered for [h!? tt £T Cr SubUtle D" However- this approach would require that the States, with support from EPA, act in the short-term to address the most immediate problems posed by these wastes. If these steps are not taken and/or State actions do not result in adequate ^ the AgCnCy WOUld rec°nslder S buti e CnCy WOU rec°nslder reg"lating them -2- ------- Under both approaches, the Agency is proposing to ban the use of elemental phosphorus slag in construction and/or land reclamation due to radioactivity levels in the slag. The Agency is soliciting comment on the appropriate regulatory language and on the implementation of such a ban. CONTACT For more information or to receive a copy of the Federal Register notice, please contact the RCRA Hotline, Monday-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 Washington, DC the number is (202) 382-3000 or TDD (202) 475-9652. Copies of documents applicable to this proposal may be obtained by writing: RCRA Information Center (RIC), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste (OS-305), 401 M Street SW Washington, DC 20460. -3- ------- ATTACHMENT A COMMODITY SECTORS AND WASTES COVERED IN THE REPORT TO CONGRESS ON SPECIAL WASTES FROM MINERAL PROCESSING r ,— Alumina Red and brown muds from bauxite Chromium (sodium chromate/dichromate) Treated residue from roasting/leaching of chrome ore Coal Gas Gasifer ash from coal gasification Process wastewater from coal gasification Copper Slag from primary processing Calcium sulfate wastewater treatment plant sludge from primary processing Slag tailings from primary processing Elemental Phosphorus Slag from primary production Ferrous Metals (iron and carbon steel) Iron blast furnace air pollution control dust/sludge Iron blast furnace slag Basic oxygen furnace and open hearth furnace air pollution control dust/sludge Basic oxygen furnace and open hearth furnace slag Hydrofluoric Acid Fluorogypsum Process wastewater Lead Slag from primary processing Magnesium Process wastewater from primary magnesium processing by the anhydrous process Phosphoric Acid Phosphogypsum Process Wastewater Titanium Tetrachloride Chi ide process waste solids Zinc Slag from primary processing ------- |