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Federal Register/Vol. 63, No. 216/Monday, November 9, 1998/Notices
during the environmental analysis, will
be considered during the preparation of
the environmental impact statement
once it's been filed with the
Commission. The application and
additional information is substantially
complete, and the environmental
analysis will proceed on the issues as .
set forth in Scoping Document 2 and in
the application materials.
1. Description of Project: The proposed
run-of-river project would consist of the
following features: (1) an approximately
1,000-foot-long masonry dam to
elevation 97.47 feet National Geodetic
Vertical datum, topped with a 3.1-foot-
high rubber dam; (2) upstream and
downstream fish passage facilities; (3) '
the Fish Lift Park adjoining the dam; (4)
a 2,290-acre reservoir that extends
approximately 25 miles upstream; (5) a
three-level canal system adjacent to the
river with headgates at the dam; (6) six
separate hydroelectric facilities, named
Hadley Falls Station, Riverside Station,
Boatlock Station, Beebe-Holbrook Units,
Skinner Unit and Chemical Units, and
except for the Hadley Falls Station
which has its intake structure adjacent
to the canal headgate structure, the
facilities withdraw water from the canal
system; (7) a total nameplate capacity of
58,756 kilowatts (kW), consisting of the
existing 43,756 kW project plus a 15,000
kW expansion at the Hadley Falls
Station; (8) transmission line
connections; and (9) appurtenant
facilities. The estimated average annual
generation is about 212,000 megawatt-
hours (MWh), which would increase to
about 262,750 MWh after completing
the expansion in 2006.
m. Purpose of Project: The power
generated by the project would be used
within the Holyoke Gas & Electric
Department's distribution system, with
a portion sold to the Massachusetts
Municipal Wholesale Electric Company.
n. This notice also consists of the
following standard paragraphs: D10.
o. Available Locations of Application:
A copy of the application, as amended
and supplemented, is available for
inspection and reproduction at the
Commission's Public Reference and
Files and Maintenance Branch, located
at 888 First Street, N.E., Room 2A-1,
Washington, D.C. 20426, or by calling
(202) 208-2326. Copies are also
available for inspection and
reproduction at the Holyoke Gas &
Electric Department, 99 Suffolk Street,
Holyoke, Massachusetts, 01040.
D10. Filing and Service of Responsive
Documents—The application is ready
for environmental analysis at this time,
and the Commission is requesting
comments, reply comments,
recommendations, terms and
conditions, and prescriptions.
The Commission directs, pursuant to
Section 4.34 (b) of the Regulations (see
Order No. 533 issued May 8, 1991, 56
FR 23108, May 20, 1991) that all
comments, recommendations, terms and
conditions and prescriptions concerning
the application be filed with the
Commission within 60 days from the
issuance date of this notice. All reply
comments must be filed with the
Commission within 105 days from the
date of this notice.
Anyone may obtain an extension of
time for these deadlines from the
Commission only upon a showing of
good cause or extraordinary '
circumstances in accordance with 18
CFR 385.2008.
All filings must (1) bear in all capital
letters the title "COMMENTS", "REPLY
COMMENTS",
"RECOMMENDATIONS," "TERMS
AND CONDITIONS," or
"PRESCRIPTIONS;" (2) set forth in the
heading the name of the applicant and
the project number of the application to
which the filing responds; (3) furnish
the name, address, and telephone
number of the person submitting the
filing; and (4) otherwise comply with
the requirements of 18 CFR 385.2001
through 385.2005. All comments,
recommendations, terms and conditions
or prescriptions must set forth their
evidentiary basis and otherwise comply
with the requirements of 18 CFR 4.34(b).
Agencies may obtain copies of the
application directly from the applicant.
Any of these documents must be filed
by providing the original and the
number of copies required by the
Commission's regulations to: The
Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, 888 First Street, N.E.,
Washington, D.C. 20426. An additional
copy must be sent to Director, Division
of Project Review, Office of Hydropower
Licensing, Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, at the above address. Each
filing must be accompanied by proof of
service on all persons listed on the
service list prepared by the Commission
in this proceeding, in accordance with
18 CFR 4.34(b), and 385.2010.
David P. Boergers,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 98-29885 Filed 11-6-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
[FRL-6186-7]
Notice of Availability of Draft RCRA
Waste Minimization PBT Chemical List
AGENCY: Environmental Protection
Agency.
ACTION: Notice of data availability.
SUMMARY: Today's notice makes
available for public comment a list of 53
persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic
(PBT) chemicals and chemical
categories which may be found in
hazardous wastes regulated under the
Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act (RCRA). This notice responds to
States, industry organizations,
environmental groups, and individuals
who commented on the EPA's national
RCRA waste minimization policy, and it
will be used to promote voluntary waste
minimization efforts which reduce the
generation of PBT chemicals found in
RCRA hazardous waste by at least half
by the year 2005.
EPA requests comment on today's
RCRA Waste Minimization PBT
Chemical List (also referred to as the
RCRA PBT List) and the methodology
used to develop today's List. EPA is not
seeking comment on the Waste
Minimization Prioritization Tool
(WMPT), which is discussed in today's
notice, because the Agency has sought
extensive public review and comment
on the WMPT in a previous notice.
Particular issues for comment are
identified in the discussion that follows.
EPA will publish a final RCRA PBT
List in 1999. This notice and the final
RCRA PBT List are a significant
component of an overall PBT strategy
being developed by Agency. The overall
strategy will encompass the PBT
priorities and programs identified by
other EPA offices, particularly those that
cannot be addressed by single media
controls and approaches.
DATES: Please submit written comments
by January 8, 1999 to the address below.
TO OBTAIN COPIES: Copies of the draft list
and all documents cited in this notice
can be obtained by calling the RCRA/
Superfund/CERCLA Hotline at (800)
424-9346, TDD (800) 553-7672 (hearing
impaired), or (703) 412-9810 in the
Washington, DC metropolitan area, from
9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Eastern time.
The draft list and supporting
documents are also available in
electronic format on the Internet, and
can be obtained by accessing:
WWW: http://www.epa.gov/wastemin
FTP: ftp.epa/gov
Login: anonymous
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60333
Password: your Internet address
TO SUBMIT COMMENTS: Please send an
original and two copies of comments,
referencing docket number F-98-
MMLP-FFFFF. to: RCRA Docket
Information Center, Office of Solid
Waste (5305G), U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency Headquarters (EPA,
HQ). 401 M Street. SW, Washington. DC
20460. Hand deliveries of comments
should be made to the Arlington, VA,
address provided below. Comments may
also be submitted electronically by
sending electronic mail through the
Internet to: rcra-
docket®epamail.epa.gov. Comments in
electronic format should also be
identified by the docket number F-98-
MMLP-FFFFF. All electronic comments
must be submitted as an ASCII file that
contains no special characters or any
form of encryption.
Commenters should not submit
electronically any confidential business
information (CBI). CBI submissions
must be sent under separate cover, and
must include an original and two
copies. CBI must be addressed to: RCRA
CBI Document Control Officer, Office of
Solid Waste (5305W), U.S. EPA, 401 M
Street SW. Washington, DC 20460.
Public comments (not including CBI)
and supporting materials are available
for viewing in the RCRA Information
Center (RIC), located at Crystal Gateway
I, First Floor, 1235 Jefferson Davis
Highway, Arlington, VA. The RIC is
open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday
through Friday, excluding federal
holidays. To review docket materials, it
is recommended that the public make
an appointment by calling (703) 603-
9230. The public may copy a maximum
of 100 pages from any regulatory docket
at no charge. Additional copies cost
S0.15/page.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For
further information on waste
minimization, specific aspects of this
notice, or public meetings regarding this
notice, contact the RCRA/Superfund/
EPCRA Hotline at the address and
telephone numbers cited above, or
Newman Smith at the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency,
Office of Solid Waste, Waste
Minimization Branch, 401 M Street, SW
(5302W), Washington, DC 20460;
telephone: (703) 308-8757, fax: (703)
308-8433.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
A. Why Is EPA Taking This Action?
EPA regulates thousands of chemicals
and wastes under its multiple
environmental authorities, and has
worked with States, the regulated
community, environmental groups, and
individuals to make significant progress
in controlling harmful chemical releases
to the environment. Notwithstanding
this important progress, recent national
and international attention has focused
on persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic
(PBT) chemicals which can pose long-
term problems when released to the
environment. Today's notice focuses
national attention on identifying ways
to reduce the generation of PBT
chemicals which may be found in
hazardous wastes regulated under
RCRA.
Today's notice provides a mechanism
for implementing the national waste
minimization policy of RCRA—to
reduce or eliminate the generation of
hazardous waste, wherever feasible, and
as expeditiously as possible. This
national policy sets a clear preference
for source reduction and recycling
methods over end-of-pipe waste
treatment and disposal methods to
reduce releases of harmful chemicals to
the environment. In 1988, the General
Accounting Office (GAO) encouraged
EPA to focus on reducing the toxicity as
well as the volume of hazardous waste,
and recommended that EPA "establish
specific, quantifiable waste
minimization goals.1"
Congress expanded this national
policy in the Pollution Prevention Act
of 1990, and in Clean Air Act
amendments of 1990. As Congress
stated in the Pollution Prevention Act,
"there are significant opportunities for
industry to reduce or prevent pollution
at the source through cost effective
changes in production, operation, and
raw materials use. Such changes offer
industry substantial savings in reduced .
raw material, pollution control, and
liability costs as well as help protect the
environment and reduce risks to worker
health and safety." The Clean Air Act
promotes pollution prevention as a
national goal, and includes pollution
prevention as an important element in
setting and achieving industrial
emissions control standards.
EPA recognizes that progress has been
made in reducing volumes of hazardous
wastes. However, today's notice
expands EPA's focus to reducing the
toxicity of hazardous wastes, in addition
to the volume, by reducing RCRA PBT
chemical generation at the source, rather
than relying on reducing the volume
and/or toxicity of hazardous waste
through waste treatment alone. This
"PBT chemical" approach, which is
1 New Approach Needed to Manage the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act; p. 57; United States
General Accounting Office Report to Congress; July
1988.
now being addressed at the
international level, recognizes that small
releases of PBT chemicals, even releases
that are in compliance with existing
regulations, may nevertheless cause a
build up of human health or ecological
problems over the long term.
Today's notice also responds to
extensive comments EPA received from
industry organizations, environmental
groups, government agencies, and
individuals during stakeholder meetings
held during 1993 and 1994 to develop
RCRA's Waste Minimization National
Plan. Six principles for reducing
hazardous waste generation on a
national level emerged from those
discussions:
• Focus on source reduction as the
preferred means of environmental
management, and recycling as the
second preference, over treatment and
disposal of hazardous wastes;
• Set environmental priorities based
on risk;
• Focus on reducing the chemical
composition of hazardous waste, not the
volume of hazardous wastes, and
carefully consider the interrelationships
between hazardous waste reduction and
the reduction of toxic releases to air and
water;
•• Set environmental goals for source
reduction and recycling of priority
chemicals, and track progress toward
these goals. Promote accountability and
recognition for regulated companies,
government agencies, and other
stakeholders involved in the process;
• Provide flexibility to industry and
States in the selection of chemical
priorities, goals for source reduction and
recycling of priority chemicals, and in
selecting approaches for achieving
source reduction and recycling goals;
and
• Involve the public.
As a result of these discussions, EPA
published the Waste Minimization
National Plan2 (WMNP), which
commits the Agency to implementing a
national waste minimization program
centered around these principles. Most
importantly, the WMNP sets national
goals to:
• Reduce, as a nation, the presence of
the most persistent, bioaccumulative,
and toxic (PBT) chemicals in RCRA
hazardous wastes 10% by the year 2000,
and at least 50 percent by the year 2005
(from a 1991 baseline);
• Promote source reduction (and
recycling where RCRA PBT chemicals
can not be reduced at the source) over
treatment and disposal technologies;
and
2Waste Minimization National Plan, US EPA,
1994. EPA530-R-94-045.
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• Avoid the transfer of RCRA PBT
chemicals across environmental media.
EPA believes today's notice provides
a strong foundation for achieving these
goals. The next section describes more
specifically how EPA, State
governments, industry organizations,
environmental groups and citizens may
participate in achieving these goals.
B. What Are Persistent,
Bioaccumulative, and Toxic (PBT)
Chemicals, and Why Are They an
Environmental Concern?
PBT chemicals exhibit varying
degrees of three properties: Persistent
(P) chemicals do not readily break down
in the environment; bioaccumulative (B)
chemicals are not easily metabolized
and can accumulate in human or
ecological foodchains through
consumption or uptake; toxic (T)
chemicals may be hazardous to human
health or the environment in a variety
of ways, depending on the chemical and
the organism that is exposed. Examples
of toxic effects include cancer and birth
defects in humans and reduced
populations and altered community
structures within ecosystems.
Individual chemicals may exhibit none,
some, or all of these characteristics.
Chemicals which exhibit PBT
characteristics, once released to the
environment, may present increasing
long-term toxic effects to human health
and the environment, even when these
chemicals are released in small
quantities.
RCRA PBT chemicals could be
released to the environment from
several types of sources, including:
Leaks from hazardous waste treatment,
storage or disposal units, authorized
releases of PBTs in treated hazardous
wastes (e.g., combustion emissions or
residues which must be treated to levels
which minimize threats to human
health and the environment prior to
land disposal), or the combined effect of
de minimis releases of PBT chemicals
permitted under multiple permitting
authorities. Because of the potential
risks posed by these chemicals, the
international community recognizes the
chemicals as a global environmental
concern. EPA is creating a priority in its
hazardous waste minimization program
for these chemicals.
C. How Will EPA and Other
Stakeholders Use the RCRA PBT List?
EPA will use the RCRA PBT List to:
• Measure progress toward the
national goal of reducing the generation
of RCRA PBT chemicals by at least half
by the year 2005. EPA will measure
progress using data reported to the
national Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
and other nationally available data;
• Report national progress on a
periodic basis;
• Identify and acknowledge industrial
sectors which contribute to national
progress; and
• Promote coordinated waste
minimization programs at the Federal,
State, and local level.
EPA's 1986 Waste Minimization
Report to Congress3 concluded that
promoting voluntary (rather than
mandatory) waste minimization
mechanisms would be the most effective
means of reducing the volume and/or
toxicity of RCRA regulated hazardous
waste stream generation. Therefore, EPA
will rely on voluntary activities to
promote the reductions of RCRA PBT
chemicals in hazardpus waste,
recognizing that some voluntary
activities may ultimately take place in
conjunction with a regulatory activity
(e.g., voluntarily implementing
pollution prevention measures to meet
permit compliance requirements)!
EPA will use the TRI as its primary
source of data to measure and evaluate
progress toward the national goal of
reducing the presence of PBT chemicals
in RCRA hazardous wastes by at least
half by 2005. The BRS will be used to
provide supplemental information and
analysis. As discussed further below,
the method for reporting progress is
under development, and will build on
the method described in today's notice
for estimating the presence of PBT
chemicals in RCRA hazardous wastes.
EPA is committing to its national
RCRA PBT reduction goal to meet the
requirements of the Government
Performance and Results Act (GPRA).
The GPRA sets government-wide
requirements to improve performance of
government programs by "managing for
results" and linking programmatic
budgets to performance. EPA believes
its effort to reduce long term human
health and ecological problems by
reducing the generation of RCRA related
PBT chemicals at the source is a crucial
GPRA goal.
EPA will work with interested States,
industry organizations, environmental
groups, and citizens to promote a
variety of source reduction
opportunities and programs which
reduce the generation of RCRA PBT
chemicals at the source. For example,
during informal discussions, some
States, companies, citizens, and other
interested parties indicated they could
use the RCRA PBT List as a guide for
setting waste minimization priorities for '
3 Minimization of Hazardous Waste Report to
Congress. October 1986. EPA-530-SW-86-033.
wastes which are currently treated or
disposed. Government agencies could
use the List as a starting point to
identify industrial sectors or particular
chemicals for focusing voluntary
pollution prevention technical
assistance resources. Industry trade
associations or individual companies
could use the list for setting waste
minimization priorities and reducing
waste management costs. Individual
organizations or a consortium of
organizations could use the RCRA PBT
list to develop Project XL proposals in
cases where significant reductions in
the generation of RCRA PBT chemicals
are possible, but regulatory flexibility is
needed to achieve the reductions
(information on Project XL is available
on the Internet at www.epa.gov/
projectxl). Citizen groups might use the
RCRA PBT list to promote pollution
prevention as a preferred environmental
solution over waste treatment or
disposal at siting hearings or other
public comment or waste management
forums.
EPA will also report national progress
toward meeting national goals publicly,
on a periodic basis, to encourage
accountability.
D. How Will EPA Measure Progress
Toward the National RCRA Hazardous
Waste PBT Reduction Goal?
EPA is considering several
alternatives for developing a national
RCRA hazardous waste PBT chemical
reduction measurement method. One of
the key factors in developing a
measurement method is the selection of
an appropriate national database for
reporting, storing and retrieving data on
PBT chemicals found in RCRA
hazardous waste. EPA considered,
among others, two widely used national
databases, the RCRA hazardous waste
Biennial Reporting System (BRS) and
the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), and
selected the TRI as the primary database
for measuring national PBT chemical
reductions in hazardous waste. The TRI
is a publicly accepted and widely used
source of data on toxic chemicals being
used, manufactured, treated,
transported, and/or released to the
environment. TRI reports information
on specific chemicals which may be
contained in waste. Using chemical-
specific TRI information enables EPA to
measure reductions of chemical
quantities found in wastes over time. In
contrast, the Biennial Reporting System
provides information on waste stream
volumes, rather than chemical specific
data, and will be used for supplemental
analysis in cases for chemicals which
are on the RCRA PBT List, but which
are not reported in the TRI.
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60335
The measurement method will
include only those facilities which
report data to the TRI data, and who are
also RCRA hazardous waste generators.
EPA will publish and seek public
comment on its draft measurement
method in 1999.
EPA will submit national interim
progress reports as part of its
environmental performance reporting
under the Government Performance and
Results Act. A final national progress
report will be submitted for the year
2005.
E. How Will EPA Encourage Progress
Toward the National RCRA PBT
Reduction Coals?
EPA will work with States, industry,
environmental groups and other
Stakeholders to identify and implement
a variety of implementation approaches,
including workshops, technical
assistance, progress reporting,
partnership agreements, and regulatory
reinvention and pilot projects, to
promote progress toward the national
RCRA PBT reduction goal. To encourage
stakeholder input, EPA will conduct
public meetings to listen to stakeholder
comments on the List and on technical
and programmatic measures which
could be used to reduce the generation
of PBT chemicals. Information regarding
public meetings can be obtained by
contacting Newman Smith by phone at
(703) 308-8757, or on the Internet at
smith.newman@epa.gov. EPA will
combine the efforts of these interested
parties into a draft national RCRA PBT
reduction implementation strategy in
mid-1999. EPA will solicit public
comment on the draft strategy and will
publish a final implementation strategy
later in 1999.
After publication of the final
implementation strategy, EPA will
continue to work with interested parties
to promote and document source
reduction and recycling successes, and
measure and report progress, as stated
above.
F. How is Today's RCRA PBT List
Different From Other Chemical Lists?
Today's draft RCRA PBT list differs
from other lists, including those used in
the RCRA program, because of its
purpose and design. Today's draft RCRA
PBT list:
• Focuses on reducing RCRA PBT
chemicals at the point of generation,
before they are stored, transported,
treated, recycled, or disposed on the
land. Other regulatory lists are often
used to set treatment technology
standards, or concentration based limits
on chemicals after treatment;
• Focuses on long-term human health
and ecological problems, rather than
more short term or acute human health
or ecological effects.
• Will be used as a voluntary guide
for identifying national waste
minimization priorities and measuring
national reduction progress, and may be
used flexibly by other government
agencies and companies. It is not a
regulatory list that must be adhered to
by all stakeholders.
The basis for developing the RCRA
PBT list is explained in the following
sections of this notice.
G. Why Focus on the Reduction of RCRA
PBT Wastes at the Point of Hazardous
Waste Generation Rather Than After
Treatment?
Nearly all of the regulations
promulgated under the RCRA program
set standards for safe management or
cleanup of hazardous wastes after they
are generated or managed. To meet these
standards, the regulated community has
frequently used "end-of-pipe" treatment
and control technologies. Significant
progress has been made using "end-of-
pipe" technologies, even though the
costs are significant, and they do not
completely eliminate releases of toxic
chemicals to the environment.
To address these issues, government
agencies and the regulated community
have increased their focus on the use of
source reduction and recycling
measures in place of, or as a supplement
to, end-of-pipe technologies to meet or
exceed regulatory requirements and to
reduce the costs of waste management.
The organizations and individuals
involved in the development of the
Waste Minimization National Plan
strongly urged EPA to promote source
reduction and recycling over waste
treatment and disposal to reduce or
eliminate the potential long term effects
of RCRA PBT chemicals which may
build up in the environment. They
recognized that, even with stringent
waste management standards, waste
management units may fail, accidents
may occur during transport and
handling, and de minimis authorized
releases may, nevertheless, occur. As a
result, although many sources of these
chemicals may individually be in
compliance with hazardous waste and
other regulations, RCRA PBT chemicals
may continue to be released and build
up in the environment. Reducing RCRA
PBT chemical generation at the source
is a more certain way of reducing or
eliminating potential RCRA PBT risks to
the environment, while reducing or
eliminating the costs of managing
wastes.
H. How Will EPA Work With States,
Industries, and Other Interested Parties
Who Have Different Priorities?
EPA encourages Federal government
agencies. States, the regulated
community and other organizations to
incorporate the priorities contained in
today's proposed RCRA PBT list in their
current environmental priorities and
programs. EPA is aware that some
organizations have chemical reduction
priorities which differ in varying
degrees from today's List. Examples of
chemical priority lists from 15 State,
tribal and international organizations
are in the docket for today's notice.
Based on a comparison of these lists
with today's draft RCRA PBT List, EPA
believes many organizations will find
chemicals that are common to their own
and today's List.
EPA believes establishing common
priorities provides an opportunity for
progress toward the national RCRA PBT
reduction goal. Therefore, EPA will
actively work with States, industry,
environmental groups and other
interested parties to identify and
integrate, to the extent possible,
common RCRA PBT reduction priorities
and multimedia implementation
approaches to promote progress toward
the national RCRA PBT chemical
reduction goals.
EPA believes States should use
flexibility available through the
National Environmental Performance
Partnership System (NEPPS) to address
priorities for multi-media, multi-
programmatic environmental protection,
including the priorities contained in
today's List. EPA has included a goal,
similar to the WMNP goal, as a Core
Performance Measure in the NEPPS
program. This goal seeks to "decrease
the quantity of waste generated,
decrease the toxicity of waste generated,
and increase recycling of wastes.
EL Waste Minimization Prioritization
Tool Revisions and Information
Stewardship
A. What is the Waste Minimization
Prioritization Tool? When and How Was
it Revised?
The Waste Minimization
Prioritization Tool (WMPT), a
Windows-based chemical hazard
screening tool developed by EPA,
generates relative rankings of chemicals
based on their potential to cause chronic
human health and ecological problems.
The WMPT generates rankings based on
four sets of chemical properties,
including: Chemical persistence,
bioaccumulation potential, chronic
human and ecological toxicity, and
chemical mass. The last property.
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chemical mass, is an optional variable
that can be used at the user's discretion
to generate rankings.
This section outlines the process EPA
used to seek public review of the
WMPT, an outline of comments
received, and a summary of the changes
made to the WMPT in response to the
comments. EPA used WMPT rankings
based on the first three of the four
properties noted above as input to the
development of the RCRA PBT List. The
reasons for this are described in the
following sections.
EPA released Beta Version 1.0 of the
WMPT software 4 and the accompanying
User's Guide5 for public comment on
June 23, 1997.6 In addition to the public
comments received in the docket, EPA
received comments from several other
sources during the public comment
period, including: peer review
comments obtained from technical
experts in industry, environmental
groups, and states during a focus group
meeting in September 1997; comments
from an intra-Agency technical
workgroup that reviewed the WMPT as
a means of identifying "PBT"
chemicals; and comments from a WMPT
pilot project conducted by EPA Region
9 in the Santa Clara Valley, California.
Comments were received on many
facets of the WMPT. EPA received a
variety of comments, including
recommendations to:.
• Modify the weighting and
aggregation of persistence,
bioaccumulation, human toxicity, and
ecological toxicity scores in the WMPT.
• Modify the WMPT to better
represent actual risk, as opposed to
hazard.
• Revise the data quality hierarchies
for persistence and bioaccumulation
data to place preference on measured
data (e.g., data gathered in laboratory
tests and field studies) rather than
predicted data (i.e., data derived from
predictive models).
• Improve the quality of data that are
used as the basis for scoring by updating
existing Agency data sources (e.g., the
Integrated Risk Information System) and
by incorporating new sources of data
currently available to EPA or obtainable
from non-EPA sources.
• Provide the rationale behind the
"fenceline values" (i.e., thresholds) that
separate low, medium, and high scores.
• Score metals based on
bioavailability rather than
environmental persistence.
"EPA530-C-97-003.
s Waste Minimization Prioritization Tool (Beta
Test Version 1.0): User's Guide and System
Documentation (EPA530-R-97-019). "
6 62 FR 33868.
• Modify the persistence scoring
approach to consider partitioning to
media other than water (e.g., to air).
• Modify the current low/medium/
high "binning" approach to include
more than three bins and better
discriminate among chemicals in
scoring.
• Provide a better indication of the
uncertainty associated with chemical
values and scores by providing
additional information on the sources of
data used in the WMPT and on the
quality of the data.
• Complete a peer review of the
WMPT.
• Provide a process for modifying
data values and scores in the WMPT as
new data become available.
An intra-Agency WMPT Workgroup
was established to review the comments
and provide recommendations on
changes to the WMPT. With the purpose
in mind of preparing chemical rankings
for development of the RCRA PBT List,
the Workgroup focused on addressing
technical and scientific comments that
would potentially affect RCRA PBT
chemical scores. Comments that would
not affect RCRA PBT chemical scores
(e.g., comments recommending
improving the user-friendliness of the
Tool and User's Guide) were deferred
until a later time.
EPA considered the comments and
recommendations. As a result, the
following changes were made to the
WMPT:
• For each chemical, the higher of the
human health and ecological concern
scores (previously referred to as human
health and ecological risk potential
scores) was used to indicate overall
concern for the purpose of developing
the RCRA PBT List, rather than adding
the two scores together.
• Measured data were given
preference over predicted data in
deriving persistence and
bioaccumulation scores. Adjustments in
data preferences were made in scoring
bioaccumulation potential, (i.e.,
bioaccumulation factors were given
preference over bioconcentration
factors, and the log of the octanol-water
partition coefficient was no longer
used).
• New persistence, bioaccumulation,
human toxicity, and ecological toxicity
data (which meet our data quality
standards) from a number of sources
were included in the WMPT.
• The fenceline values separating
low, medium, and high scores for
persistence, bioaccumulation, and
toxicity were better documented; in
some cases, the fenceline values were
recalculated.
• A multimedia partitioning model
was used to estimate the partitioning of
chemicals to air, water, soils, and
sediments and to calculate overall
environmental persistence, rather than
estimating persistence in surface water
alone.
• Data transparency was improved by
better documenting data sources and
indicating the preference levels for the
underlying data used for scoring; some
data that could not be sufficiently
documented for the purpose of the
WMPT were removed.
The comments received and EPA's
responses are discussed in detail in the
Waste Minimization Prioritization Tool
Comment Response Document for the
RCRA Waste Minimization PBT
Chemical List Docket (referred to as the
WMPT Comment Response Document
below). This document is available in
RCRA docket #F-98-MMLP-FFFFF and
at EPA's Internet home page at
www. epa.gov/wastemin.
After making the changes to the
WMPT outlined above, EPA prepared
spreadsheets containing revised data
and scoring information. This
information was used as input for
developing the RCRA PBT List. As a
result of the expanded and improved
data used in the WMPT, approximately
2,900 chemicals receive human health
or ecological concern scores, compared
with approximately 1,800 chemicals in
the beta version of the WMPT. Of the
2,900 chemicals, 122 chemicals score
from 7 to 9 (i.e., relatively high) for
human health concern and 666 score
from 7 to 9 for ecological concern. Some
score from 7 to 9 for both criteria.
Altogether, 681 chemicals score from 7
to 9 for one or both of the two scores.
EPA has placed in the docket ?F-98-
MMLP-FFFFF) a document titled Waste
Minimization Prioritization Tool
Spreadsheet Document for the RCRA
Waste Minimization PBT Chemical List
Docket (referred to below as the WMPT
Spreadsheet Document) that: (1)
explains changes made to the WMPT as
a result of the public and peer review
processes, and (2) displays spreadsheets
and scoring information for 1,300
chemicals which received a score of 6
or above for human health or ecological
concern. This document is also
available at EPA's Internet home page at
www.epa.gov/waste/nin.
Information on the approximately
3,900 chemicals that scored from 3 to 5
or that are unscored is not included in
the docket, since these chemicals did
not appear to be appropriate candidates
for the RCRA PBT List. Information on
these chemicals will be provided in a
future version of the WMPT.
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60337
The WMPT Comment Response
Document and WMPT Spreadsheet
Document are included in today's
docket to provide the reader with
background information on changes
made to the WMPT and its use as a
foundation for the development of
today's draft RCRA PBT List. The
WMPT spreadsheets contained in the
docket are not intended to support other
applications at this time. EPA is not
requesting public comment on this
information, since the WMPT has
already received widespread and
comprehensive public review.
Additional applications beyond
supporting the development of today's
draft RCRA PBT List will be discussed
when the WMPT is re-released in 1999.
That release of the WMPT revisions will
include the scoring changes used in
today's notice and improvements to the
tool's software features.
B. How Will Ensure Stewardship of the
Waste Minimization Prioritization Tool
and Underlying Scientific Information?
EPA is committed to coordinating the
collection of environmental data and to
making it available to the public
through the Agency's "Reinventing
Environmental Information Initiative."
In 1997,7 EPA announced three
important information management
reforms, which:
• Establish key data standards to
improve the value of environmental
information, data sharing and
integration;
• Provide universal voluntary access
to electronic reporting to reduce
burdens and improve data quality and
timeliness; and
• Implement these data standards and
electronic reporting reforms in the
Agency's national systems in
partnership with the states through the
One Stop Program.
Consistent with these principles, EPA
commits to maintaining sound scientific
information as a foundation for reducing
RCRA PBT generation. The EPA has
taken measures to practice principles of
information stewardship in the
development of today's draft RCRA PBT
List by:
• Identifying the most up to date and
documented information that is readily
available;
• Excluding undocumented scientific
information;
• Seeking expert advice to make
assumptions, assess data quality and
weigh contradictory information;
7 Administrator Carol Browner and Deputy
Administrator Fred Hansen. EPA Common Sense
Initiative Meeting. July 21.1997.
• Making information about data
sources, data quality, assumptions
publicly known;
• Inviting public review and
comment on the data used; and
• Making appropriate adjustments to
information.
The Office of Solid Waste intends to
follow these principles of information
stewardship to ensure the integrity of
data used in the Waste Minimization
Prioritization Tool. As noted above, EPA
will release an updated, user-friendly
version of the WMPT in 1999, and will
discuss how best to maintain
stewardship of this tool and the
underlying data with interested
organizations and individuals at that
time.
m. Development of Today's Draft
RCRA PBT List
The Agency followed several steps to
develop today's draft RCRA Waste
Minimization PBT Chemical List
(referred to as the RCRA PBT List
below). Each of these steps is discussed
in more detail below.
A. How Were Initial Candidates for the
RCRA PBT List Identified?
The first step in developing today's
draft RCRA PBT List was to assemble an
initial list of candidate chemicals for
further examination. EPA drew from
two sources to establish this initial
candidate chemical list: (1) The Waste
Minimization Prioritization Tool
discussed above, and (2) a composite
list of PBT chemicals identified as
priorities by other EPA program offices.
This step is discussed below, and is
described in the Chemical Screening
Report for the RCRA PBT List Docket
(referred to below as the Screening
Report), which is located in RCRA
docket number F-98-MMLP-FFFFF.
1. Candidates From the Waste
Minimization Prioritization Tool
EPA selected as candidates from the
WMPT those chemicals which scored 7
or higher (on a scale of 3-9) for either
human health concern or ecological
concern. A total of 681 chemicals scored
in the WMPT met this criterion. EPA
then grouped certain polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons into a single
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
category, and grouped individually
listed polychlorinated biphenyls with
the existing polychlorinated biphenyls
category, resulting in a total of 660
candidate chemicals and chemical
groups.
EPA selected the cut-off score of 7 for
human health or ecological concern in
order to ensure that chemical candidates
represent at least moderately high
concern for PBT. In order to attain a
score of 7, a chemical must receive the
highest WMPT score for at least two of
the three factors (P, B and T) or the
highest score for one factor and
moderate scores for the other two
factors. EPA believes that a higher cut-
off score would be overly restrictive,
eliminating from further consideration
many chemicals of significant RCRA
PBT concern, while a lower cut-off score
would be unnecessarily expansive,
drawing in many chemicals which
would not represent a sufficiently high
level of RCRA PBT concern for this
national PBT waste minimization effort.
2. PBT Priorities Identified by Other
EPA Programs
In addition to drawing candidate
chemicals from the WMPT, EPA
considered PBT chemical priorities
identified by other EPA programs
through internal PBT coordination
efforts. This list of 34 chemicals
included 18 chemicals which scored
below 7 for human health or ecological
concern in the WMPT, and 16 chemicals
that were either not included in the
WMPT, or were included, but were not
scored because there were insufficient
data. These chemicals were included in
the candidate pool for development of
the RCRA PBT List to determine the
extent to which they may also be a
RCRA PBT waste minimization
candidate. Including these 34 chemicals
in the candidate pool brought the total
number of candidate chemicals and
chemical groups to 694.
B. What Inclusion/Elimination Criteria
Were First Applied to the Candidate
Chemicals?
After assembling the initial candidate
chemical list, EPA eliminated chemicals
that would not be good candidates for
RCRA waste minimization efforts
because they are unlikely to be present
in RCRA hazardous waste in significant
quantities, or are present, but are not
highly toxic. Three criteria were used to
screen out these chemicals: pesticides
which are banned from production and
use; chemicals with zero reported
quantities in waste; and chemicals with
low WMPT toxicity scores. This step is
summarized below, and is described in
detail in the Screening Report.
1. Banned Pesticides
EPA first eliminated those chemicals
that are pesticides banned from use in
the United States and are not known to
have other, non-pesticidal sources or
uses. This screen eliminated 28
chemicals from further consideration,
including a number of well-known PBT
chemical priorities such as DDT. EPA
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Federal Register/Vol. 63, No. 216/Monday, November 9, 1998/Notices
did not eliminate from further
consideration pesticides that are
"severely restricted," but not banned in
the U.S.
2. Chemicals Not Present in RCRA
Wastes
EPA also eliminated from further
consideration chemicals that are not
likely to be found in RCRA hazardous
waste, based on quantities reported in
the Agency's Toxics Release Inventory
(TRI) database8 and the National
Hazardous Waste Constituent Survey
(NHWCS).9 Chemical quantities
reported in the TRI were adjusted to
estimate quantities present in hazardous
waste streams by: including only TRI
reporters who had RCRA ID numbers; in
the case of underground injected wastes,
including only TRI reporters with RCRA
ID numbers who also had RCRA UIC
(Underground Injection [well] Code) ID
numbers; and excluding air and water
releases from TRI production-related
wastes. This screen eliminated 510
candidate chemicals, leaving 156
chemicals to be considered further in
developing the RCRA waste
minimization list. Some highly PBT
chemicals were eliminated in this step
(e.g., dioxin) because they are generated
in very small quantities, which are not
reported in the TRI. These were flagged
and re-examined in the last step,
described below in Section E.
3. Chemicals With Low Toxicity
Finally, EPA checked to ensure that
none of the 156 chemicals passing the
above screens became a candidate based
on high P and/or B scores, but had a low
score for human health or ecological
toxicity. The rationale for this screen
was that, even though some chemicals
may persist or bioaccumulate in the
environment, they should not be a
candidate for the national RCRA PBT
List if the chemical is not likely to be
at least moderately toxic in the
environment. None of the 156 candidate
chemicals had low toxicity scores.
C. How Were the Remaining Candidate
Chemicals Ranked?
To identify the best candidate
chemicals for RCRA source reduction
and recycling efforts, EPA developed
four "primary" criteria for ranking the
remaining chemicals. These criteria
included: (1) Each chemical's PBT score
from the WMPT; (2) chemical quantity
and prevalence (or frequency of
occurrence) in hazardous waste; (3)
evidence that the chemical is present in
the environment, particularly at levels
of concern; and (4) the degree to which
the chemical is a concern to the RCRA
program.
Ranking the candidate chemicals was
completed by: Summing subcriteria
scores within each of the-four primary
criteria discussed above; converting the
scores for each primary criterion to a 25
point scale (i.e., the Agency gave equal
weight to the four primary criteria);
summing scores for each chemical; and
arranging the chemicals in rank order on
a scale of 1-100. The individual
subcriteria were scored on a 0, 1, 2, 3
scale (except where noted). The values
on this scale were assigned to different
ranges of data values by examining the
underlying data distributions and using
natural breaks in the distributions or
creating comparably sized groups. The
process used to score and rank
chemicals in this step is summarized
below and is described in detail in the
Chemical Ranking Report for the RCRA
PBT List Docket (referred to below as
the Ranking Report), located in RCRA
docket number F-98-MMLP-FFFFF.
1. PBT Scores
In this step, each candidate chemical
was scored based on the higher of its
WMPT human or ecological concern
scores. The scoring approach is
provided in Table 1 below. Each
chemical with a WMPT score was
assigned a subcriterion score from 0-3.
Chemicals not scored in the WMPT
were ranked by summing and
normalizing scores for the remaining
three primary criteria, to compensate for
the missing WMPT score.
TABLE 1.—PBT CHARACTERISTICS
SCORING
»U.S. EPA. 1997.1991 and 1995 Toxic Release '
Inventory CTRI) Data.
9U.S. EPA. 1998. National Hazardous Waste
Constituent Survey. Office of Solid Waste.
Washington, DC. This is a survey of chemical
constituent presence in hazardous waste streams
managed by RCRA treatment, storage and disposal
facilities.
PBT characteristics subcriterion
Higher of WMPT human health and
ecological concern scores equals
9
Higher of WMPT human health and
ecological concern scores equals
8
Higher of WMPT human health and
ecological concern scores equals
7
WMPT human health and ecological
concern scores are both less than
7
Sub-
cri-
terion
score
3
2
1
0
2. Quantity and Prevalence
The Agency believes that RCRA PBT
chemicals which occur in greater
quantities, or are more prevalent, in
hazardous waste should be given a
higher national priority for RCRA waste
minimization than other PBT chemicals.
Therefore, EPA assigned higher scores
to chemicals with greater quantity, or
prevalence, in hazardous waste.
EPA used TRI and NHWCS data to
determine chemical quantities in waste
and used Biennial Reporting System
(BRS) dataI0 to determine waste stream
quantities associated with each
chemical. EPA also used TRI, NHWCS,
and BRS data to determine the number
of facilities generating or managing each
chemical in hazardous waste.
TRI quantity and prevalence data
were adjusted to identify and estimate
chemical quantities and prevalence in
RCRA hazardous waste by: (1) Including
only TRI reporters who had RCRA ID
numbers; (2) in the case of underground
injected wastes, including only TRI
reporters with RCRA ID numbers who
also had RCRA UIC ID numbers; and (3)
excluding air and water releases from
TRI production-related waste. NHWCS
quantity and prevalence data were used
only where TRI quantity and prevalence
data were unavailable. To estimate the
quantities of BRS waste streams and
number of generators associated with
particular chemicals, EPA used the
RCRA Chemical-Waste Code
Crosswalk,11 which identifies hazardous
waste codes that may be associated with
particular chemicals.
The TRI reports quantity information
on both metals and metal compounds. ,
The quantity information reported for a;
metal compound only includes the
metal component of the compound. In
keeping with this approach for metal
reporting, EPA added together the
quantities reported in TRI as metals and
metal compounds.
The TRI/NHWCS score and the BRS
score were weighted equally (i.e., were '
added together and divided by two) in
deriving both the quantity and
prevalence subcriteria scores. If the BRS
score was missing for a chemical, the
TRI/NHWCS score was used as the
quantity or prevalence subscriterion
score. The quantity subcriterion score
was added to the prevalence
subcriterion score in deriving the
10 U.S. EPA. 1997. Biennial Reporting System Flat
Files. Office of Solid Waste and Emergency
Response, Washington, DC.
11 The RCRA Chemical-Waste Code Crosswalk
(EPA530-D-97-005) is from the beta version of the
WMPT; it is included in RCRA Docket #F-98-
MMLP-FFFFF. Chemicals not listed in the
crosswalk were not evaluated on the BRS-based
criteria.
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60339
quantity/prevalence criterion score for and prevalence is presented in Table 2
each chemical. The scoring for quantity below.
TABLE 2.—QUANTITY AND PREVALENCE SCORING
Quantity/prevalence subcriterion
TRI chemical quantity (pounds/yr)
NHWCS chemical quantity (pounds/yr)
BRS waste stream quantity (tons/yr)
TR! number of generators
NHWCS number of handlers12
BRS number of generators
Value range
Greater than 1 0 000 000
1 000 000-10 000 000 . .
1-1,000,000
Less than 1
Greater than 1 000,000
100,000-1,000,000
1-100,000
Less than 1
Greater than 100,000,000
10,000,000-100,000,000
1-10 000 000
Less than 1 ,
More than 99
10-99
1-9
0
More than 10
5-10
1-4
0
More than 9 999 ...
1,000-9,999
1-999
0
Subcriterion
score
3
2
1
0
3
2
1
0
3
2
1
0
3
2
1
3
2
1
3
2
1
3. Environmental Presence12
The Agency believes that PBT
chemicals which are detected in the
environment more frequently than other
chemicals should be given higher
priority for reduction through source
reduction and recycling. EPA ranked
each chemical's "presence in the
environment" using measurement
indicators contained in the following
three national databases: (1) EPA's Fish
Advisory DatabaseI3 (EPA used the
most current year offish advisory data
in the U.S.—1997); (2) EPA's National
Sediment Inventory14 (EPA used data
on sediment contamination in the U.S.
for all years contained in the database;
and (3) the Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry's Hazdat
Database1S (EPA used data on chemicals
found in the toxic cleanup sites
identified on the EPA's Superfund
National Priority List (NPL) covered
under the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation
and Liability Act.
Scores were developed using the
scoring approach in Table 3 below. Each
environmental presence subcriterion
was scored from 0-3. The scores for the
three subcriteria were weighted equally
(in this case being added together) in
deriving an environmental presence
criterion score for each PBT chemical.
TABLE 3.—ENVIRONMENTAL PRESENCE SCORING
Environmental presence subcriterion
Fish Advisory Database (1997 data)
National Sediment Inventory (1980-1993)
ATSDR HazDat Database (all NPL sites)
Value range
More than 99 advisories
10—99 advisories
1—9 advisories
No advisories
More than 999 detections
100—999 detections
1—99 detections
No detections . .
More than 499 sites
100-499 sites ,
1-99 sites
No sites
Subcriterion
score
3
2
1
0
3
2
1
0
3
1
0
"The number of handlers is the number of RCRA
treatment, storage, or disposal facilities that
managed a chemical, rather than the number of
generators of the chemical.
"U.S. EPA. 1998.1997 National Listing of Fish
Consumption Advisories. Office of Water,
Washington. DC. www.epa.gov/OST/flshadvice.
June.
"US. EPA. 1997. The Incidence and Severity of
Sediment Contamination in Surface Waters of the
United States; Volume 1: The National Sediment
Quality Survey. Office of Science and Technology,
Washington. DC. EPA/823/R-97/006.
15 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry. 1998. Hazardous Substance Release/
Health Effects Database, website:
atsdrl.atsdr.cdc.gov/8080/hazdat/html.
EPA used the ATSDR data since no comparable
data were readily available from RCRA corrective
action sites.
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Federal Register/Vol. 63, No. 216/Monday, November 9, 1998/Notices
4. RCRA Programmatic Concern
EPA believes PBT chemicals that are
of particular concern to the RCRA
program should be given higher priority
in developing today's draft RCRA PBT
List than PBT chemicals identified in
the WMPT or other programs that are
not a particular concern to the RCRA
program. To identify "RCRA-relevant"
PBT chemicals, EPA selected the
candidate PBT chemicals which are
found on one or more regulatory lists
used in the RCRA hazardous waste
generation, management, and corrective
action programs. The scoring scheme for
these chemicals is provided in Table 4
below.
EPA used a wider subcriterion scoring
range (0-4) for this criterion to reflect
the broad range of RCRA programmatic
concerns. This wider scoring range was
then normalized (i.e., was converted to
a 25 point scale) so that the criterion
was weighted equally with the other
primary criteria.
A score of 4 was assigned to PBT
chemicals that: (1) Are capable of
forming dense nonaqueous phase
liquids (DNAPLs) that make
groundwater cleanups particularly
difficult;16 (2) are identified as "difficult
to treat" chemicals under the Land
Disposal Restrictions (LDR) program;17
or (3) are targeted for co-regulation
under RCRA and the Clean Air Act
is See the following three references:
Cohen, R.M., J.W. Mercer, and J. Matthews. 1993.
DNAPL Site Evaluation. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
U.S. EPA. 1993. Evaluation of the Likelihood of
DNAPL Presence at NPL Sites, National Results.
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response,
Washington, DC. EPA/540/R-93/073.
U.S. EPA. 1991. Estimating Potential for
Occurrence of DNAPL at Superfund Sites. Office of
Solid Waste and Emergency Response,
Environmental Research Laboratory, Washington,
DC. EPA publication 9355-4-07FS.
17Eby, E. 1998. Internal communication. Waste
Treatment Branch, Office of Solid Waste, U.S. EPA.
May.
Section 112 in EPA's proposed
maximum achievable control
technology (MACT) combustion rule for
hazardous waste incinerators, cement
kilns or light weight aggregate kilns, or
are currently regulated under the RCRA
boilers and industrial furnaces (BIF)
rule (since chemicals regulated under
these rules could potentially be
transferred to the air or soil media after
combustion).18-19
Chemicals which are not on any of the
regulatory lists discussed in the
previous paragraph, but are on the
Toxicity Characteristic (TC) list (40 CFR
261.24) or the Appendix VH list of
chemicals, which is used as the basis for
hazardous waste listings (40 CFR part
261), are assigned a score of 3. The
Agency has historically taken regulatory
actions in the RCRA program based on
risk assessments and damage cases
involving these chemicals.
If a chemical was not on any of the
lists noted above but is regulated under
RCRA based on technological standards
rather than risk-based standards (i.e,
chemicals covered by the Universal
Treatment Standards (UTS) list (40 CFR
268.48), it was assigned a score of 2. If
a chemical was not on any of the lists
noted above, but was on the RCRA P list
of acute hazardous waste (40 CFR
261.33), the U list of toxic waste (40
CFR 261.33), the Appendix VHI
hazardous waste constituent list (40
CFR part 261), or the Appendix DC
ground water monitoring list (40 CFR
part 264), the chemical was assigned a
score of 1. These chemicals are
regulated under RCRA, but are of lesser
concern. For instance. Appendix IX
chemicals are used to set permit
18U.S EPA. 1991. Burning of Hazardous Waste in
Boilers and Industrial Furnaces: Final Rule. 56 FR
7134. February 21.
'»U.S. EPA. 1996. Revised Standards for .
Hazardous Waste Combustors: Proposed Rule. 61
FR 173858. April 19.
parameters. However, if they are not on
the lists mentioned above, are of lesser
concern. In addition, although P list
chemicals are of concern due to their
acute hazards, they are generated
infrequently and usually in small
quantities.
Chemicals not found on any of the
lists discussed above received a 0 score.
The scoring of subcriteria for RCRA
Programmatic Concern is summarized
in Table 4 below.
TABLE 4.—RCRA PROGRAMMATIC
CONCERN SCORING
RCRA programmatic concern subcri-
terion
Chemicals contained on any of the
following lists: (1) Chemicals that
can form dense non-aqueous
phase liquids; (2) chemicals identi-
fied as "difficult to, treat," or (3)
chemicals regulated under the
MACT rule for hazardous waste
incinerators, cement kilns and light
weight aggregate kilns, or the
RCRA rule for boilers and indus-
trial furnaces
Presence on the toxicity characteris-
tic list or the Appendix VII list of
chemicals serving as the basis for
hazardous waste listings
Presence on the land disposal re-
strictions universal treatment
standards list
Presence on the RCRA P list of
acute hazardous waste, the U list
of toxic waste, the Appendix VIII
hazardous waste constituent list,
or the Appendix IX ground water
monitoring list
Chemical not present on any of the
above RCRA lists
Subcri-
terion'
score
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60341
The Agency conducted limited
sensitivity testing of the ranking
methodology by observing changes in
the rankings in response to modifying
the ranking criteria. Several scenarios
were tested, including eliminating each
of the primary criteria in turn and
eliminating both the RCRA Relevance
and Environmental Presence criteria
together.
In general, the methodology appeared
to be fairly robust in its identification of
the top ranking chemicals. Scenarios
which alternatively dropped the RCRA
Relevance, Quantity/Prevalence, and the
PBT Score criteria each displaced
roughly 10 chemicals from the top 50.
Elimination of the Environmental
Presence criterion had less of an impact
on the rankings than dropping the other
criteria. This indicates that, when one of
the four criteria is removed from the
ranking method, the remaining criteria
and data support the ranking to a
substantial degree.
In a more drastic sensitivity scenario,
dropping two of the criteria, RCRA
Relevance and Environmental Presence,
together substantially altered the
rankings—30 chemicals in the top 50
were displaced, and several chemicals
changed by more than 50 rank positions.
These results are not surprising
considering the substantial change to
the scoring method (half of the criteria
are removed). For further information,
see the report Revised Chemical
Ranking Methodology Testing Results in
RCRA docket number F-98-MMLP-
FFFFF.
D. What Cutoff Was Applied to the
Ranked Chemicals to Obtain the Draft
RCRA PBT List?
After ranking the 150 candidate
chemicals, EPA selected a cutoff value
to identify the "top tier" of chemicals
for tracking on a national level. EPA
narrowed the candidate list to the 61
chemicals which had a score of 50
points (the halfway point on the scoring
scale) as a basis for inclusion in the
draft RCRA PBT List proposed today.
EPA determined that a national list of
50 to 60 chemicals was appropriate,
given limited Agency, State, and private
resources to reduce and measure these
chemicals.
E. What Final Adjustments Were Made
to the Draft RCRA PBT List?
As a final step, EPA added and
removed certain chemicals from the list
for the particular reasons described
below. Adding and-removing chemicals
reduced the draft RCRA PBT List from
61 to 53 chemicals.
1. U.S./Canada Binational Agreement
Level 1 Chemicals
EPA added dioxins, furans, and
octachlorosytrene to the RCRA PBT List
because of their high priority on the
"Level 1" list of the U.S./Canada
Binational Agreement.20 Four other
Level 1 chemicals were already among
the top tier chemicals for the RCRA PBT
List.21 Nine chemicals on the Level 1
list, including eight banned pesticides
and alkyl lead, are excluded because
they are either no longer produced (e.g.,
banned pesticides), or are found in very
limited quantities in wastes from only a
few production processes (e.g., alkyl
lead).22 In either case, these chemicals
are not very amenable to reductions
through waste minimization. The
Binational Agreement and the Level 1
list are available for review in RCRA
docket number F-98-MMLP-FFFFF.
2. Chemicals With Low or no PBT
Scores
The Agency initially added chemicals
identified by other EPA programs to the
candidate list to provide a
comprehensive starting point in the
RCRA PBT List development process. At
this final step in the RCRA PBT List
development process, six chemicals
were removed for the following reasons.
Five of the chemicals—
tetrachlorethylene, trichlorethylene,
methylene chloride, 1,2-dichloroethane,
and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane—were
removed because their WMPT PBT
scores are below 7. Although individual
States may wish to pursue reductions in
these chemicals, EPA determined they
are not among the most highly toxic for
a national list. The sixth, silver, was
removed because it has no PBT score.
3. PCBs
The Agency removed the PCB
chemical group from the RCRA PBT List
TABLE 5.—DRAFT RCRA PBT LIST
because production of PCBs is banned
in the U.S. and waste minimization
opportunities for PCBs in process waste
streams are believed to be very limited.
4. Di-n-octyl Phthalate and Butyl Benzyl
Phthalate
The Agency previously removed both
of these chemicals from the EPCRA
Section 313 List of Toxic Chemicals in
response to delisting petitions.
Consequently, the Agency examined
these chemicals more closely to
determine whether to continue to
include them on the draft RCRA PBT
List. The Agency decided to remove di-
n-octyl phthalate from the draft RCRA
PBT List because data developed in
response to that delisting petition
indicated that the human and ecological
toxicity data were not conclusive.
However, EPA has retained butyl benzyl
phthalate on the draft RCRA PBT List
because the ecological toxicity criteria
considered for delisting from the EPCRA
list were different than the criteria used
in the WMPT for determining high
levels of concern for ecological toxicity.
5. Hexachlorocyclohexane Isomers
The Agency removed the alpha, beta,
and delta hexachlorocyclohexane
isomers and retained the gamma isomer.
The gamma isomer is believed to be the
predominant PBT isomer in waste
streams, and achieving waste
minimization for this isomer would
result in reductions in the other isomers
as well.
IV. EPA's Draft RCRA Waste
Minimization PBT Chemical List and
Issues for Public Comment
A. Which Chemicals Are Included on
the Draft RCRA PBT List?
Table 5 below presents EPA's draft
RCRA PBT List. The chemicals are
listed in alphabetical order. No rank
ordering is intended in this List, and, in
fact, the List treats these chemicals as
equal environmental priorities. The
Chemical Abstract Service Registry
Number (CASRN) is also shown, where
available.
CASRN
Dioxins and Furans:
»U.S. EPA. 199T. Great Lakes Binational Toxics
Strategy, Great Lakes National Program Office.
Chicago, IL. wivw.cpa.8Ov/grtlakes/p2/
bnjlntro.html
21 These four chemicals include
hexachlorobenzene, mercury and compounds,
PCBs. and benzo(a)pyrene. PCBs were subsequently
removed from the proposed RCRA PBT List (see
discussion below), and benzo(a)pyrene was
included in the category polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons.
"The eight banned pesticides include aldrin,
dieldrin. chlordane, DDT, DDD, DDE, toxaphene,
and mirex.
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60342
Federal Register/ Vol. 63, No. 216/Monday, November 9, 1998/Notices
TABLE 5.—DRAFT RCRA PBT LIST—Continued
CASRN
Dioxins (PCDD)
Furans (PCDF)
Chlorinated Solvents:
Chloroform 67-66-3
1,1-Dichloroethane 75-34-3
1,1,1-Trichloroethane 71-55-6
Chlorobenzenes:
1,2-Dichlorobenzene 95-50-1
1,3-Dichlorobenzene 541-7M
1,4-Dichlorobenzene !..... 106-46-7
1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene 120-82-1
1,2,4,5-Tetrachiorobenzene •. 95-94-3
Pentachlorobenzene 608-93-5
Hexachlorobenzene :.,.... 118-74-1 .
Other Halogenated Organics:
4-Bromophenyl phenyl ether 101-55-3
Hexachlorobutadiene 87-68-3
Octachlorostyrene 29082-74-4
Pesticides
alpha-Endosulfan 959-98-8
beta-Endosulfan 33213-65-9
Heptachlor 76-44-8
Heptachlor epoxide 1024-57-3
gamma-Hexachlorocyclohexane 58-89-9
Methoxychlor , 72-43-5
Pentachloronttrobenzene 82-68-8
Pentachlorophenoi 87-86-5
2,4,5-Trichlorophenol .....'. 95-95-4
Organonitrogens: . .
Nitrobenzene 98-95-3
Nonhalogenated Phenolics:
Phenol 108-95-2
2,4,6-tris-(1,1-Dimethylethyl)phenol 732-26-3
Phthalate esters:
Bis-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate 117-81-7
Butylbenzyl phthalate 85-68-7
Dibutyi phthalate 84-74-2
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons**:
Acenaphthene • 83-32-9
Acenapthylene . 208-96-8
Anthracene 120-12-7
Benzo(g,h,l)perylene 191-24-2
Fluoranthene : 206-44-0
Fluorene 86-73-7
2-Methyinaphthalene 91-57-6
Naphthalene : 91-20-3
PAH group (as defined in TRI).
Phenanthrene 85-01-8
Pyrene 129-00-0
Metals
Antimony 7440-36-0
Arsenic ! 7440-38-2
Beryllium '. 7440-41-7
Cadmium , 7440-43-9
Chromium .-... 7440-47-3
Copper -. 7440-50-8
Lead 7439-92-1
Mercury ; 7439-97-6
Nickel 7440-02-0
Selenium 7782-49-2
Zinc 7440-66-6
Cyanide 57-12-5
**The Toxics Release Inventory reports some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as a group, and reports other PAHs individually. The
10 individual PAHs listed in this table are not included in the TRI PAH group. See the Screening Report for a list of PAHs included in the TRI
PAH group.
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Federal Register/Vol. 63, No. 216/Monday, November 9, 1998/Notices
60343
B. What Issues is EPA Requesting Public
Comment On?
The Agency welcomes public
comment on any aspect of the
methodology used to develop the draft
RCRA.PBT List, including the data
sources, ranking criteria and scoring
schemes, the cutoff criteria, and the
final adjustments to the List. The
Agency also requests comment on the
specific issues listed below. The Agency
is not requesting comment on the data
or methodology used to develop the
WMPT. or the scoring results of the
WMPT. The WMPT went through a
thorough, comprehensive and
constructive public review and
comment process. EPA has incorporated
its response to those comments in the
underpinnings of today's notice and
therefore does not believe comments
regarding the WMPT are generally
pertinent to this effort.
Specific issues for comment include:
1. Banned Chemicals
Is it appropriate to eliminate
chemicals from consideration for the
draft RCRA PBT List because they are
no longer used in production or
generated in hazardous waste, or are
generated in very limited quantities
from very few production processes,
and therefore are not good candidates
for future reductions through waste
minimization? Is it appropriate to
eliminate banned pesticides, PCBs, and
alkyl lead for this reason, as the Agency
has done in developing the List?
2. Waste Minimization Feasibility
Should the agency eliminate from
consideration PBT chemicals contained
In hazardous waste for which there are
few feasible waste minimization options
available, or should the agency consider
these as an incentive to encourage
research and development of waste
minimization methods for these
chemicals?
3. "Non-measurable" Chemicals
The draft RCRA PBT List includes 16
chemicals that were reported in the
National Hazardous Waste Constituent
Survey but are not reported in the
Toxics Release Inventory, and therefore,
cannot be easily tracked over time. Is it
appropriate to include on the List
chemicals for ttiat TRI data, or other
annual chemical-specific data, are not
readily available for tracking national
chemical reduction progress? Are there
other reliable national sources of
chemical reporting data that could be
used to track generation and reductions
of these chemicals?
4. Chemicals With Very High P, B, and/
or T Values
Should chemicals with very high data
values for persistence, bioaccumulation
potential, human toxicity, and/or
ecological toxicity (e.g., with values at
the top end of the data distributions) be
considered for addition to the RCRA
PBT List, even though TRI data are not
available for tracking progress? How
would progress be measured for these
chemicals?
5. Chemicals With Low Reported
Quantities
Several chemicals on the RCRA. PBT
List are estimated in the National
Hazardous Waste Constituent Survey to
be generated in quantities of less than
100 pounds per year. The Agency did
not use a specific quantity cutoff in
developing the RCRA PBT List. Should
a quantity cutoff be used? If so, what is
the appropriate value for the cutoff?
Should different cutoffs be used for
chemicals which are the most toxic
compared to others which are less toxic?
If so, what should those cutoffs be?
6. Priorities Identified by Other
Organizations.
Should EPA add to the RCRA PBT
List State or other organization's priority
chemicals which do not already appear
on the List? Among these chemicals,
should those with low or no PBT scores
(e.g., waste solvents), or those with low
or no chemical quantities (e.g., some
Level 1 U.S./Canada Binational
Agreement chemicals) be included? A
list of chemical priorities identified by
several States is located in RCRA docket
number F-98-MMLP-FFFFF.
7. Including Recycled Wastes in
Determining Quantities of RCRA-
Relevant Waste Associated with
Chemicals
In considering the quantity and
prevalence of candidates for the RCRA
PBT List (step C.4 above), the Agency
included quantities that were recycled
in its scoring procedure. Should
recycled quantities be included when
determining the quantities of chemicals
associated with hazardous wastes in
developing the RCRA PBT List, or
should EPA measure chemicals only at
the point of generation?
Dated: October 30, 1998.
Elizabeth A. Cotsworth,
Acting Director, Office of Solid Waste.
[FR Doc. 98-29952 Filed 11-6-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 656D-50-P
FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION
Farm Credit Administration Board
Sunshine Act Meeting
AGENCY: Farm Credit Administration.
SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given,
pursuant to the Government in the
Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. 552b(e)(3)), of
the forthcoming regular meeting of the
Farm Credit Administration Board
(Board).
DATE AND TIME: The regular meeting of
the Board will be held at the offices of
the Farm Credit Administration in
McLean, Virginia, on November 12,
1998, from 9:00 a.m. until such time as
the Board concludes its business.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Floyd Fithian, Secretary to the Farm
Credit Administration Board, (703) 883-
4025, TDD (703) 883-4444.
ADDRESS: Farm Credit Administration,
1501 Farm Credit Drive, McLean,
Virginia 22102-5090.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION : Parts of
this meeting of the Board will be open
to the public (limited space available),
and parts of this meeting will be closed
to the public. In order to increase the
accessibility to Board meetings, persons
requiring assistance should make
arrangements in advance. The matters to
be considered at the meeting are:
Open Session
A. Approval of Minutes
—October 8, 1998 (Open and Closed)
B. New Business
1. Regulation
—Balloting and Stockholder
Reconsideration Issues (Final) [12
CFR Part 611]
2. Other
—Statement on Regulatory Burden
(Notice of Intent; Comment Period
Extension)
Closed Session*
C. Report
—OSMO Report
* Session Closed—Exempt pursuant to 5
U.S.C. 552b(c)(8) and (9).
Date: November 5, 1998.
Floyd Fithian,
Secretary, Farm Credit Administration Board.
[FR Doc. 98-30102 Filed 11-5-98: 1:18 pm]
BILLING CODE 6705-01-P
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