BACKGROUND DOCUMENT
HAZARDOUS mSTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: GENERAL;
STANDARDS APPLICABLE TO OWNERS AND OPERATORS
OF HAZARDOUS V&STE TREATMENT, STORAGE, AND DISPOSAL
FACILITIES; AND HAZARDOUS WASTE PEMIT PROGRAM
(40 CFR 260, 264, and 122)
Permitting of Land Disposal Facilities; Overview
This document (ms. 1941.33) provides background
information on EPA's proposed regulations for
land disposal of hazardous waste
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
July 1981
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INTRODUCTION
Section 3004 of Subtitle C of the Itesource Conservation and
Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976, as amended (42 U.S.C. §§6901 et seq.) ,
requires EPA to promulgate regulations establishing such performance
standards, applicable to owners and operators of hazardous waste
treatment, storage, and disposal facilities, as may be necessary
to protect human health and the environment. On 5 February 1981,
regulations were reproposed for land disposal facilities.
Regulations had been originally proposed on 28 December 1978, and
on 8 October 1980 the agency published a supplemental notice of
proposed rulemaking discussing its intent to deviate significantly
from the standards that had been originally proposed.
REGULATORY APPROACH
The regulatory approach for the "Permitting of land Disposal
Facilities" embodied in the reproposal has been established based
on a recognition that the "disposal" of "hazardous waste" into or
on the land represents the permanent emplacement of "solid waste"
(i.e., discarded material in a solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained
gaseous form). Unless such waste is contained all semisolid,
liquid, and contained gaseous materials which are part of the waste
can be expected to migrate from the location in which it is placed;
and all solid materials which are part of the waste can be expected
to exhibit some finite solubility and vapor pressure and will also
migrate from the locations in which it is placed. This migration
of wastes or constituents (i.e., "decomposition byproducts" and
"reaction byproducts") as direct discharge, "leachate", or as gaseous
emissions is what must be controlled in a permitted facility.
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When the emplacement of waste into or on the land is for
some limited period of time (i.e., for the purpose of storage or
treatment) after which the residual waste and constituents are
removed, "disposal" occurs only due to the migration of wastes,
leachate, or gaseous emissions. Under such circumstances, the
migration of wastes or constituents only occurs during the period
when the wastes or constituents are present.
The regulations promulgated on 12 January 1981 presently apply
to "storage and treatment" facilities, namely those facilities at
which the waste is removed at closure. Those regulations established
specific facility design requirements as standards which are intended
to preclude discharge or leaking of wastes and constituents into or
on the land or to ground waters, and require waste and waste residue
to be removed at closure. If the 12 January 1981 regulations are
complied with, it is presumed that wastes and waste constituents
will be contained within the facility so that no waste or leachate
will escape into the land or into groundwater. Wastes or waste
constituents can exit the facility as gaseous emissions to the
atmosphere eminating directly from the wastes, or as liquid point
source discharges to surface waters.
Facilities ,to be permitted as land disposal facilities in
accordance with the 5 February 1981 reproposed regulations include
(1) all facilities where the wastes are permanently emplaced into
or on the land; and (2) certain facilities where the wastes are
temporarily emplaced into or on the land for the purpose of storage
or treatment but from which some discharge into or on the land or
to ground waters can be reasonably expected to occur or cannot be
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prevented from occuring to some degree. Included within this
second group are storage and treatment facilities which, although
designed to prevent discharge, from which discharge could occur and
not be detectable soon enough to be recoverable, not be recoverable
at all, or where recovery would constitute an unreasonable expense
since adverse effects to human health or the environment may not
accrue even in the event of discharge. An example of such a type
of facility could be one with an "impermeable liner" but without a
leachate detection system other than ground-water monitoring .
The basic regulatory approach therefore is to, by analysis,
determine what discharges will or could occur into or on the land
or to ground waters; to determine where such discharges will migrate
when or if they occur; and to establish how much exposure will or
may result due to such discharges. If the discharges will not
result in any human health or environmental exposure, or if the
amount of exposure can be judged acceptable; the facility could be
permitted. Primary emphasis is placed on the complete avoidance of
human health exposure through the use of affected or potentially
affected ground water.
For the majority of facilities initially subject to the
permitting requirements for land disposal facilities (existing
facilities), the analysis will be based on the locational and (if
necessary) exposure conclusions which can be drawn or extrapolated
from ground-water monitoring and a physical understanding of the
wastes which are being or have been disposed of, the facility
design, and the the geology and the hydrology in the area where
the discharge occurs (or may occur) and is (or will be) migrating.
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For new facilities, the same analysis must be totally predictive
based on knowledge of the wastes to be disposed of, the facility
design, and the geology and hydrology of the area where the facility
is to be operated. These predictions and extrapolations are
recognized to be best estimates or "best engineering judgements"
and are subject to periodic (tri-annual) review based on monitoring
data to improve the accuracy of the predictions and verify that
the facility performance remains within permitted maximum limits.
A similar analysis is required to evaluate air emissions, but
it is unique from the type of evaluation needed for other types of
facilities (i.e., storage and treatment facilties) only in that
the gaseous emissions may occur below the land surface and migrate
within the land before being emitted into the atmosphere.
Additional discussion of the regulatory approach is presented
in Sections III through V of the preamble to the 5 February 1981
Federal Register notice, and in the numbered background documents
referenced herein.
COVERAGE OF THE BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS
The preamble to the 5 February 1981 promulgation included a
notice in Section VIII that the Agency had developed or was preparing
background documents to support the reproposed regulations. Nine
specific background documents were enumerated. These nine documents
are listed below together with an identification of the coverage
of each document keyed to the sub-titles in Section VII of the
preamble.
Background Document No. 1 - Surface Impoundments
D. Subpart K - Surface Impoundments
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Background Document No. 2 - Waste Piles
E. Subpart L - Waste Piles
Background Document No. 3 - Land Treatment
F. Subpart M - Land Treatment
Background Document No. 4 - Landfills
G. Subpart N - Landfills
Background Document No. 5 - Underground Injection and Underground
Seepage
A. Subpart A - General
1. Purpose, scope and applicability - §264.1
L. Amendments to Part 122
8. Permits by rule - §122.26
H. Subpart R - Underground Injection
I. Subpart S - Seepage Facilities
Background Document No. 6 - Information Rsquirements for Permitting
Discharges from Land Disposal Facilities
L. Amendments to Part 122
5. Permit application requirements - Contents of Parts
of the RCRA permit application §122.25
(a) Specific technical information
(b) Specific generic information
(c) Reports required
(d) Site investigation requirements
6. Informational requirements for permitting discharges
from land disposal facilities §122.25(d)
7. Variations in precision - §122.25(e)
Background Document No. 7 - Ground Water Protection Standard
A. Subpart A - General
2. Ground water protection standard - §264. 2
Background Document No. 8 - Ground-water and Air Bnission Monitoring
C. Subpart F - Ground-water and Air Bnission Monitoring
L. Mmendments to Part 122
9. Triannual reprediction of leachate plume migration -
§122.28(f)
2. Modification or revocation and reissuance of permits -
§122.15(a) (8)
3. Minor modification of permits §122.17(a)(8)
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Background Document No. 9 - Performance Standards for Land Disposal
Facilities
B. Subpart B - General Facility Standards
J. Subpart T - Minimum Acceptable Treatment of Hazardous
Wastes Prior to Disposal
No background documents have been prepared to supplement the
Preamble discussion of the proposed amendments to Part 260, or
certain of the proposed amendments to Part 122. These portions of
the regulations are discussed in Section VII of the Preamble under
the following sub-titles:
K. Mendments to Part 260
1. Definitions - §260.10
2. Petitions to Amend Part 264 or Part 265 to Allow
Special Types of Treatment, Storage, and Disposal
Facilities at a Particular Location, for a Particular
Hazardous Waste, or for a Hazardous Waste from a
Particular Source - §260.23
L. Mendments to Part 122
1. Definitions - §122.3
4. Application for a permit - §122.22(a)
10. Establishing RCRA permit conditions - §122.29
SUMMARY DISCUSSION AND FORMAT
The background documents which have been developed provide
response to public comments, as applicable, and the rationale for
how and why the regulations have come to be written the way they
are. In conjunction with the references listed in them, these
documents provide the basis for and defense of the reprbposed
regulations.
Background Documents No . 1, 2, 3, 4, and part of Background
Document No. 8 are very similar to the background documents issued
in support of the 19 May 1980 promulgation. These background
documents have been expanded to include: (a) summaries and responses
to applicable comments on the 19 May 1980 interim final, interim
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status regulations; (b.) summaries and response to comments on the
8 October 1980, supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking; (c)
additional summaries and responses to comments on the originally
proposed (December 1978) general standards; and (d) rationale for
the general standards as reproposed. As appropiate, the remaining
background documents also include discussion of the items listed
in (a) through (d) above.
The general format used in the background documents as follows:
INTRODUCTION
I. NEED FOR REGULATION
II. ANALYSIS OF STANDARDS
These major headings establish the format for discusssion
of the portion of the regulations under consideration in the
background document. In some cases there are more than one
enumeration of the major headings. When that situation exists,
it is discussed in the "INTRODUCTION".
Minor headings establish the framework for the discussion of
specific issues under the major heading "ANALYSIS OF STANDARDS".
The minor headings unsually used are listed below:
A. Proposed Regulation and Rationale
B. Summary of Comments
C. Discussion
D. Regulatory Language
Specific issues may be enumerated in a variety of formats such as
preamble headings, section or paragraph titles, or by a listing or
narrative statement of issues. In general, specific issues parallel
the preamble headings.
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