908R93005 Q PDA HAZARDOUS WASTE INCINERATORS BOILERS AND INDUSTRIAL FURNACES UPDATE #3 United States Environmental Protection Agency Region VIII DENVER, COLORADO • OCTOBER 1993 INTRODUCTION This is the third in a series of information updates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding proposed incineration activities in Region VIII. These updates are developed with the cooperation of state environmental agencies in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. The purpose of these updates is to keep interested parties informed of possible incineration activity in their communities. EPA ANNOUNCES NEW WASTE COMBUSTION STRATEGY On May 18,1993, EPA Administrator Carol Browner issued a Draft Strategy for Combustion of Hazardous Waste. In the short-term, the program will include the following measures: (1) Site-specific risk assessments will be conducted at incinerators and boilers and industrial furnaces (BIFs) during the permitting process. The risk assessments will consider all exposure pathway risks associated with combustion facility emissions. (2) EPA will include dioxin emission standards in final permits for incinerators and BIFs, when necessary to protect human health or the environment. (3) New permits for incinerators or BIFs will include more stringent controls on particulate matter (i.e., metals emissions), when necessary to protect human health or the environment. (4) EPA and the states have been directed to issue permit decisions for existing incinerators and BIFs as soon as possible over the next 18 months. Processing requests for new combustion facilities will be given a low priority during that time. (5) EPA will use specialized combustion inspectors to ensure full and timely compliance with regulations, through aggres- sive inspection and enforcement at BIFs and incinerators. (6) Under guidelines issued as part of the Strategy, hazardous waste generators must commit to waste reduction programs. Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), hazardous waste generators have been required since 1984 to put waste reduction programs in place. (7) Public involvement will be broadened and more information regarding hazardous waste combustion will be made available to the public. (8) A task force of EPA and state officials will be convened Highlights of the Draft Strategy: • Site-specific risk assessments • Dioxin standards in permits • More stringent controls on particulates • Low priority for new permit applications • Aggressive inspections • Emphasis on waste reduction • Increased public involvement • Hazardous waste combustion task force to conduct a broad evaluation of the role of hazardous waste combustion in EPA's national hazardous waste management strategy. The recommendations of the task force must specifically address waste reduction. EPA will also pursue a number of long-term actions, including the following: (1) A national round table on hazardous waste source reduction opportunities will be convened by EPA. This group will seek to identify opportunities for reducing the amount of waste being combusted, and will explore the appropriate balance between hazardous waste minimization and use of combustion as a waste management tool. Generating and treatment industries will be asked to participate. The round table will explore both regulatory and non-regulatory options to encourage and/or require source reduction. EPA will also work with the states to establish a program in which industry is challenged to reduce the amount of process wastes going to combustion units, by a selected percentage and by a target year. (2) EPA will draw up rules which will upgrade combustion regulations to conform to changes in technology. The Agency will explore the feasibility of a technology-based approach, particularly with respect to setting emission controls on metals, dioxins and furans, acid gases, particulate matter, and products of incomplete combustion. In addition, EPA will continue to refine its risk assessment guidelines to ensure that all risks are effectively addressed by national regulations or site-specific permit conditions. (3) EPA will establish rules to increase public participation at earlier stages in the permitting process for incinerators and BIFs. (4) EPA will use its resources to increase research ihto ways to determine the constituents of combustion emissions on a continuous basis. EPA will work with the waste combustion industry in this research effort. ------- (5) EPA will continue its efforts to foster the development of innovative technologies for the safe and effective treatment of hazardous waste. Copies of EPA's "Draft Combustion Strategy" and Administrator Browner's "Statement Announcing the New Waste Combustion Strategy" are available in the information repositories listed on page 6. STATUS OF HAZARDOUS WASTE INCINERATORS AND BOILERS & INDUSTRIAL FURNACES (BIFs) IN REGION VIII SYNTEX CHEMICALS, BOULDER, COLORADO (NON COMMERCIAL FACILITY) Syntcx has completed closing its waste solvent boiler, which had interim status under the Boiler and Industrial Furnace Regulations. ASH GROVE CEMENT COMPANY, CLANCY, MONTANA Ash Grove has proposed using non-liquid hazardous waste as a fuel supplement in its existing cement kiln. This activity would require a permit from the State of Montana and EPA. A permit application was submitted in May 1993; it is currently under review by the State and EPA. The outcome of this initial review will be available in October. If necessary a Notice of Deficiency (NOD) will be issued, requesting additional information from Ash Grove. APTUS, INC., TOOELE COUNTY, UTAH (COMMERCIAL FACILITY) APTUS is a commercial facility that has been receiving hazardous waste, including PCBs, since January 1992. The trial burn test was conducted in the Spring of 1992, and the trial burn report is under review by the State of Utah and EPA. USPCI CLIVE INCINERATION FACTLI1Y, TOOELE COUNTY, UTAH (COMMERCIAL FACILITY) Construction has been completed at USPCI and the facility is scheduled to begin receiving hazardous waste, including PCBs, in late 1993. In August 1993, the Utah Court of Appeals dismissed a legal challenge to the facility's permit. The State of Utah and EPA arc currently reviewing USPCI's trial burn plan. The trial burn test is scheduled for the Spring of 1994. USPCI CUVE INClNF.lliTOR . 2 ------- UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TIIE ARMY TOOELE ARMY DEPOT - SOUTH Chemical Demilitarization Facility (CDF) (Non-commercial facility) CDF is an incineration facility that will destroy stockpiled nerve agents stored at the Tooele Army Depot. Construction has been completed, and systems check-out of the five separate incinerators at CDF will continue until early 1995. After check- out, a trial burn will be conducted on each incinerator, first with non-nerve agent chemicals and then with nerve agents. Trial burn plans will be reviewed and approved by the State of Utah and EPA prior to testing. CHEMICAL DKMIUTARIVATiON FACILITY Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal System (CAMPS) (Research facility) CAMDS is a research facility currently incinerating nerve agent waste that was stored at the Tooele Army Depot. The State of Utah issued a Research, Demonstration, and Development (RD&D) permit to the facility in May 1991. A trial burn was conducted on one of the four incinerators at CAMDS for nerve agent VX in August 1993. Several future trial burns are scheduled. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY TOOELE ARMY DEPOT - NORTH Deactivation Furnace A permit was issued by the State of Utah for this facility on March 22, 1993. The Deactivation Furnace destroys obsolete ammunition and propellant that is stored at the Tooele Army Depot. A trial burn test was conducted on the furnace in August 1993. A trial burn report will be submitted to the State of Utah for review and approval. 3 ------- WASTE TECH SERVICES, INC., GOLDEN, COLORADO (RESEARCH FACILITY) A permit was issued by the State of Colorado for this facility in February 1989. The Waste Tech unit is a small fluidized bed incinerator used for research and treatability studies. ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARSENAL, DENVER, COLORADO (NON-COMMERCIAL FACILITY) The submerged quench incinerator (SQI) treats liquid wastes that were stored at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in a surface impoundment called Basin F. The SQI is part of ongoing Superfund clean-up actions at the Arsenal. The facility began treating Basin F waste in May 1993 and the trial burn test was conducted in June 1993. The trial burn report is being reviewed by EPA and the State of Colorado. PUEBLO DEPOT ACTIVITY (PDA), PUEBLO, COLORADO (NON-COMMERCIAL FACILITY) A permit application which proposes an incineration facility that will destroy mustard blister agents stockpiled at the PDA was submitted by the Department of the Army to the State of Colorado and EPA in June 1992. A permit must be issued by the State of Colorado and a Certificate of Designation issued by Pueblo County before construction of such a facility can begin. ************************************************************************** INCINERATION BACKGROUND About 5 million tons of liquid, semi-solid, and solid hazardous waste arc burned each year in the United States in hazardous waste incinerators and boilers and industrial furnaces (BIFs). Common types of waste being incinerated are spent solvents, distillation bottoms, and off-specification organic chemicals and products. EPA's incinerator regulations were adopted under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in 1981. In 1988, EPA's Office of Solid Waste issued supplemental guidance that directed use of the RCRA "omnibus" permit authority to add controls for emissions of metals, products of incomplete combustion (PICs), and hydrochloric acid (HCI) into new incinerator permits on a case-by-case basis. Currently, there are 184 hazardous waste incinerators in the U.S. (7 in the Region VIII states), 139 of which can operate under final permits (7 in Region VIII) and another 15 of which are operating under interim status pending final resolution of appeals (none in Region VIII). Fifteen commercial incinerators can accept wastes from off-site sources; two of them are in Region VIII. Major types of BIFs burning hazardous waste include cement kilns, lightweight aggregate kilns, and industrial and utility boilers. Currently, there are 171 BIFs in operation (none in Region VIII), of which 35 arc commercial facilities (one commercial facility is proposed in Region VIII, see page 2). BIFs are subject to comprehensive RCRA regulations that were adopted in 1990. These regulations contain controls on metals, PICs, and HCI emitted from BIF facilities. At the present time, these controls are imposed as interim status standards. No BIFs have yet received final permits, although a number of permit applications have been filed. 4 ------- EPA Region VIII Hazardous Waste Incinerators and Boilers and Industrial Furnaces Incinerators/BIFs (A) Aptus - Aragonite, UT /g\ USPCI - Clive, UT (§) Tooele Deactivation Furnace - Tooele, UT ©Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal SySem (CAMDS) - Tooele, UT A Chemical Demilitarization Facility ^ (CDF) - Tooele, UT Pueblo Depot - Pueblo, CO (G) Rocky Mountain Arsenal - Denver, CO (fi) Waste Tech - Golden, CO /A Ash Grove Cement Co. V Clancy, MT [j] Syntex Chemicals, Inc. Boulder, CO • Helena .ASalt Lake A©TCity ,^/B-^Tooeli ® (D enver • Pueblo Facility Status O EXISTING/OPERATING ^ PERMITTED • UNDER 0 CONSTRUCTION APPLICATION SUBMITTED ~ UNDERGOING CLOSURE 5 ------- If you have technical questions or questions related to Federal regulations, you may contact: Carl Daly Regional Combustion Specialist U.S. EPA, Region VIII 999 18th Street Denver, Colorado 80202-2466 (303) 293-1500 You may also contact the following state representatives: Colorado Dave Waltz Public Health Engineer Hazardous Waste Control Colorado Department of Health 4300 Cherry Creek Drive South Denver, CO 80222 (303) 692-3360 North Dakota Neil Knatterud Acting Director Waste Management Department of Health 1200 Missouri Avenue Room 302 Bismarck, ND 58520 (701) 221-5166 Utah Scolt Anderson Chief, Commercial/Federal Facilities Branch Utah Department of Environmental Quality P.O. Box 144880 Salt lake City, UT 84114-4880 (801) 538-6170 Montana Richard Knatterud Environmental Specialist Department of Health and Environmental Sciences 836 Front Street Helena, MT 59620 (406) 444-1430 South Dakota Vonnie Kallemeyn Natural Resources Program Scientist Department of Environmental & Natural Resources Office of Waste Management 319 South Coteau Pierre, SD 57501 (605) 773-3153 Wyoming David Finley Administrator Solid and Hazardous Waste Division Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality Heischler Building, 122 W. 25th Cheyenne, WY 82002 (307) 777-7938 If you would like general background information or publications on incineration of hazardous waste, contact: Harold Dunning Office of External Affairs U.S. EPA Region VIII 999 18th Street Denver, Colorado 80202-2466 (303) 294-1142 LOCATION OF REPOSITORIES General information, background publications and these updates on incineration of hazardous waste have been placed at the following locations and are available to the public: Florence Public Library, Florence, CO Ft. Collins Public Library and Colorado State University Library, Ft. Collins, CO Lyons Depot Library, Lyons, CO Boulder Public Library, Boulder, CO Burlington Public Libraiy, Burlington, CO Stratton Public Library, Stratton, CO U.S. EPA Library, 999 18th Street, Denver, CO Montana State University, Bozeman, MT Lewis & Clark County Library, Helena, MT Three Forks Public Library, Three Forks, MT Rapid City Public Libraiy, Rapid City, SD Delta City Libraty, Delta, UT Albany County Public Libraiy, Laramie, WY Mesa County Public Libraiy, Grand Junction, CO Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Tooele City Public Library, Tooele, UT McClelland Libraiy and Barkman Branch Libraiy, Pueblo, CO 6 ------- MAILING LIST EPA maintains a mailing list of people interested in incineration activities in Region VIII. If you did not get this Update by mail and want your name added to that mailing list, please fill out this form and mail it to: Harold Dunning Office of External Affairs (80EA) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 999 Eighteenth Street, Suite 500 Denver, CO 80202-2466 (please print or type) NAME AFFILIATION (If Any) ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP CODE Please delete my name from the mailing list: Are you interested in a specific facility? No Yes If yes, name/location of facility Note: Reuse/Recycle Please pass this form on to someone you think would be interested in hazardous waste incineration if you do not wish to use the form at this time. MAIL &EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of External Affairs (80EA) 999 Eighteenth Street Suite 500 Denver, CO 80202-2466 BULK RATE POSTAGE & FEES PAID U.S. EPA G-35 US EPA REGION i/i ,. 999 I*H Street UBRARY DE"VE« CO 80202 This Update has been printed on recycled paper ------- |