United States              Solid Waste and          EPA530-F-00-026
               Environmental Protection Agency   Emergency Response        September 2000
                                     (5305W)              www.epa.gov/osw

               Office of Solid Waste
&ERA    Environmental
               Fact  Sheet
               HAZARDOUS WASTE REGULATION  PROPOSED
               FOR SOME INORGANIC CHEMICALS

                  EPA is proposing to add three wastes from inorganic chemical manufacturing
               processes to the list of hazardous waste. Regulating these chemical wastes will
               protect human health and the environment by eliminating potential pathways of
               exposure.


 Background
   The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requires EPA to make listing
 determinations for hazardous waste.  EPA lists a waste as hazardous when the
 Agency determines that it poses unacceptable risks to the environment or people.
 Listed waste usually comes from various manufacturing processes, which includes the
 inorganic chemical manufacturing industry. The Agency examined over 170 waste
 streams from the following  14 sectors: antimony oxide, barium carbonate, boric acid,
 cadmium pigments, inorganic hydrogen cyanide, phenyl mercuric acetate, phosphoric
 acid from the dry process, phosphorus pentasulfide, phosphorus trichloride, potassium
 dichromate, sodium chlorate, sodium  dichromate, sodium phosphate from wet process
 phosphoric acid, and titanium dioxide. After making detailed assessments of these
 waste streams, the Agency is proposing to list three of them as hazardous waste.

 Action

   EPA is proposing to add the three wastes to the K-coded waste list. K-code wastes
 come from specialized manufacturing processes, such as those found in the inorganic
 chemical manufacturing industry. The three wastes the Agency proposes to list are:

   K176 !   Baghouse filters from the production of antimony oxide;
   K177 !   Slag from the production of antimony oxide that is not disposed of or
            speculatively accumulated; and
   K178 !   Nonwastewaters from the production of titanium dioxide by the chloride-
            ilmenite process.

   EPA also proposes to add the hazardous constituents of these wastes to the list of
 constituents regulated under RCRA for each type of waste. These constituents are:
 antimony, arsenic, lead, thallium, and manganese.

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For More Information
   The Federal Register notice, this fact sheet, and related documents are available on
the Internet at 
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