United States Solid Waste and EPA530-F-00-022
Environmental Protection Emergency Response June 2000
Agency (5305W) http://www.epa.gov
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f/EPA Environmental
Request for Comments: EPA Announces
In-Depth Review of the Land Disposal
Restrictions (LDR) Program
To further ensure that human health and the environment are protected
from the threats posed by the land disposal of hazardous wastes, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing an in-depth review of
key issues for the Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) Program. This advance
notice presents for public comment a series of technical and policy issues
regarding hazardous waste treatment and potential avenues by which the LDR
program might be revised.
Background
Congress created EPA's Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) program in 1984. Before the first
LDR rule in 1986, hazardous wastes were simply disposed in surface impoundments or landfills
without destroying or immobilizing toxic constituents in the waste. Now that the LDR treatment
standards are in place, this has changed substantially. If the wastes when first generated do not
already meet the LDR treatment standards, the wastes must be treated to remove, destroy, or
immobilize hazardous constituents before they are placed on the land. The LDR program therefore
not only reduces the potential for harm to humans and the environment, but it also provides a cost-
based incentive to reduce generation of hazardous wastes in the first place. In the end, the LDR
treatment standards minimize both the short-term and long-term threats to human health and the
environment.
With completion of the LDR Phase IV final rule in May 1998, EPA has established treatment
standards for all currently listed and characteristic hazardous wastes. EPA now has the
opportunity to embark on a reinvention project to assess how well the LDR program is working,
and to examine closely a number of important issues. With our reinvention project, EPA hopes to
make the LDR program more cost-effective, flexible, and innovative while continuing to be
protective of human health and the environment.
The LDR reinvention effort complements the overall EPA reinvention initiative that began in
1995 when President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and EPA Administrator Carol Browner
announced an agenda to make environmental and public health protection programs more efficient
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and effective. Since then, EPA has pursued common sense reforms and new ideas that have
resulted in cleaner air and water and better waste management. This notice is intended to continue
the steady progress of the Agency's reinvention efforts by exploring specific issues in the LDR
program that may need to be revised.
In developing this notice, EPA met with affected stakeholders to elicit their feedback on a wide
range of issues facing the LDR program. These stakeholders included hazardous waste generators
and treaters, environmental groups, and states.
Action
The LDR Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), published on June 19, 2000 (65
Federal Register 37932), announces EPA's in-depth review of the LDR program. The issues we
describe in the notice could result in changes to the LDR program that would better ensure that the
LDR program is environmentally protective, cost-effective, flexible, and innovative.
In this ANPRM, EPA seeks comment on a number of important technical and policy issues
regarding hazardous waste treatment that have arisen in recent years. The main issues are briefly
discussed in the following bullets.
• EPA wants to investigate how the LDR program can encourage more source reduction and
environmentally sound recycling of hazardous wastes, which are preferred alternatives to
treatment and disposal of the wastes.
• Through a project known as LDR Innovative Technology Evaluation, or LDRite, EPA hopes to
help technology developers understand how their treatment systems could fit into the LDR
waste treatment program. We also hope to identify the most promising avenue for evaluating
innovative waste treatment technologies — either formally or informally — that could help to
further minimize threats to human health and the environment. Ultimately, we hope that LDRite
will encourage the development of innovative waste treatment technologies that will offer us
feasible and more advanced regulatory alternatives to the technologies currently used to
establish LDR treatment standards.
• EPA is asking for comment on whether we should create an incinerator ash waste code, which
would reduce the paperwork associated with the carry through of multiple waste codes.
• To ensure that the LDR treatment standards are flexible, especially for mixed wastes (i.e.,
wastes that are both hazardous and radioactive), we are investigating whether to establish
methods of treatment rather than numerical LDR standards for specific waste codes to avoid the
radiological risks associated with compliance monitoring.
• EPA is taking a close look at stabilization, which is a popular option for treating metal-bearing
wastes prior to land disposal. We hope to gather additional information on techniques currently
being used to immobilize hazardous wastes and to identify additional cost-effective ways by
which we can assure both short-term and long-term effectiveness of immobilized wastes.
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• EPA also wants to ensure that the treatment standards we originally set for certain hazardous
waste codes continue to be protective of human health and the environment. The main codes
we are currently investigating are the F001-F005 listed spent solvent wastes, and the reactive
waste codes. We are asking commenters for data and other information to support or refute
revisions of the treatment standards for these waste codes.
The ANPRM is intended to present EPA's latest data and potential concerns for public review
and comment prior to the development of any specific regulatory amendments. EPA emphasizes
that no decisions have been made on what regulatory changes, if any, will ultimately be proposed.
We will have a better idea of the potential changes after reviewing the comments that we receive on
the ANPRM. If warranted, a proposed rule describing the potential changes to the LDR program
will be published in 2001.
For More Information
The Federal Register notice and this fact sheet are available in electronic format on the Internet
at http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/ldr/reinvent.html. For additional information or to order
paper copies of any documents, call the RCRA/Superfund Hotline at (800) 424-9346 (toll free) or
(703) 412-9810 in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The RCRA/Superfund Hotline
operates weekdays (except federal holidays) from 9:00am to 6:00pm. Additional information may
also be requested by writing to the RCRA Information Center (5305W), U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20460.
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