x>EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
July 2005
EPA530-F-05-007
www.epa.gov/osw
Hazardous Waste Permitting
Process Standardized
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is standardizing the federal hazardous waste
permitting process by simplifying certain administrative procedures, and permit renewal and
modification processes. The new streamlined system reduces paperwork and saves states and
industry more than S3 million a year while maintaining stringent hazardous waste management
requirements.
Action
The hazardous waste permitting process allows eligible hazardous waste facilities to
submit an abbreviated permit application to regulatory authorities for review. Under the
current individual permit process, facilities are required to submit a two part application.
Facilities are required to submit an application consisting of general information on the
facility, in addition to a lengthier, more detailed application describing the facility and the
waste content, among other things. The gathering and reviewing of this data contributes to
a time-intensive permit application process that often takes longer than a year.
The revised process is similar to the conventional process, yet saves EPA, states, and
facilities time and money. Facilities are still required to have the pre-application meeting
with the public followed by the submission of a Notice of Intent, and supporting
information. Detailed facility information, normally submitted as part of the PartB
application, will be stored on-site for review, if necessary. The Notice of Intent and
supporting materials, in most cases, should provide sufficient information to the regulatory
agency to make a draft permit decision that safeguards human health and the environment.
Under the simplified process, regulatory authorities can issue a draft permit to eligible
facilities within a year of the date the application was received. Eligible facilities include
hazardous waste management facilities otherwise subject to hazardous waste permitting
that generate and then store or non-thermally treat hazardous waste on-site in tanks,
containers, and containment buildings. Also eligible, are facilities that receive hazardous
waste generated off-site by a generator under the same ownership as the receiving facility,
and then store or non-thermally treat the hazardous waste in containers, tanks, or
containment buildings.
The standardized permit issued to a facility will consist of two parts: a uniform portion,
and when necessary, a supplemental portion. The uniform portion, required in all
standardized permits, includes the general facility standards and unit specific standards
from 40 CFRPart 267. The supplemental portion includes site-specific conditions unique
to the facility, such as corrective action requirements, and any other requirements deemed
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necessary to meet safe environmental standards. These permitting standards are effective
30 days after publication in the Federal Register.
Background
EPA convened a special task force in 1994 to look at permitting activities throughout
its different programs and to make specific recommendations to improve these permitting
programs. This task force, known as the Permits Improvement Team (PIT), spent two
years working with stakeholders from EPA, state permitting agencies, industry, and the
environmental community. Among other things, the PIT stakeholders suggested permitting
activities be commensurate with the complexity of the activity. The stakeholders felt that
current EPA permitting programs were not flexible enough to allow streamlined procedures
for routine permitting activities.
Consequently, the hazardous waste program convened a workgroup to develop
proposed regulations for a type of general permit called a standardized permit for a certain
class of hazardous waste management facility.
Impact
EPA estimates that approximately 870 to 1,130 private sector and federal facilities are
eligible for regulatory relief from this rule. Taking into account both the benefits and costs
of this rule, the Agency estimates the annual cost savings from potential paperwork
reduction to be more than $3 million.
For More Information
PI ease visit us on the Internet at: or at .
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