Land Disposal Restrictions for Newly Listed Wastes and Hazardous Debris


Vol. 57, No. 160

Part II

57 FR 37194

Tuesday, August 18, 1992

CFR: 40 CFR Parts 148, 260, 261, 262, 264, 265, 268, 270 and 271


The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing treatment standards under the land disposal restrictions (LDR) program for certain hazardous wastes listed after November 8, 1984, pursuant to a proposed consent decree filed with the District Court that established a promulgation date of June 1992 (EDFv.Reilly, Civ. No. 89-0598, D.D.C.). EPA is also finalizing revised treatment standards for debris contaminated with listed hazardous waste or debris that exhibits certain hazardous waste characteristics (hereinafter referred to as hazardous debris), and several revisions to previously promulgated standards and requirements. These actions are being taken as part of the RCRA Reform Initiative, and are expected to facilitate implementation of the LDR program.

I. Background

A. Summary of the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984

The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted on November 8, 1984, allow hazardous wastes to be land disposed only if they satisfy either of two conditions: (1) They can either be treated, or otherwise satisfy, the requirement of section 3004(m), which provision requires EPA to set levels or methods of treatment, if any, which substantially diminish the toxicity of the waste or substantially reduce the likelihood of migration of hazardous constituents from the waste so that short-term and long-term threats to human health and the environment are minimized; or (2) they can be land disposed in units satisfying the so-called no-migration standard in sections 3004 (d)(1), (e)(1), and (g)(5). Land disposal includes any placement of hazardous waste in a landfill, surface impoundment, waste pile, injection well, land treatment facility, salt dome formation, salt bed formation, or underground mine or cave. RCRA section 3004(k).

EPA was required to promulgate land disposal prohibitions and treatment standards by May 8, 1990 for all wastes that were either listed or identified as hazardous at the time of the 1984 {pg 37195} amendments, a task EPA completed within the statutory timeframes. RCRA section 3004 (d), (e), and (g). EPA is also required to promulgate prohibitions and treatment standards for wastes identified or listed after the date of the 1984 amendments (wastes referred to in this notice as ''newly listed and identified wastes'') within six months after the listing or identification takes effect. RCRA section 3004(g)(4). EPA has filed with the District Court a proposed consent decree that would put the Agency on a schedule for adopting prohibitions and treatment standards for newly identified and listed wastes. The promulgation date for the newly identified and listed wastes dealt with in this rule is set for June 1992. (EDTv.Reilly, Civ. No. 89-0598, D.D.C.)

The land disposal restrictions are effective upon promulgation. RCRA section 3004(h)(1). However, the Administrator may grant a national capacity variance from the effective date and establish a later effective date (not to exceed two years) based on the earliest date on which adequate alternative treatment, recovery, or disposal capacity which protects human health and the environment will be available. RCRA section 3004(h)(2). The Administrator may also grant a case-by-case extension of the effective date for up to one year, renewable once for up to one additional year, when an applicant(s) successfully makes certain demonstrations. RCRA section 3004(h)(3). See 55 FR 22526 (June 1, 1990) for a more detailed discussion on national capacity variances and case-by-case extensions.

In addition to prohibiting land disposal of hazardous wastes, Congress prohibited storage of any waste which is prohibited from land disposal unless such storage is solely for the purpose of the accumulation of such quantities of hazardous waste as are necessary to facilitate proper recovery, treatment or disposal. RCRA section 3004(j). The provision applies, of course, only to storage which is not also defined as land disposal in section 3004(k).

B. Pollution Prevention (Waste Minimization) Benefits

EPA's progress over the years in improving environmental quality through its media- specific pollution control programs has been substantial. Over the past two decades, standard industrial practice for pollution control concentrated to a large extent on ''end-of-pipe'' treatment or land disposal of hazardous and nonhazardous wastes. EPA believes that reducing or eliminating discharges and/or emissions to the environment through the implementation of environmentally sound recycling and source reduction practices sometimes offer more cost effective ways of achieving environmental goals.

The Agency has identified a number of waste streams where environmentally sound recycling has been identified as BDAT. For example, we are promulgating today in section IV.C alternate treatment standards for electroplating sludges (F006) and spent pickle liquor (K062), based on high temperature metals recovery (HTMR). The Agency has determined that many of these wastes have sufficient concentrations of metals (nickel and chromium), with low concentrations of interfering chemicals, to be amenable for recovery in HTMR units. Moreover, the Agency is granting a generic exclusion for F006 and K062 HTMR nonwastewater residuals, provided that these residuals meet designated concentration levels, are disposed of in Subtitle D units, and exhibit no characteristics of hazardous waste. (This exclusion is similar to the one that was promulgated on August 8, 1991 for K061. See 56 FR 41164, August 19, 1991.) The Agency expects that these provisions will encourage more generators to choose treatment technologies for their wastes which also recover some materials for reuse. In addition, treatment standards for the newly listed petroleum refining wastes (F037 and F038) are based on some recovery technologies (critical fluid extraction and thermal desorption), as well as on incineration.

II. Summary of Final Rule

Today's final rule is the first rulemaking adopting treatment standards for newly identified and listed wastes as outlined in the consent decree described above.

Before discussing the final rule, EPA notes that certain aspects of the rule could be affected by the recently proposed rule (57 FR 21450, May 20, 1992) dealing with the question of when wastes are hazardous, concentration levels and circumstances when wastes are not hazardous, as well as circumstances when land disposal prohibitions might and might not apply. At present, however, the mixture and derived from rules remain in effect (57 FR 7628, March 3, 1992), and so apply to the rule adopted today. In addition, as explained in more detail later in the preamble, the Agency is codifying the so-called contained-in policy with respect to contaminated debris, and the preamble likewise explains how and when debris can be a hazardous waste based on application of this principle.

A. Newly Listed Wastes

EPA has promulgated a number of hazardous waste listings since enactment of HSWA in 1984. Section III of today's rule describes the treatment and/or recycling technologies that have been identified as BDAT for 20 of these listings and finalizes LDR treatment standards based on BDAT. Wastes included in today's rule include petroleum refining wastes (F037 and F038), wastes from the production of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (K107-K110), wastes from the production of dinitrotoluene and toluenediamine (K111 and K112), wastes from the production of ethylene dibromide (K117, K118, and K136), wastes from the production of ethylenebisdithiocarbamic acid (K123-K126), wastes from the production of methyl bromide (K131 and K132), and several organic U wastes (U328, U353, and U359). Future proposals will include newly listed wastes not covered in today's rule. Soil contaminated with the newly listed wastes for which standards are finalized today will be addressed in a future proposal.

B. Changes to Current Regulations

The Agency is finalizing revisions to the existing treatment standards for organic constituents in F001-F005 wastes, involving conversion from TCLP standards to standards based on total concentrations. In addition, the Agency is finalizing the conversion of wastewater standards for 24 F and K waste codes based on wastewater treatment data for the constituents of concern.

EPA is also finalizing alternate treatment standards for F006 and K062, and is also extending the K061 generic exclusion published on August 19, 1991 (56 FR 41164) to certain F006 and K062 wastes. The generic exclusion levels have been slightly revised to reflect a somewhat different fate and transport model, the EPA Composite Model for Landfills (EPA CML).

EPA is also revising the notification and certification for prohibited characteristic wastes and clarifying existing rules regarding the status under part 268 of wastes listed solely because they exhibit a characteristic.

Finally, EPA is establishing a new waste management unit known as a containment building. EPA is indicating that containment buildings are not land disposal units, so that hazardous wastes may be managed in such units without first meeting treatment standards. {pg 37196}

C. Hazardous Debris

Debris contaminated with listed prohibited wastes is already subject to the LDR treatment standards for those wastes, as is debris exhibiting a hazardous waste characteristic for which EPA has promulgated treatment standards. Today, the Agency is revising the treatment standards for such debris. The Agency is also finalizing treatment standards for debris that is contaminated with those newly listed wastes for which standards are promulgated in this rule. This rule does not identify or list any debris as hazardous, and so does not bring any additional debris into the subtitle C management system. Only hazardous debris that is currently subject to subtitle C standards is covered by today's rule. The Agency is requiring hazardous debris to be treated prior to land disposal, using specific technologies from one or more of the following families of debris treatment technologies: Extraction, destruction, or immobilization. In the alternative, hazardous debris may continue to be handled in accordance with the Agency's contained-in policy, and so may be land disposed if it no longer ''contains'' a hazardous waste.

To ensure effective treatment of debris (i.e., treatment sufficient to constitute BDAT), treatment must be performed in accordance with specified performance standards (see new Table 1 in today's rule). The consequence of performing this treatment would be two-fold. Not only would the debris no longer be prohibited from land disposal, but EPA would consider the treated debris to no longer be or contain a hazardous waste provided a destruction or extraction technology is used for all debris types/contaminant combinations and provided that the treated debris does not exhibit any characteristic of hazardous waste. Such treated debris could, therefore, be reused, returned to the natural environment, or disposed of in a subtitle D facility.

Residuals generated from the treatment of debris contaminated with listed wastes would still be hazardous wastes by virtue of the derived-from rule and would be subject to the hazardous waste management system. The Agency is today requiring that residuals generated from the treatment of hazardous debris be subject to the numerical treatment standards for the wastes contaminating the debris. A detailed discussion is provided in section V.G.

Finally, the Agency considered and rejected proposing numerical standards for hazardous debris because of the difficulty of sampling hazardous debris. However, based on numerous comments to the proposed rule, EPA is allowing people the option of treating debris to meet the existing treatment standards. Such debris would remain hazardous waste under the derived-from rule, unless delisted.


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