RCRA regulations

Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and LiabiHty Act (CERCLA)/RCRA regulations in effect at the end of 1986 bromine is regulated as a hazardous waste or material. Therefore, it must be disposed of in an approved hazardous waste faciHty in compliance with EPA and/or other appHcable local, state, and federal regulations and should be handled in a manner acceptable to good waste management practice. The reportable quantity is 45.4 kg for corrosivity (62). 

Hazardous Wastes The U.S. EPA has defined hazardous waste in RCRA regulations, CFR Parts 260 and 261. A waste may be hazardous if it exhibits one or more of the following characteristics (1) ignitability, (2) corrosivity, (3) reactivity, and (4) toxicity. A detailed definition of these terms was first published in the Federal Register on May 19, 1980, pages 33, 121-122. A waste may be hazardous if listed in Appendix Wll. 

Enter in the spaces provided, the name and address of each location (other than POTWs) to which you ship or transfer wastes containing toxic chemicals. Do not include locations to which you ship the toxic chemical for recycle or reuse, tf you do not ship ortransfer wastes containing toxic chemicals to offsite locations, enter not applicable, NA in the off-site location name line of 2.1. Also enter the EPA Identification Number (RCRA I.D. Number) for each such location if known to you. This number may be found on the Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest, which is required by RCRA regulations. Also indicate in the space provided whether the location is owned or controlled by yourfacility or your parent company. If thefacility does not have a RCRA 1.0. number, enter not applicable, NA, in this space. 

Table 8. Biodegradable RCRA-Regulated Organic Compounds, (USEPA, 198S) ...

Provides information about all RCRA regulations and programs including the Resource Conseiwation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)/Superfund Amendments Reauthorization Act (SARA) Title III. Operates weekdays from 9 00 a.m. to 6 00 p.m., EST, excluding Federal holidays. Sendees are also available in Spanish. 

Hazardous waste generators To ensure proper and safe waste management, the RCRA regulations provide management standards for those facilities that produce hazardous waste and provide reduced regulations for facilities that produce less waste. 

Hazardous waste transporters To govern the transport of hazardous waste between management facilities, RCRA regulates hazardous waste transporters. 

Enforcement To ensure that RCRA-regulated facilities, from generators to TSDFs, comply with these regulations, RCRA provides U.S. EPA with the authority to enforce provisions of the Act. 

One statute in particular, the CERCLA, or Superfund, is closely tied to RCRA both are designed to protect human health and the environment from the dangers of hazardous waste. While these programs are similar, they do have different regulatory focuses RCRA regulates how wastes should be managed to avoid potential threats to human health and the environment CERCLA focuses on actual releases, or substantial threats of a release in the environment of a... 

The RCRA regulations broadly define the term generator to include any person, by site, who first creates or produces a hazardous waste (e.g., from an industrial process) or first brings a hazardous waste into the RCRA system (e.g., imports a hazardous waste into the United States). 

Transporters of hazardous waste must comply with both U.S. EPA and DOT regulations. The RCRA regulations require a transporter to2... 

Units burning hazardous wastes that are exempt from RCRA regulation, such as household hazardous wastes. 

Residues from the combustion of hazardous waste are also potentially subject to RCRA regulation. If a combustion unit bums a listed hazardous waste, the ash could also be considered a listed waste via the derived-from rule. The owner and operator must also determine whether this ash exhibits any hazardous waste characteristics. The same is true if a unit bums waste that only exhibits a characteristic. Ash that exhibits a characteristic must be managed as a hazardous waste. 

Once hazardous wastes are transported from a CERCLA site, they are subject to full RCRA regulation. Therefore, all transportation and TSD requirements under RCRA must be followed. This means that off-site shipments must be accompanied by a manifest. In particular, the off-site disposal of hazardous wastes can occur only at an RCRA facility in a unit in full compliance with the requirements. U.S. EPA policy requires that the disposal facility be inspected six months prior to receiving the waste. 

Many of these statutes interact closely and even overlap with RCRA. In order to avoid overregulation of industry and coordinate environmental protection laws, Congress required that U.S. EPA, when promulgating RCRA regulations, ensure consistency with and avoid duplication of regulatory provisions promulgated under other environmental statutes. 

U.S. EPA has also developed organic air emission regulations for TSDFs and LQGs under RCRA. However, these RCRA regulations have been designed to minimize, to the extent possible, any overlap with CAA regulations. 

RCRA-regulated USTs may also be subject to CWA SPCC requirements... 

While medical waste is not subject to federal RCRA regulation, air emissions from new and existing hospital, infectious, and medical waste incinerators are subject to New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and emission guidelines under CAA. 

U.S. EPA has proposed TSCA standards for the disposal of lead-based paint (LBP) debris to replace RCRA regulations. The new standards would establish disposal standards for LBP debris and identify recycling and incineration activities that would be controlled or prohibited. To avoid duplicative regulation, the waste that is subject to these new standards would not be subject to RCRA hazardous waste determination. 

Proper identification of a hazardous waste can be a difficult and confusing task, as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations establish a complex definition of the term hazardous waste. To help make sense of what is and is not a hazardous waste, this chapter presents the steps involved in the process of identifying, or characterizing, a hazardous waste. 

Proper hazardous waste identification is essential to the success of the hazardous waste management program. The RCRA regulations require that any person who produces or generates a waste must determine if that waste is hazardous. For this purpose, the RCRA includes the following steps in the hazardous waste identification process2 ... 

Is the waste specifically excluded from the RCRA regulations ... 

The hazardous waste listings, the hazardous waste characteristics, and the mixture and derived-from rules are all essential parts of the definition of hazardous waste, but these key elements are all described in different sections of the RCRA regulations. Only one regulatory section unites all four elements to establish the formal definition of hazardous waste. This section is entitled Definition of Hazardous Waste, which states that all solid wastes exhibiting one of the four hazardous characteristics are hazardous wastes. This section also states that all solid wastes listed on one of the four hazardous waste lists are hazardous wastes. Finally, this section explains in detail the mixture and derived-from rules and the regulatory exemptions from these rules. Thus, although the section is entitled Definition of Hazardous Waste, it serves primarily as a guide to the mixture and derived-from rules. 

The RCRA manifest requirements (40 CFR Parts 262 and 263) must be complied with for all wastes that are shipped off site. The regulations for transportation of hazardous wastes by the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. EPA, and states and local regulation agencies, should be complied with. A knowledge of RCRA regulations (40 CFR Parts 261-265) and other regulations developed by State Governments is required to determine the feasibility of off-site disposal. 

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations governing incinerators can be found at 40 CFR Part 264/265, Subpart O-Incinerators.4 RCRA regulations governing BIFs can be found at 40 CFR Part 266, Subpart H-Hazardous Waste Burned in BIFs.5... 

The stable gases produced by incineration are primarily carbon dioxide and water. Depending on waste composition, however, small quantities of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, HC1, and other gases may form. Also, if combustion is not complete, compounds known as products of incomplete combustion (PICs) may be emitted. RCRA regulations control the amount of HC1 released from the APCD. 

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