# Environmental Technology Council

1112 1 6 th Street NW  Suite 4 20  Washington DC 200 36  (202) 783 - 0870

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Electronicall y submitted July 10, 2008 Ms. Rhonda Minnick U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Solid Waste 1200 Pennsy lvania Ave. NW (5302P) Washington DC 20460 Re: Lack of Lab Standard for M
- Cumeny l
- Methy l Carbamate Dear Ms. Minnick: The Environmental Technology Council (ETC) is the trade association that represents most of the commercial hazardous waste companies in the United States. Recently , ETC member firms have contacted EPA regarding a serious problem with testing under the RCRA land disposal re strictions program, and the ETC respectfully requests emergency

action to address this problem. We have discovered that no commercial laboratories are able to perform analy sis on m - cumeny l
- methy l carbamate because lab standards for this compound are no l onger available to calibrate the equipment. We even checked with EPA field offices and determined that this carbamate compound is no longer available in the EPA standards repository
. Very

few laboratories were able to test for this compound in the past, and now there are no laboratories that can perform the testing. Test America, one of the major testing laboratories in the U.S., has confirmed that they can no longer test for this compound. After a significant amount of research into possible suppliers, we have determined that the laboratories’ assessment of the situation is accurate. As y ou know, m
- cumeny l
- methy l carbamate is listed as P202 with an L DR treatment standard of 1.4 mg/kg. This compound is also identified as an Underly ing Hazardous Consti tuent. Without an available standard, companies cannot test for compliance with this L DR treatment requirement. We should note that several ETC member incineration facilities routinely tested for m
- cumeny l
- methy l carbamate, before the lab standard became unavailable, in monthly samples of ash and filter cake, and have never found a detectable level of this carbamate. The ETC has survey ed all of its member companies. All companies confirm that the commercial labs that conduct L DR testing have stated tha t they cannot test for m
cumeny l
- methy l carbamate. There are no available options for treating and demonstrating compliance with the L DR treatment standard for this waste. TheMs. Rhonda Minnick

July 10, 2008 Page 2

2 impossibility

of demonstrating compliance means that wastes identified as P202 or wastes that contain m
- cumeny l
- methy l carbamate as an underlying hazardous constituent cannot be treated and properly disposed. This situation is similar to a previous occasion in 1998 when EPA discovered that test standards were not available for cer tain carbamates, after a long list of carbamates was added to the L DR treatment standards. In an emergency rulemaking, EPA revised the treatment requirements to allow combustion and wastewater treatment as alternative technologies for those carbamates so that testing for these individual constituents was not required. 63 Fed. Reg. 47411 (Sept. 4, 1998). This rule provides that treatment standards for the wastes specified as P185, P191, P197, U364, U394, and U395

– the carbamate compounds for which no standard was available for equipment calibration

– may be satisfied by

treating the waste by

combustion (CMBST) for nonwastewaters, and by biodegradation (BI ODG), carbon adsorption (CARBN, chemical oxidation (CHOXD), or combustion for wastewaters. 40 CFR 268 .40(j). The ETC requests that EPA issue an emergency rule that adds P202 to the list of carbamate compounds in 40 CFR 269.40(j), or take such other action as the Agency deems necessary

to resolve this problem. Thank y ou for y our consideration of this re quest. Respectfully

submitted,
David R. Case Executive Director