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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 

JAN - 7 2011 

OFFICE OF 

SOLID WASTE AND 

EMERGENCY RESPONSE 

The Honorable Steve Cohen 

U.S . House of Representatives 

Washington, D.C . 20515 

Dear Congressman Cohen: 

Thank you for your letter of December 7, 2010, to U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, regarding EPA's proposed rule, "Identification of 

Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials that are Solid Waste." In your letter, you express concerns 

regarding the proposed rule's classification of used oil as a waste and how this could affect space 

heaters that are currently allowed to burn used oil, provided certain conditions are met. I 

appreciate your interest in this important issue and want to assure you that EPA does not want to 

reduce the legitimate recycling of used oil. 

Used oil is one of many non-hazardous materials discussed in the proposed rule . The 

preamble to the proposed rule specifically discussed used oil that meets on-specification criteria 

under the 40 CFR Part 279 management standards, as well as the management standards for offspecification used oil that does not meet those standards. Under the proposal, on-specification 

used oil is considered to be a traditional fuel . Traditional fuels, in the proposal, are considered 

those fuels that have been historically managed as valuable fuel products rather than being 

managed as waste materials, and are not considered to be solid wastes under the proposed rule. 

Thus, on-specification used oil would not be considered a solid waste when burned as a fuel 

under the proposed rule and would be subject to the section 112 Clean Air Act (CAA) standards. 

Off-specification used oil is considered a solid waste under the proposed rule, and 

combustion units burning off-specification used oil would be subject to the appropriate standards 

under section 129 of the CAA for solid waste incinerators . This proposed approach would 

provide an additional measure of control to address the higher level of contaminants that could 

be present in off-specification used oil. The proposed rule also indicated that off-specification 

used oil that is processed into on-specification used oil would not be considered a solid waste. 

The definition of processing includes the blending of off-specification used oil with virgin fuel 

products or on-specification used oil . 

Internet Address (URL) 0 http://www.epa .gov Recycled/Recyclable * Printed with Vegetable Oil Based Inks on 100% Postconsumer, Process Chlorine Free Recycled Paper 
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the regulations that have 

been promulgated in 40 CFR Part 279 ensure that used oil that is recycled is done so in a manner 

that protects human health and the environment. The proposed rule does not require testing for 

generators of used oil, nor does the used oil management standards promulgated under 40 CFR 

Part 279 require testing. Rather, generators of used oil, including those that collect used oil for 

do-it-yourself oil generators, can use other information, such as existing data or process 

knowledge, to determine whether or not the used oil they generate would be considered onspecification or off-specification . 

Again, thank you for your letter. We are continuing to evaluate all of the comments we 

received on the proposed rule . If you have further questions, please contact me or have your 

staff contact Raquel Snyder, in the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, at (202) 564-9586. 

Sincerely, 

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Mathy Stanislaus 

Assistant Administrator