From: Missimer, Katie [mailto:Katie_Missimer@afandpa.org] On Behalf Of Hunt, Tim

Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2013 2:06 PM

To: Faison, George

Subject: Information Requested on Railroad Tie Fuel in the Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials That 

Are Solid Waste, 78 Federal Register 9112, February 7, 2013

 

 March 7, 2013

Mr. George Faison

Program Implementation and

Information Division

Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, 5303P

Environmental Protection Agency

Ariel Rios Building

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

Washington, DC 20460–0002

RE: Information Requested on Railroad Tie Fuel in the Non-Hazardous Secondary 

Materials That Are Solid Waste, 78 Federal Register 9112, February 7, 2013

Dear Mr. Faison:

The enclosed information responds to the questions that EPA posed in the preamble to 

the Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials That are Solid Waste rule, published on 

February 7, 2013 at 78 Federal Register 9173, regarding Railroad Tie Fuel. The 

American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) and the American Wood Council (AWC) 

request that this information supplement that which we have already submitted under 

our draft petition dated December 6, 2012.

This information and that from others (AAR and MAER) is sufficient to proceed with 

issuing a supplemental proposal including the listing of processed CD wood and Paper 

Recycling Residuals. In particular, we would like to highlight several items.

The first is that we have provided an explanation of why dibenzofurans are not 

equivalent to dioxins – that is, polychlorinated dibenzofurans. We believe that this 

clearly demonstrates why it is not necessary to test for dioxins in railroad tie fuels.

The second is that we have provided a summary of the available data from a number of 

sources on contaminants in railroad tie fuel and compared those data to data on 

contaminants in traditional fuel. The clear finding is that railroad tie fuel is as clean if not 

“cleaner” than traditional fuel.
Finally, we want to remind EPA that, to make a determination under Section 241.4(a) 

that railroad tie fuel is not a solid waste when burned for energy, it is not necessary for 

every combustion unit burning railroad tie fuel to be actually fitted with nozzles to burn 

fuel oil (the traditional fuel whose contaminants most closely match railroad tie fuel).

EPA has the discretion to support the non waste fuel determination based on the 

fullness of the evidence that these materials are being bought and sold as commodities, 

have an established market, and are in all ways of looking at it and are not discarded.

As such, EPA can decide that the materials are not solid wastes – even when a 

combustion unit is not completely fitted to burn the one type of fossil fuel that EPA has 

been trying to replace – fuel oil.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions on these materials. We 

look forward to seeing a proposed rule in the very near future.

Sincerely yours,

Tim Hunt

Senior Director

Enclosures

Timothy Hunt

Senior Director, Air Quality Programs

AMERICAN FOREST & PAPER ASSOCIATION

1111 19th Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20036

Tim_Hunt@afandpa.org

202-463-2588 (phone)

202-463-2423 (fax)

www.afandpa.org

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