Source: http://www.govpulse.us/entries/2000/09/27/00-24790/hazardous-waste-management-system-proposed-exclusion-for-identification-and-listing-hazardous-waste
Timestamp: 2015-02-01 21:10:25
Document Index: 166159238

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 261', 'arts 260', '§ 260', '§ 261', 'art 261', '§ 261', 'art 261', '§ 260', 'art 264']

The EPA (also, “the Agency” or “we” in this preamble) is proposing to grant a petition submitted by USG Corporation (USG), Chicago, Illinois, to exclude (or “delist”), on a one-time basis, certain solid wastes that are interred at an on-site landfill at its American Metals Corporation (AMC) facility in Westlake, Ohio from the lists of hazardous wastes contained in Subpart D of 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 261. This landfill was used exclusively by Donn Corporation, the original site owner, for disposal of its wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) sludge from 1968 to 1978.
USG submitted the petition under 40 CFR 260.20 and 260.22(a). Section 260.20 allows any person to petition the Administrator to modify or revoke any provision of parts 260 through 266, 268 and 273. Section 260.22(a) specifically provides a generator the opportunity to petition the Administrator to exclude a waste on a “generator specific” basis from the hazardous waste lists.
The Agency has tentatively decided to grant the petition based on an evaluation of waste-specific information provided by USG. This proposed decision, if finalized, conditionally excludes the petitioned waste from the requirements of hazardous waste regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
We conclude that USG's petitioned waste is nonhazardous with respect to the original listing criteria or factors which could cause the waste to be hazardous.
C. How Will USG Manage the Waste If It Is Delisted?
A. What Wastes Did USG Petition EPA To Delist?
B. What Information and Analyses Did USG Submit To Support This Petition?
C. How Did USG Generate the Petitioned Waste?
D. How Did USG Sample and Analyze the Data in This Petition?
E. What Were the Results of USG's Analysis?
IV. Methodology for Risk Assessment
B. What Did EPA Conclude About USG's Analysis?
C. What is EPA's Final Evaluation of This Delisting Petition?
C. What Happens if USG Fails To Meet the Conditions of the Exclusion?
Comments. We will accept public comments on this proposed decision until November 13, 2000. We will stamp comments postmarked after the close of the comment period as “late.” These “late” comments may not be considered in formulating a final decision.
Request for Public Hearing. Your request for a hearing must reach EPA by October 12, 2000. The request must contain the information prescribed in § 260.20(d).
Comments. Please send two copies of your comments to Todd Ramaly, Waste Management Branch (DW-8J), Environmental Protection Agency, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604.
Request for Public Hearing. Any person may request a hearing on this proposed decision by filing a request with Robert Springer, Director, Waste, Pesticides and Toxics Division, Environmental Protection Agency, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604.
For technical information concerning this document, contact Todd Ramaly at the address above or at 312-353-9317. The RCRA regulatory docket for this proposed rule is located at the EPA Region 5, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604, and is available for viewing from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. Call Todd Ramaly at (312) 353-9317 for appointments. The public may copy material from the regulatory docket at $0.15 per page.
B. What risk assessment methods has the Agency used in previous delisting determinations?
The EPA is proposing to grant USG's petition to have its wastewater treatment sludge excluded, or delisted, from the definition of a hazardous waste. We evaluated the petition using a fate and transport model to predict the concentration of hazardous constituents which could be released from the petitioned waste after it is disposed.
USG petitioned EPA to exclude, or delist, the wastewater treatment sludge because USG believes that the petitioned waste does not meet the criteria for which EPA listed it. USG also believes there are no additional constituents or factors which could cause the wastes to be hazardous. Based on our review described below, we agree with the petitioner that the waste is nonhazardous.
In reviewing this petition, we considered the original listing criteria and the additional factors as required by the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 (HSWA). See 222 of HSWA, 42 U.S.C. 6921(f), and40 CFR 260.22 (d)(2) through (4). We evaluated the petitioned waste against the listing criteria and factors cited in § 261.11(a)(2) and (3) and in the background documents.
We also evaluated the waste for other factors including (1) the toxicity of the constituents; (2) the concentration of the constituents in the waste; (3) the tendency of the hazardous constituents to migrate and to bioaccumulate; (4) persistence in the environment of any constituents released from the waste; (5) plausible and specific types of management of the petitioned waste; (6) the quantity of waste produced; and (7) waste variability.
We believe that the petitioned waste does not meet the criteria for which the waste was listed, and have tentatively decided to delist waste from the AMC Westlake landfill.
C. How Will USG Manage the Waste If It Is Delisted? ↑
If the petitioned waste is delisted, USG must dispose of it in a Subtitle D landfill which is permitted, licensed, or registered by a state to manage industrial waste. This exclusion does not change the regulatory status of the landfill in Westlake, Ohio where the waste has been disposed.
HSWA specifically requires the EPA to provide notice and an opportunity for comment before granting or denying a final exclusion. Thus, EPA will not make a final decision or grant an exclusion until it has addressed all timely public comments (including those at public hearings, if any) on today's proposal.
E. How Would This Action Affect the States? ↑
Under section 3009 of RCRA, EPA allows states to impose their own non-RCRA regulatory requirements that are more stringent than EPA's. These more stringent requirements may include a provision that prohibits a federally issued exclusion from taking effect in the state. Because a dual system (that is, both federal (RCRA) and state (non-RCRA) programs) may regulate a petitioner's waste, we urge petitioners to contact the state regulatory authority to establish the status of their wastes under the state law.
A. What Is the History of the Delisting Program? ↑
We list wastes as hazardous because: (1) they typically and frequently exhibit one or more of the characteristics of hazardous wastes identified in Subpart C of Part 261 (that is, ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity) or (2) they meet the criteria for listing contained in § 261.11(a)(2) or (3).
B. What Is a Delisting Petition, and What Does It Require of a Petitioner? ↑
In a delisting petition, the petitioner must show that wastes generated does not meet any of the criteria for listed wastes and does not exhibit any of the hazardous waste characteristics in 40 CFR Part 261, Subpart C. The criteria for which EPA lists a waste are in 40 CFR 261.11 and in the background documents. The petitioner must also present sufficient information to determine whether factors other than those for which the waste was listed warrant retaining it as a hazardous waste. (See § 260.22, 42 U.S.C. 6921(f) and the background documents for the listed wastes.)
C. What Factors Must EPA Consider in Deciding Whether To Grant a Delisting Petition? ↑
III. EPA's Evaluation of the Waste Information and Data ↑
A. What Wastes Did USG Petition EPA To Delist? ↑
On May 22, 1997, USG petitioned EPA to exclude the estimated total landfill volume of the WWTP sludge (estimated at 12,400 cubic yards) from the list of hazardous wastes contained in 40 CFR 261.31 in order to facilitate ongoing corrective action at the AMC site. The WWTP sludge is described in USG's petition as a mixture of (1) EPA Hazardous Waste Number F019 wastewater treatment sludge that was generated from the chemical coating of aluminum, (2) other nonhazardous wastewater treatment sludges derived from the chemical coating of steel and galvanized steel, and (3) various nonhazardous solid wastes. F019 is defined as “Wastewater treatment sludges from the chemical conversion coating of aluminum except from zirconium phosphating in aluminum can washing when such phosphating is an exclusive conversion coating process.” The constituents of concern for which F019 is listed are hexavalent chromium and complexed cyanide.
B. What Information and Analyses Did USG Submit To Support This Petition? ↑
To support its petition, USG submitted (1) descriptions and schematic diagrams of its manufacturing and wastewater treatment processes, including historical information on past waste generation and management practices; (2) detailed chemical and physical analysis of the landfilled sludge (see Section III.D.); and (3) environmental monitoring data from recent studies of the facility, including groundwater data from wells located in and around the on-site landfill.
C. How Did USG Generate the Petitioned Waste? ↑
AMC began generating wastewater treatment sludge in 1965 with the start of its metal coil coating line. After 1967, AMC cleaned, chemically coated, painted, and slit large coils of steel, galvanized steel, and aluminum, into metal strips that were fabricated into the structural components for suspended ceiling panels. Wastewater from the coil coating line contained dissolved metals and vegetable oils that were treated in the AMC WWTP. As part of the wastewater treatment process, oils were removed in an oil/water separator and metals were precipitated in a “lime” sludge. The AMC wastewater treatment system received process water from the coil coating process line from the initial wash and rinse phase and from the chemical processing phase. The pH was adjusted and the solid materials were precipitated. When steel or galvanized coils were processed, wastewater treatment sludges were generated which were not listed RCRA hazardous waste. The F019 listed wastes were generated when aluminum coils were processed. Both the listed and the non-listed sludges were commingled and pumped into several on-site surface impoundments for settling and drying. In 1965 and 1966, sludges were transferred to surface impoundments for settling and drying. From 1968 to 1978, this sludge was transferred from the surface impoundments to the landfill or were disposed of off-site. Sludges that were placed in the landfill were co-mingled with other waste debris. The landfill was covered with a layer of clay soils obtained from an off-site highway construction project. In 1978, the use of the landfill was discontinued and the landfill was covered with approximately 1 to 5 feet of fill soils.
The AMC WWTP would batch treat process wastewater from the coil coating final hot rinse step in order to reduce hexavalent chromium to trivalent chromium. The wastewater was treated with sodium metabisulfite and emptied once a week into the chemical sump for further treatment in the WWTP.
D. How Did USG Sample and Analyze the Data in This Petition? ↑
USG analyzed the landfilled sludge and groundwater samples from the monitoring well network for hazardous constituents listed in 40 CFR Part 264, Appendix IX and for other parameters.
USG's sampling strategy consisted of dividing the landfill surface area into four equal quadrants. One boring was drilled near the center of each quadrant. One composite sample representing the total depth of the landfill was collected and submitted. The Agency evaluated the petitioned waste using these four samples in combination with data from the RCRA Facility Investigation (up to 20 additional samples) and subsequent waste designation studies (up to 13 additional samples).
To quantify the total constituent and leachate concentrations, USG used the following SW-846 Methods: 6010/7000 series for antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, hexavalent chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, selenium, silver, thallium, tin, vanadium, and zinc; 8240 for Appendix IX Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs); 8270 for Appendix IX Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds (SVOCs); 8080 for organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); 8140 for organochlorine pesticides; 8150 for chlorinated herbicides. USG used the