RCRA requires EPA to establish regulations governing the treatment, storage, transportation, and disposal of hazardous waste. Facilities that blend fuels derived from hazardous waste are subject to RCRA’s treatment, storage, and disposal regulations. Furthermore, because EPA classifies cement production facilities as industrial furnaces, such facilities that burn hazardous waste fuels must comply with special regulations—known as the boiler and industrial furnace rule—developed under RCRA in 1991 to regulate the combustion of hazardous waste. Both sets of regulations require facilities to meet standards for emissions and other environmental requirements. The principal regulations applying to the fuel blending and cement production facilities that burn hazardous waste fuels are discussed in greater detail in appendixes I and II, respectively. EPA is primarily responsible for inspecting hazardous waste management facilities and taking enforcement actions as necessary against the owners and operators of facilities that are not complying with RCRA’s requirements. Under RCRA, however, EPA may authorize a state to administer its own hazardous waste program if its program is consistent with the federal program established by EPA and other authorized state programs. An authorized state assumes the primary responsibility for implementing and enforcing RCRA’s hazardous waste regulations while EPA oversees the state’s activities. EPA has authorized the five states included in our review to implement their own treatment, storage, and disposal program in lieu of the federal RCRA program, but it has authorized only one of the five states—Texas—to implement the boiler and industrial furnace program. RCRA requires that hazardous waste management facilities requiring a permit, including fuel blenders and cement production facilities burning hazardous waste fuels, be inspected periodically. In conducting their inspections, EPA and the five authorized states do not classify violations as minor or significant. However, these officials told us that, generally, they consider a violation to be minor if it does not pose a serious threat to human health or the environment and the facility agrees to correct it promptly. An action or deficiency that poses a serious threat to human health or the environment or a persistent minor violation is considered to be significant. Although RCRA’s regulations establish general operating practices and procedures with which fuel blending facilities must comply, they place few restrictions on the types of hazardous waste that can be blended. According to EPA officials, facilities can blend wastes that are not reactive providing safety standards are met. In addition, some states prohibit the blending of certain wastes, such as those containing pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) into fuel. Beyond these restrictions, the specifications for the hazardous wastes that are blended into fuels are primarily determined by the cement producers, whose operations must meet the regulations’ standards for emissions and other requirements. RCRA’s boiler and industrial furnace rule places limits on cement kilns’ emissions. These limits are implemented by restricting the types of hazardous waste that are blended into fuels. Cement producers can burn only waste blends that allow them to meet the established limits on the amounts of regulated constituents—such as metals—that can be fed into the kiln. Furthermore, EPA does not permit the burning of certain inorganic hazardous wastes that contain metals and have a low heating value. In addition, under the Toxic Substances Control Act, a cement producer must obtain EPA’s approval to burn fuel containing PCBs. As of early 1996, nationwide 142 fuel blenders were processing fuels derived from hazardous waste and 22 cement production facilities were burning such fuels in their kilns. Collectively, the five states included in our review account nationwide for about a quarter of the fuel blenders and about half of the cement producers that burn hazardous waste fuels. To verify that fuel blenders are complying with RCRA’s treatment, storage, and disposal requirements, state hazardous waste management officials inspect these facilities regularly. Although RCRA requires that these facilities be inspected at least every 2 years, the five states we reviewed conducted more frequent inspections. While Missouri inspected these facilities quarterly, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas inspected them at least once a year. Officials inspected the 34 fuel blending facilities in the five states included in our review most recently between April 1995 and May 1996. (App. III summarizes the results of these inspections for each of the five states.) As table 1 shows, the most recent RCRA inspections of fuel blending facilities in the five states identified at least one minor violation of treatment, storage, and disposal regulations at 23 of the 34 facilities. Minor violations were found at facilities in each state. These violations included, among others, inadequately labeling hazardous waste storage containers, having incomplete records for training and equipment inspections, and failing to submit estimates of the costs of closing facilities and maintaining sites. According to state officials, these types of violations generally are corrected at the time of the inspection or shortly thereafter. The following examples illustrate the types of minor treatment, storage, and disposal violations identified and their resolution: Kansas officials inspected the state’s two fuel blending facilities most recently between October 1995 and April 1996. These inspections identified minor violations at both facilities, including inadequately labeling hazardous waste storage containers and having an inaccurate emergency coordination list. The facilities’ operators have corrected most of these violations and are working with state officials to resolve the remaining problems. Pennsylvania officials last inspected the state’s two fuel blending facilities in early 1996. These inspections identified no violations at one facility and only minor violations at the other, including inadequately labeling hazardous waste storage containers. The facility’s operator has corrected these violations. In addition, the most recent RCRA inspections of these fuel blending facilities identified significant violations of treatment, storage, and disposal regulations at 11 facilities in Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Texas. The significant violations included having waste containers in poor condition, storing waste that was not approved under the facility’s operating permit, and having inadequate backup systems for containing leaks of hazardous waste. According to hazardous waste management officials in these states, some violations, which would normally be considered minor, would be classified as significant because they either recurred at the same facility or had not been corrected since the previous inspection. State officials told us that the facilities’ operators have corrected some of the identified problems, are addressing others, and are negotiating settlements with the state on still other violations. The following examples illustrate the types of significant treatment, storage, and disposal violations identified at fuel blending facilities in the five states and their resolution: Ohio officials inspected the state’s 12 fuel blending facilities most recently between May 1995 and May 1996. They identified significant violations at 4 of the 12 facilities, including not minimizing the possibility of a fire, explosion, or release of hazardous waste at the site and not evaluating the waste as required. State officials are working with the facilities’ operators to resolve the identified problems. Missouri officials inspected the state’s eight fuel blending facilities most recently between November 1995 and March 1996. The significant violations they identified included using storage containers in poor condition, storing hazardous waste in excess of approved capacity, and inadequately analyzing waste. State officials also considered recurring minor violations identified at one facility to be significant. State officials are working with the facilities’ operators to resolve the identified problems. State officials identified no violations of RCRA’s treatment, storage, and disposal regulations at eight fuel blending facilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. EPA officials inspect each cement production facility burning hazardous waste fuels in Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Pennsylvania about once a year to ensure compliance with RCRA’s boiler and industrial furnace requirements. However, according to EPA officials, facilities with a poor compliance record are inspected more often. Texas, the only one of the five states that EPA has authorized to implement the boiler and industrial furnace program, also inspects cement production facilities annually. The 11 cement production facilities that burn hazardous waste fuels in the five states we reviewed were most recently inspected between May 1995 and June 1996. However, information on only three of these facilities is available because EPA officials are still reviewing data from the inspections of the remaining eight. (App. IV summarizes the results of these inspections, as available, for each of the five states we reviewed.) As table 2 shows, the inspections of the 11 cement production facilities identified no violations at 2 facilities in Missouri and Texas. However, violations were identified at one facility in Kansas, including not conducting several audits of emission control equipment as required. Without classifying these violations as minor or significant, EPA officials sent the facility a notice of violation. We provided copies of a draft of this report to EPA for its review and comment. We met with EPA officials, including the Chief, Permits Branch, Office of Solid Waste, to obtain the agency’s comments. These officials agreed with the information presented in the report but made a number of suggestions for clarifying our discussion. We have incorporated these suggestions into the appropriate sections of the report. To provide information on the extent to which fuel blending and cement production facilities have been complying with EPA’s and the states’ principal regulations governing the blending and burning of fuel derived from hazardous waste, we obtained inspection and compliance data for facilities in five judgmentally selected states: Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. We selected these states for our review because they collectively account for about half of the nation’s cement production facilities that burn hazardous waste fuels and almost a quarter of the nation’s fuel blenders. Furthermore, these five states are included in 4 of EPA’s 10 regions. To provide information on whether fuel blenders in the five states have been complying with RCRA’s treatment, storage, and disposal regulations, we obtained inspection data from state hazardous waste officials responsible for implementing the regulations. To provide information on whether cement producers have been complying with RCRA’s boiler and industrial furnace regulations, we reviewed compliance documents and interviewed officials in EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, Waste Management Division, as well as officials in EPA regions III, V, and VII. We also interviewed state officials in Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas who are responsible for issuing permits to and inspecting cement production facilities, and we reviewed pertinent compliance and enforcement documents.