The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA; 42 U.S.C. §6901 et seq ., as amended) is a comprehensive environmental statute that authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate hazardous wastes in accordance with stringent waste management procedures, established largely in Subtitle C of the law. Pursuant to explicit directives from Congress in that subtitle, EPA has promulgated and is authorized to enforce standards applicable to hazardous waste generators and transporters, and to owners and operators of hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs). This regulatory program is sometimes referred to as "cradle-to-grave" management. RCRA does not identify which wastes are hazardous and therefore subject to Subtitle C regulation. Instead, Congress left that designation to EPA. However, in 1980 amendments to RCRA, several categories of high-volume industrial waste were statutorily excluded from Subtitle C requirements, pending further study by EPA. Commonly referred to as the Bevill and Bentsen amendments, those exclusions are for waste generated from the exploration and production of crude oil or natural gas ("Bentsen waste"), and cement kiln dust, mining and mineral processing waste, and waste from the combustion of coal and other fossil fuels at electric utilities and industrial facilities ("Bevill waste"). A key reason Bevill-Bentsen wastes were excluded from Subtitle C was because they were generated in tremendous amounts, particularly when compared to other waste intended to be regulated under Subtitle C. That remains the case today. In 2011, all regulated hazardous waste was produced by a total of 16,447 industrial waste generators, and totaled 34.3 million tons. That year, there were 589 coal-fired power plants in the United States. According to industry estimates, such plants generated approximately 130 million tons of coal combustion waste (CCW, a Bevill waste). Other Bevill-Bentsen waste is generated in similarly large quantities. EPA's study of each waste, prepared in accordance with study criteria specified in each amendment, resulted in its determination that regulation under Subtitle C was not warranted for most Bevill-Bentsen wastes. With some exceptions, regulatory determinations were made for each waste between 1988 and 2002. Since that time, however, EPA has gathered additional information about some of the wastes, including information regarding changes in the waste's volume and hazardous characteristics, as well as risks of and actual damages tied to the improper management of the waste. One such case of actual damages occurred after a breach in an impoundment pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) Kingston, TN, power plant released 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry. After the Kingston release, EPA revisited its May 2000 regulatory determination that Subtitle C requirements were not necessary for CCW. To establish national standards to address risks associated with the management of CCW, in June 2010 EPA proposed two regulatory options to manage the waste. Under the first option, EPA would reverse its previous Bevill determination and use its existing authority under Subtitle C to subject the waste to Subtitle C requirements, including tailored TSDF requirements applicable to "special waste." Under the second option, EPA would promulgate regulations applicable to disposal facilities that receive CCW, pursuant to its authority under Subtitle D to manage solid waste. Under Subtitle D EPA is not authorized to directly enforce any new standards applicable to Bevill-Bentsen waste disposal. Instead, EPA would rely on states or citizens to enforce those standards. EPA's 2010 regulatory proposal (not yet finalized) illustrates potential authorities from which EPA could draw to regulate Bevill waste and, to a limited extent, Bentsen waste. Interested stakeholders, including some Members of Congress, have expressed concern over EPA's potential to apply any new federal requirements on any Bevill or Bentsen waste under Subtitles C or D. The purpose of this report is to identify EPA's existing authorities to regulate the Bentsen or the Bevill waste, absent the provision of any additional authority or directive from Congress. The report also provides background on the Bevill and Bentsen amendments and EPA's authorities to regulate the waste pursuant to those amendments. The report discusses specific Bevill or Bentsen waste only as necessary to provide examples of recent issues that have called attention to the waste, particularly issues that may lead EPA to determine that new federal waste management requirements should be established for any one or more of the currently excluded wastes. RCRA is the primary federal law governing the management of solid and hazardous waste. Enacted in 1976, RCRA recodified and amended the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965. The most significant aspect of RCRA's 1976 amendments was the establishment of the federal hazardous waste management program under Subtitle C. EPA has primary authority to implement the federal hazardous waste program, but has developed procedures for states to become authorized to implement that program. Most states have chosen to do so. Also significant was RCRA's prohibition on waste management practices that constitute open dumping of solid or hazardous waste, under Subtitle D. In contrast to its authorities under Subtitle C, EPA has no authority to directly enforce any regulations it may establish for the management of solid waste under Subtitle D. Instead, states have primary authority to regulate solid waste. Under Subtitle C of RCRA, Congress established a framework for EPA, or authorized states, to regulate hazardous waste from its initial point of generation to its ultimate point of disposal (and beyond, if disposal leads to contamination of air, soil, or water). This "cradle-to-grave" approach to managing hazardous waste is reflected in regulatory standards applicable to hazardous waste generators and transporters, and to owners and operators of hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs). Regulations established under Subtitle C apply only to the management of solid waste identified as hazardous. Under Section 3001, EPA was required to promulgate criteria for identifying the characteristics of hazardous waste and for listing hazardous waste. In developing those criteria, EPA was required to take into account factors including "toxicity, persistence, and degradability in nature, potential for accumulation in tissue, and other related factors such as flammability, corrosiveness, and other hazardous characteristics." In 1978, EPA proposed its "Hazardous Waste Guidelines and Regulations." In the preamble, EPA identified the following solid wastes that, if deemed hazardous, it would defer from applying the full set of Subtitle C standards: cement kiln dust; utility waste, including fly ash, bottom ash, and scrubber sludge; phosphate mining and processing waste; uranium and other mining waste; and oil drilling muds and oil production brines. EPA stated that it had limited information about the waste. Information the agency did have indicated it "occurs in very large volumes, that the potential hazards posed by the waste are relatively low, and that the waste generally is not amenable to the control techniques developed by EPA [for TSDFs]." In the interim, EPA proposed a limited subset of Subtitle C standards (i.e., "special waste standards") for owners and operators of TSDFs that receive special wastes. In the debate leading up to RCRA's reauthorization in 1980, various issues and concerns were raised by some Members of Congress regarding the potential management of special waste (identified as such by EPA, but not necessarily by Members of Congress). If regulated or explicitly not regulated under Subtitle C, those concerns included the potential cost to industry, given uncertainties of risks associated with such wastes; conflicts with other federal law, such as wastewater treatment requirements being implemented under the Clean Water Act (CWA); and precedent that would be set by giving preferential treatment to certain industries to be exempt from strict Subtitle C requirements. Ultimately, the Solid Waste Disposal Act Amendments of 1980 ( P.L. 96-482 ) included provisions commonly referred to as the Bentsen amendment and Bevill amendment, named for the sponsors of the amendments, Senator Lloyd Bentsen and Representative Thomas Bevill. Wastes excluded from Subtitle C pursuant to those amendments are similar to those identified by EPA as special waste. More specifically, the Bentsen amendment added Subsection 3001(b)(2), which excludes "drilling fluids, produced waters, and other wastes associated with the exploration, development, and production of crude oil or natural gas or geothermal energy" from Subtitle C requirements. The Bevill amendment added Subsection 3001(b)(3) to exclude the following from Subtitle C: fly ash waste, bottom ash waste, slag waste, and flue gas emission control waste generated from the combustion of coal or other fossil fuels; solid waste from the extraction, beneficiation, and processing of ores and minerals, including phosphate rock and overburden from the mining of uranium ore; and cement kiln dust. In lieu of Subtitle C requirements, the waste is subject only to regulation under other applicable state or federal law. Exemptions for both the Bevill and Bentsen wastes would be held pending further study by EPA. After completing its study, EPA was required to report its findings to Congress; determine whether or not regulation under Subtitle C was warranted; and publish its regulatory determination in the Federal Register , with an explanation justifying its reasons. Over the next 20 years, with limited exceptions, EPA determined that regulation under Subtitle C was not warranted for each waste excluded under the Bevill and Bentsen amendments. Each determination to exempt the waste from the federal hazardous waste management program was not equivalent to determining each waste is nonhazardous or poses no potential hazard. Generally, for each waste, EPA identified hazardous constituents in the waste and conditions under which those constituents could find a pathway of exposure to humans at levels deemed unsafe.