Opinion ID: 509500
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Statutory Language and Structure of the Mining Waste Exclusion

Text: 68 The Bevill Amendment suspends solid waste from the extraction, beneficiation, and processing of ores and minerals from regulation under Subtitle C of RCRA until EPA has completed certain studies and made a regulatory determination. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 6921(b)(3)(A)(ii). Although the first step in statutory interpretation is usually to discern the ordinary meaning of the words used, Securities Industry Ass'n v. Board of Governors, 468 U.S. 137, 149, 104 S.Ct. 2979, 2986, 82 L.Ed.2d 107 (1984), the words waste from ... processing of ores and minerals do not convey a self-evident, accepted meaning. EPA conceded as much when it concluded in 1985 that the term processing had no standard definition or plain meaning. 50 Fed.Reg. 40,293 (1985). 69 At the same time, the structure of the Bevill Amendment suggests that Congress intended to single out high-volume special wastes for regulatory suspension when it excluded solid waste from the extraction, beneficiation and processing of ores and minerals, including phosphate rock and overburden from the mining of uranium ore. Solid waste from the extraction of ores and minerals consists of very large volumes of overburden and waste rock excavated during mining. Solid waste from the beneficiation of ores and minerals includes large volumes of crushed rock tailings. See EPA's Report to Congress at ES 4-6. Congress also expressly included rock and overburden from the mining of uranium ore. The structure of the Bevill Amendment suggests that the term solid waste from the ... processing of ores and minerals should be interpreted in a manner consistent with the concept of large volume wastes. Such an interpretation is reinforced by the fact that the other wastes singled out for exclusion in the Bevill Amendment are also large volume wastes, namely [f]ly ash waste, bottom ash waste, slag waste, and flue gas emission control waste generated primarily from the combustion of coal or other fossil fuels and [c]ement kiln dust waste. 42 U.S.C. Secs. 6921(b)(3)(A)(i), (iii). See 43 Fed.Reg. 58,992 (1978); 50 Fed.Reg. 40,294 (1985) (estimated volumes of these wastes). 70 The statutory structure thus suggests that Congress intended the exclusion to apply to wastes generated in large volumes. However, because the statutory term processing does not on its face admit of a standard definition, and because the precise meaning of that term is not fully apparent from the structure of the statute, we must turn to the legislative history of the Bevill exclusion for more precise guidance on Congressional intent. 71