Opinion ID: 514191
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Small Quantity Generators

Text: 62 When used oil is mixed with hazardous waste, it is ordinarily treated as hazardous used oil. But when the hazardous waste is produced by a small quantity generator, the rules treat the mixture only as regulated used oil. Petitioner argues that this amounts to an exemption of such mixtures from regulation in violation of section 6924(q). We disagree. 63 First, as we have just explained, the Agency's rules concerning regulated used oil adequately carry out its responsibilities under section 6924(q). The Agency reasonably concluded that the burdens on small quantity generators resulting from the hazardous fuel regulations outweighed their benefits. Applying the less stringent rules concerning regulated used oil adequately fulfills its statutory mandate. 64 Second, acting under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 6921(d)(4), the Agency already exempted small quantity generators from hazardous waste regulations. If small quantity generators mix their hazardous waste with used oil, however, they are subject to the standards applicable to regulated used oil. Admittedly, these regulations are less stringent than the hazardous oil regulations, but they are more stringent than the exemption small quantity generators would enjoy if they did not mix. 65 Petitioner nevertheless argues that the special treatment of small quantity generators invites circumvention of the hazardous oil regulations. When used oil has been mixed with hazardous waste, there is no way to determine whether the hazardous waste came from a small quantity generator. Large quantity generators might be tempted to mix their wastes with oil and disguise the mixtures as produced by small quantity generators. The Agency thought this result unlikely given the presumption that oil with 1,000 ppm of total halogens is hazardous used oil. The burden will be on the holder of the oil to prove that the hazardous waste part of the mixture was produced by a small quantity generator. The EPA's expert judgment was reasonable.