RCRA - quiz 1
How does RCRA define "solid waste?"
"any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations from community activity"
RCRA accomplishes four basic goals:
(1) Creates definitions to determine the classes of wastes under its authority (2) Creates a tracking system for hazardous waste (cradel-to-grave) (3) Establishes handling standards for the waste from igeneration to disposals (4) Provides authority for mandatory cleanup of polluted TSDFs
American Mining Congress v. EPA (AMC II)
(a) AMC --> sludge stored in holding pond should not be considered RCRA solid waste b/c it's held for potential re-use (despite that in the meantime the wastes might overflow or leak into other bodies of water). (b) The court stated: recycling exemption only applies to wastes that are safely stored for immediate re-use in and on-going process. **Immediate = 90 days **"On-going process = same process (e.g. closed-loop recycling)
American Petroleum Institute v. EPA
(a) Building on AMC, API argues that byproducts of a manufacturing process should not be considered solid waste once they arrive at a reclamation facility for recycling. (b) Court declared -- once waste arrives at a reclamation facility it remains solid waste b/c it has already become part of the waste disposal problem, even if it undergoes the exact same process it would have undergone at the original facility. (c) In other words the materials cannot shed their label of solid waste once they enter the waste stream even if they clearly will be recycled.
What is required but RCRA's Subtitle D?
--municipal waste (exempted from subtitle C) still contains some hazardous waste (e.g. from batteries). --Subtitle D requires states make plans to ensure responsible management of these wastes from collection to disposal. --EPA has also created regulations for the design and operation of landfills ensuring landfills don't discharge pollutants into surface waters or engage in open burning. **RCRAs Subtitle D = non-hazardous send it to the dump
list the requirements under RCRA for Transporters
1. Packaging and labeling 2. reporting and record keeping 3. sign manifest
list the requirements under RCRA for Generators
1. determine if it's hazardous 2. proper storage and labeling 3. Periodic reports 4. Manifest
list the requirements under RCRA for TSD
1. permit from EPA 2. sign manifest and return 3. personnel training 4. record keeping 5. groundwater monitoring 6. min standers (liners and leachate) 7. plans for closure 8. Financial responsibility
American Mining Congress v. EPA (AMC I)
AMC argued that waste produced in its manufacturing process should not be considered solid waste if they would later be used agin in the process (a) Arguing that the materials were not being "discarded" but rather recycled instead. (b) DC circuit agreed with AMC that waste should not be considered discarded if would later be used in ongoing manufacturing process as "the materials had 'not yet become part of the waste disposal problem; rather, they are destined for beneficial reuse or recycling in a continuous process by the generating industry itself" (c) Summary -- overarching goal of RCRA is environmental protection though recycling is "A goal" of RCRA. (d) If there is potential for the was material to cause environmental harm by spilling or leaking even if it is eventually going to be recycled, EPA should still be able to regulate it as a solid waste
What is the mixture rule?
Any mixture of *listed* waste with another solid waste is still considered hazardous waste
What is "sham" recycling?
As a result of AMC vs. EPA (AMC I) created an incentive not only for real recycling, but for "sham recycling," as well, stating you would re-use the materials in the manufacturing process, but really just store them on-site indefinitely to avoid the cost of disposal
Why is RCRA considered a "cradle-to-grave" statute?\
Because it tracks waste from their site of generation, through transport, to the incinerator and waste disposal facility, and then the manifest goes back to the generator and is also sent to the EPA
How is recycled material handled under RCRA?
Consider American Mining Crongress vs. EPA and American Petroleum Institue vs. EPA and "Sham recycling" "How to create regulations that define solid waste in a manner that can be meaningfully applied and enforced, that encourage recycling and that prevent dangerous or sham recycling?"
List the exemptions of waste from RCRA that would otherwise be categorized as solid waste?
Doesn't cover wastes regulated by other statutes: (a) POTW (b) Wastewater discharges regulated under CWA (c) Mining wastes (d) Nuclear wastes (e) Municipal garbage that may contain small amounts of hazardous waste materials (f) Irrigation return flows
What are the 3 major players under RCRA ?
Generators, Transporters, TSDs
What is RCRA's "hammer" provision?
Included in the lan ban: The hammer provision shifted the burden of regulatory delay from the agency to industry by providing that if pretreatment regulations were not issued for particular ways by a particular date, there will be no land-based disposal of that waste at all.
What are the two categories of hazardous waste created by RCRA?
Listed Wastes: Characteristic wastes:
What is the land ban?
Prohibition of the disposal of untreated hazardous wastes
Subtitle D covers what type of waste?
Regulates the disposal of solid waste
RCRA
Resource conservation and recovery act
Defining Solid Waste
Solid doesn't mean solid, just as navigable doesn't mean navigable.. Book: "the term solid however, is far broader than everyday usage, and covers virtually every form of matter except un-contained gasses."
What are the four characteristics used to determine if a non-listed waste is hazardous?
T.R.I.C.= Toxic, Reactive, Ignitable, Corrosive
Who carries the burden of identifying characteristic wastes?
The generator of the waste IDs if waste is governed by RCRA.
What is a manifest?
document created by generator that follows (tracks) waste from cradle-to-grave At each stage the manifest stays with shipment and a copy is sent back to the generator ultimately sent to the EPA
Characteristic wastes
over 50,000 chemicals commerce EPA can't list all so this IDs hazardous wastes by characteristics. Not listed but has the characteristics of TRIC (toxic reactive ignitabel corrosive) = treated has hazardous waste. Burden of IDing listed waste falls on EPA Burden of IDing characteristic waste falls on generators
Subtitle C covers what type of waste?
solid waste AND hazardous waste Regulates the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste b/c subtitle C make it expensive to dispose of hazardous waste, much of RCRA legal history = industry attempts to escape/avoid having waste considered hazardous ..
Listed Wastes:
substances that EPA has determined routinely contain hazardous constituents or exhibit hazardous qualities -- listed in the CFR
What type of pretreatment standard does EPA use for hazardous waste?
technology based standard --- largely upheld in Hazardous Waste Treatment Council v. EPA
What is the main function of RCRA?
to regulate SOLID waste
What is the derived from rule?
waste derived from the treatment of a hazardous waste also be treated as hazardous wastes, such as sewer sludge or incinerator ash. --> King Midas: everything listed hazardous waste touches turns to more listed waste.
What are the shortcomings of RCRA's statutory scheme?
end of pipe... "pollution contro" no "pollution prevention" (a) only covers waste stream, a narrow subset of the total environmental impacts from manufacturing operations. - and not all waste falls under RCRA. (2) Environmental law as a whole treats factories as giant black boxes -- refusing to look at what happens inside. With rare exception our pollution statutes only kick in when the waste leaves the facility. (3) "END-OF-PIPE" approach → has certainly been sucessfull. Improvements in air and water qaulity. Recycling has increased as a reult of RCRA...but even with recycling waste is still being produced that has to be managed. WOULDN'T IT BE PREFERABLE NOT TO PRODUCE THE WASTE IN THE FIRST PLACE? (4) laws favor "pollution control" (5) Instead of disposing of waste trapped at the end of the pipe, why not simply produce less waste in the first place? STRATEGY KNOWN AS "POLLUTION PREVENTION" ---RCRA does little directly to promote a pollution prevention approach. -- By failing to go to the heart of the production process, rcra misses the most important waste disposal issue of all -- waste reduction at source *********"Put simply, RCRA is limited in its ability to solve the hazardous waste problem by the fact that it only deals with the results of the production process. It can only encourage reduction or recycling by making disposal less attractive" ********
What are "corrective actions" created by RCRA's 1984 Solid Hazardous Waste Amendments ...Hazardous and Solid waste Amendments (HSWA)?
gave EPA authortiy to enfoce clean-ups of present or past contamination. Tool to ensure TSDs not become superfund sites.
What is closed-loop recycling?
has it already entered the waste stream? If your waste has to go somewhere then RCRA applies. ** recycled byproducts are not considered solid waste if stored safely & used within 90 days in the same process.
What is the contained-in-policy?
holds that contaminated media (generally soil) becomes a hazardous waste. Important consequences for CERCLA as contaminated soil at Superfund sites must often be treated as hazardous waste.
