Irrigation Return Flows are excluded from definition as a solid waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and therefore can not be a hazardous waste.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Please view this short Power Point presentation to learn why nuclear waste is not regulated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of the US EPA.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions.

The regulations of the US EPA include an exclusion from definition as a Solid Waste of Scrap Metal (as defined) being recycled.

Sometimes a PowerPoint presentation is the best way to communicate a specific aspect of the regulations.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions.

In a previous article I discussed the Used Oil Management Standard of the US EPA found at 40 CFR 279.  It allows you to manage a Used Oil according to a reduced regulatory burden even if it has the characteristics of a hazardous waste:

Characteristic Hazardous Waste:

• D001 for Ignitability
• D002 for Corrosivity
• D003 for Reactivity
• D004 – D043 for Toxicity

WITH ONE EXCEPTION you may not manage your waste according to the Used Oil Standard if any of the following are true:

1. The Used Oil is determined to be a listed hazardous waste per 40 CFR 261, Subpart D.  See below for guidance on how you may rebut the presumption of your Used Oil being a listed hazardous waste.
2. The Used Oil has been mixed with a Listed Waste.
3. The Used Oil has been mixed with a characteristic hazardous waste and the resulting mixture exhibits any of the characteristics of a hazardous waste.  However, if a D001 Ignitable hazardous waste is mixed with a Used Oil it may still be managed as a Used Oil even if the resulting mixture exhibits the characteristic of Ignitability.

Read more about Mixtures of Used Oil and Hazardous Waste.

The exception referred to above applies to a Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generator (CESQG) of hazardous waste.  What this means is that a CESQG may mix any hazardous waste (listed or characteristic) with a Used Oil and manage the resulting mixture as a Used Oil (fb 14627).  This exception is not available to Large Quantity Generators and Small Quantity Generators of hazardous waste.

If the mixture contains >1,000 ppm total halogens, then it is subject to the Rebuttable Presumption regulations of the Used Oil Standard.  In this case the Presumption may be rebutted by the demonstration that the mixture is an excluded CESQG Used Oil mixture subject to §261.5(j) and §279.10(b)(3).

So, can a CESQG combine all of its hazardous waste (listed and characteristic) with its Used Oil and manage the resulting mixture according to the reduced regulatory requirements of the Used Oil Standard?  Yes.  Do I recommend this practice?  No.  Your State Agency and your Used Oil recycler may not be too crazy about it either.  In the final, it is your decision and responsibility as the generator of the waste to determine the applicable regulations and to comply with them.  My training, both US EPA Hazardous Waste Personnel and US DOT HazMat Employee, will help you to identify the applicable regulations and what you must do to maintain compliance.

40 CFR 262.11 requires a hazardous waste determination be completed by all generators of solid waste for all waste they generate (read this article on the Hazardous Waste Determination).  To complete the determination may require a combination of samples analysis and application of your knowledge of the waste. It is important to note that the regulations do not specify, nor require, one of these methods of determination (analysis-based v. knowledge-based) over the other.

An outline for the process of hazardous waste determination can be found at 40 CFR 262.11, it reads:

Step 1:  Determine if the solid waste is excluded from regulation as a hazardous waste per 40 CFR 261.4, and;

Step 2:  Determine if the waste is a listed hazardous waste pursuant to 40 CFR 261, Subpart D.

The regulations do not specify a method to make the determinations in steps 1 & 2, however, it is assumed that both will rely on the generator’s knowledge of his waste and the applicable regulations (ie. knowledge-based) since there are no test methods available for the determination of a regulatory exclusion (Step 1) or for the presence of a listed hazardous waste (Step 2).

Step 3:  Determine if the waste is a characteristic hazardous waste pursuant to 40 CFR 261, Subpart C.  The regulations do specify that this determination may be made by one of two methods:

1. Analysis-Based.
2. Knowledge-Based.

An analysis-based hazardous waste determination requires you to collect a representative sample of the solid waste and submit it to an  accredited lab for analysis by an approved test method.

The performance of a knowledge-based hazardous waste determination relies on your familiarity with the processes generating the waste and/or your ability to gather any additional information necessary to make the determination.  Sources of information in order to make your hazardous waste determination may include:

• Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS).
• Information from employees or contractors involved in the process of generating the waste.
• Information from suppliers or vendors.

Many generators of hazardous waste are surprised to learn that an analysis-based method is not required in order to determine the presence of a characteristic hazardous waste.  US EPA assumes that as the generator of a solid waste you have available the information necessary to make the hazardous waste determination without resorting to analysis of a sample of the waste.  However, in many cases, such as flash point analysis for the determination of the characteristic of Ignitability, an analysis-based method is inexpensive and may carry more weight with an inspector.

Regardless of the method used to make your hazardous waste determination, 40 CFR 262.40(c) requires you to keep records of any test results, waste analyses, or other information for at least three years from the date that the waste was last sent to on-site or off-site treatment, storage, or disposal, so if your determination is knowledge-based, you must still have some form of documentation to back-up your results.

The US EPA does not specify a method for the hazardous waste determination, it does however hold you as the generator of the waste solely responsible for the correct completion of the determination (RO 13570).

At my training I cover the hazardous waste determination in detail and tell you what you need to know to complete the determination at you facility.  Please contact me with a question about the hazardous waste you generate and your training needs.

Contact Information: Ben Washburn, 913-551-7364, washburn.ben@epa.gov

(Kansas City, Kan., Oct. 1, 2012) – Bayer CropScience LP has agreed to pay a $13,900 civil penalty to the United States to settle a series of environmental violations related to the distribution of mis-branded pesticides through its facility in Kansas City, Mo.

According to an administrative consent agreement and final order filed by EPA Region 7 in Kansas City, Kan., an inspection of Bayer’s Kansas City facility in November 2011 found that on November 28, 2011, Bayer CropScience shipped a quantity of the pesticide Ethosumesate, without a product label, an EPA registration number, or an EPA producing establishment number.

In December 2011, EPA Region 7 received two Notices of Arrival from Bayer for the importation of two separate shipments due that month of quantities of unregistered Methomyl insecticide for the purpose of producing the product into the registered product Larvin Technical. The label provided by Bayer for the two shipments of the unregistered pesticide contained a false or misleading statement in its “Directions for Use” section.

The labeling deficiencies related to the two pesticides were in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), according to the settlement.

The sale or distribution of misbranded or mislabeled pesticides can pose serious risks to human health, plant and animal life, and the environment. Without proper labeling or safety instructions on packaging, users can unintentionally misapply pesticides and may not have adequate information to address needs for first aid in the event of emergency.

As a result of EPA’s enforcement action, Bayer CropScience LP was required to relabel all of the shipments in question. The company has also instituted changes in its practices to prevent similar violations.

Read this article to learn if your pesticide could be managed as a Universal Waste at a greatly reduced regulatory burden.  Or contact me to discuss your obligation to train your HazMat Employees and Hazardous Waste Personnel.

To paraphrase 40 CFR 262.11:  A person who generates a solid waste must determine if that waste is a hazardous waste using the following method:

1. Is it excluded from regulation?
2. Is it a listed hazardous waste?
3. Is it a characteristic hazardous waste?

An in-depth explanation of the process of the Hazardous Waste Determination will have to wait for another article.  The purpose of this article is to make clear who must complete a Hazardous Waste Determination and what it entails.  From the simple segment of the regulations above, the US EPA and authorized states have clarified the following:

1. A “person” is any individual or the business or government entity they represent.  This previous article explains this term more in-depth, but rest assured, if you own a business or work for a business or government entity, including the US Military, you are a person in the eyes of the US EPA and therefore subject to the regulations.
2. The requirement to complete a Hazardous Waste Determination applies to all status of hazardous waste generators.
• The requirement for a Large Quantity Generator (LQG) can be found at 40 CFR 262.40(c).
• The requirement for a Small Quantity Generator (SQG) can also be found at 40 CFR 262.40(c) referenced from 40 CFR 262.44(a).
• And in an interpretation letter, US EPA clarified that the requirement to conduct a Hazardous Waste Determination applies to a Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generator (CESQG) as well (RO14030).  However, a CESQG is not required to retain records of its Hazardous Waste Determination, though it is a good idea.
3. If you are a “person” (see #1 above) and if you are any status of hazardous waste generator (see #2 above) then you must complete a Hazardous Waste Determination.  It is not an option or a best management practice.  You can face serious fines for not completing the Hazardous Waste Determination.
4. Your Hazardous Waste Determination must be documented and a record of it maintained for at least three years from the last date the waste was sent off-site or remained on-site for treatment, storage, or disposal.
5. A Hazardous Waste Determination must be made for all solid waste that you generate.  This is important, because this extends the requirement to all of your waste, not just the hazardous waste.  A solid waste is defined at 40 CFR 261.2 as, “…any discarded material…” not excluded by regulation.  The full definition of a solid waste could take several more articles, and may require more research on your part, but suffice to say that if you are going to throw away or recycle a waste from an industrial or commercial process (including government entities) than it is a solid waste.  And all solid waste must have a documented record of its Hazardous Waste Determination.  I run the risk of repeating myself, but I think it an important enough point, and one I misunderstood in the past, that a documented record of a Hazardous Waste Determination is required for all of the waste you generate, whether hazardous or non-hazardous.

Read this article to learn if your Hazardous Waste Determination must be analysis-based or knowledge-based.

I confess that I am still learning the regulations as I write these articles, answer questions from my trainees, and conduct my training seminars.  I don’t think there will ever come a day where I sit back and say that I know it all, and you shouldn’t either.  Good training that is reasonably priced and readily available is hard to find, but contact me and I will help you to get the training you need (Hazardous Waste Personnel and HazMat Employee) to come into compliance and stay there.

The Universal Waste regulations found at 40 CFR 273 present an option for generators of hazardous waste to manage certain of those waste by a reduced regulatory burden.  The Universal Waste regulations contain many differences between the Federal level (the subject of this article) and the states.  For that reason, it is a good idea to check with your state’s Universal Waste program to ensure compliance.

The US EPA recognizes four types of Universal Waste, most states I am familiar with accept these four as well, and may add additional types of waste of their own; they are:

• Lamps
• Mercury-Containing Devices
• Batteries
• Pesticides

As the title implies, the purpose of this article is to identify what is meant by a “pesticide” in the context of the Universal Waste regulations.  This requires an answer to two questions:

1.  How do the Universal Waste regulations define a pesticide?

40 CFR 273.9:  Pesticide means any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, or intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant, other than any article that:

(a) Is a new animal drug under FFDCA section 201(w), or

(b) Is an animal drug that has been determined by regulation of the Secretary of Health and Human Services not to be a new animal drug, or

(c) Is an animal feed under FFDCA section 201(x) that bears or contains any substances described by paragraph (a) or (b) of this section.

2.  What pesticides are applicable to use the Universal Waste option?

This is more complicated and requires a close reading of §273.3.  If a pesticide meets the definition of §273.9, it must also meet all of the conditions listed below.

1. Like all Universal Waste, a pesticide as defined above, must first be a waste as described in §261 (ie. it must be something to be discarded or no longer able to perform its function).  A further explanation of when a pesticide is, or isn’t, a waste is explained later in this article.
2. Also, just like all other Universal Waste, a pesticide must be identified as a hazardous waste in §261 subparts C (characteristic) or D (listed).
3. It must be a recalled pesticide that is part of a voluntary or mandatory recall under Section 19(b) of FIFRA (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act).  This includes but is not limited to those pesticides owned by the registrant responsible for conducting the recall. Or, stocks of a suspended or cancelled pesticide, out of compliance with FIFRA, that are part of a voluntary recall by the registrant.
4. Or, it may an unused pesticide products that is collected and managed as part of a waste pesticide collection program.

However, pesticides that meet the conditions of #’s 3 & 4 above are not covered by and cannot use the Universal Waste regulations if they are managed by farmers in compliance with 40 CFR 262.70.

§273.3(c) describes when a pesticide becomes a waste for the purposes of this part, and would therefore meet condition #1 above:

• A recalled pesticide becomes a waste when the generator of the recalled pesticide agrees to participate in the recall, and, when the person conducting the recall decides to discard.
• An unused pesticide becomes a waste on the day the generator decides to discard it.

§273.3(d) identifies pesticides that are not wastes, and therefore would fail the requirements of condition #1 above, as follows:

• The person conducting the recall of a recalled pesticide has not made a decision to discard it.  The recalled pesticide would remain subject to the requirements of FIFRA.
• The person conducting the recall of a recalled pesticide has decided on a management option, that under §261.2, does not cause the pesticide to be a solid waste.  The recalled pesticide would remain subject to the requirements of FIFRA.
• An unused pesticide which the generator was not decided to discard.  The unused pesticide would remain subject to the requirements of FIFRA.

If you are able to manage your pesticides as a Universal Waste instead of a hazardous waste, I suggest you research your State’s Universal Waste regulations as they pertain to pesticides.

The Universal Waste regulations are a great option for generators of hazardous waste, others include Used Oil and Satellite Accumulation Areas.  Your knowledge of these options and how to use them can save you time and money.  My training sessions address topics just like these in addition to meeting the regulatory requirements of 40 CFR 262.34(a)(4) and 40 CFR 265.16.  Contact me for a free consultation on your training needs.

Flash Point is a term used by the US EPA when characterizing an Ignitable Hazardous Waste and the US DOT when classifying a Flammable or Combustible Liquid.  Though similar, there are differences in how these two Federal agencies define and describe this term.  If you work with solvent, inks, paints, resins, fuels, or many other organic hydrocarbons it is necessary for you to be familiar with how both the US DOT and the US EPA identify this term and its role in identifying a hazardous material or a hazardous waste.  The purpose of this article is to describe the use of the Flash Point for determining an Ignitable Liquid Characteristic Hazardous Waste per the regulations of the US EPA.  You may also be interested in the US DOT’s use of Flash Point for the Classification of a Class 3 Flammable or Combustible Liquid.

Unlike the DOT’s definition of Flash Point and its precise instructions about which method to use to determine it depending on the conditions of the sample (see link above), the US EPA offers no definition of what is meant by Flash Point and takes little time in 40 CFR 261.21 to list the test methods for determining Flash Point, they are…

1. Pensky-Martens Closed Cup Tester using the test method specified in ASTM Standard D-93-79 or D-93-80 (incorporated by reference, see Section 260.11).
2. Seta flash Closed Cup Tester, using the test method specified in ASTM Standard D-3278-78 (incorporated by reference, see Section 260.11).
3. An equivalent test method approved by the US EPA under procedures set forth in Section 260.20 and 260.21.

These are just the regulations of the US EPA pertaining to the determination of one type of hazardous waste:  Ignitable Liquids.  There are many more, and you must be familiar with all of them if you generate hazardous waste.  My one day of training addresses the regulations of both the US DOT and the US EPA, it will help you to properly classify your hazardous materials and identify your hazardous waste.  Contact me to schedule the right kind of training for you.

Likely you’ve heard mention of a hazardous waste sample “passing/failing paint filter”, but what exactly is paint filter and what role does it play in a hazardous waste determination?  Paint filter is the US EPA approved test method (EPA 9095B) to determine the presence of free liquids in a representative sample of waste.  It is referenced in the regulations pertaining to hazardous waste landfills (40 CFR 264.314 & 40 CFR 265.314) since free liquids are forbidden from landfill disposal, unless exempted.  The paint filter test method is also used to identify the presence of free liquids in the determination of the hazardous characteristics of Ignitability (D001) and Corrosivity (D002).

How the method works is pretty simple:  A pre-determined amount of material is placed in a paint filter.  If any portion of the sample passes through and drops from the filter in a five (5) minute period, then the material is deemed to contain free liquids.  That’s it.  No fancy lab equipment is required, the paint filter is a standard conical paint filter [60 +/- 5% (fine meshed size)] available at local paint stores like Sherwin-Williams or Glidden.

Simple, and yet very important.  The presence of free liquids indicated by the paint filter test may affect your hazardous waste generator status and whether or not your hazardous waste can go to landfill for disposal.  If misunderstood, it could lead to violations and fines.  If understood and used properly it is a useful tool to assist you in maintaining your compliance with the regulations.  My training is a way for you to expand your understanding and knowledge of the regulations that affect your business.