Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), USEPA will allow a state to operate its own hazardous waste program as long as it is at least as stringent and as broad as the Federal regulations.  A state with a hazardous waste program that meets these requirements is known as “Authorized”.  This means that states with an authorized hazardous waste program may not immediately – or at all – adopt regulations created by the USEPA unless new Federal regulations are more stringent and/or broad than those existing.  In the case of more strict Federal regulations, states must adopt them, but may do so on their own schedule.  Not surprisingly, this flexibility can create a patchwork of differing Federal and state RCRA regulations spreading across the U.S. like a quilt.

The purpose of this article is to explain how state authorization will impact implementation of the Federal regulations created by the 2015 Definition of Solid Waste Rule (2015 DSW). (more…)