On its website the US Government Printing Office makes a wealth of Federal publications available for review and download; one of these is the Federal Register.

Published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.

See below for a brief summary of announcements in the Federal Register by the US EPA on the subject of Hazardous Waste and the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the US DOT on the subject of Transportation of Hazardous Materials.

The Federal Register is a great way to look down the road and see potential changes to the regulations long before they are put into effect (sometimes The Rulemaking Process takes years before a final rule is issued, if ever).  Knowledge of these potential changes provides you with several advantages:

• Additional time to modify your business operations to comply.
• Awareness of on what topics the regulatory agencies intend to focus their efforts.
• The ability to register your concerns, complaints, suggestions, etc. in order to modify the proposed rule before a final rule is issued.  It can be done, really!
• Make changes to your training program to account for changes that become effective before the next training cycle.
• Alert you to the need to re-train your employees prior to their next scheduled training cycle, if necessary.
• Keep you abreast of changes to the regulations that affect your business and/or your industry group.

Please note that this is my best effort to identify the relevant announcements in the Federal Register that may be of interest to generators of hazardous waste and shippers of hazardous materials.  I encourage you to review the list of Federal Register publications yourself to ensure regulatory compliance.

January 1, 2015 through January 31, 2015

USEPA – US Environmental Protection Agency:

Publications not related to the management of hazardous waste, solid waste, universal waste, or used oil are not included here.

Rules and Regulations:

Definition of Solid Waste Pages 1693 – 1814 [FR DOC # 2014-30382] PDF | Text | More

Georgia: Final Authorization of State Hazardous Waste Management Program Revisions Pages 3888 – 3891 [FR DOC # 2015-01040] PDF | Text | More

Proposed Rules:

Lead-Based Paint Programs; Amendment to Jurisdiction-Specific Certification and Accreditation Requirements and Renovator Refresher Training Requirements Pages 1873 – 1880 [FR DOC # 2015-00473] PDF | Text | More

Is the waste generated during lead-based paint removal from a home a hazardous waste? Find out here:  The Household Hazardous Waste Exclusion

Georgia: Final Authorization of State Hazardous Waste Management Program Revisions Pages 3936 – 3936 [FR DOC # 2015-01039] PDF | Text | More

Notices:

None

FAA – Federal Aviation Administration:

Publications not related to the transportation of hazardous materials are not included here.

Rules and Regulations:

None

Proposed Rules:

None

Notices:

None

FMCSA – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration:

Publications not related to the transportation of hazardous materials are not included here.

Rules and Regulations:

None

Proposed Rules:

None

Notices:

None

FRA – Federal Railroad Administration:

Publications not related to the transportation of hazardous materials are not included here.

Rules and Regulations:

None

Proposed Rules:

None

Notices:

Petition for Waiver of Compliance Pages 1469 – 1470 [FR DOC # 2015-00114] PDF | Text | More

PHMSA – Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration:

Publications not related to the transportation of hazardous materials are not included here.

Rules and Regulations:

Hazardous Materials: Harmonization With International Standards (RRR) Pages 1075 – 1169 [FR DOC # 2014-30462] PDF | Text | More

Proposed Rules:

Hazardous Materials: Miscellaneous Amendments (RRR) Pages 3787 – 3838 [FR DOC # 2015-00265] PDF | Text | More

Hazardous Materials: Adoption of Special Permits (MAP-21) (RRR) Pages 5339 – 5449 [FR DOC # 2015-01263] PDF | Text | More

Notices:

Delayed Applications Pages 105 – 106 [FR DOC # 2014-30557] PDF | Text | More

Notice of Application for Special Permits Pages 104 – 105 [FR DOC # 2014-30538] PDF | Text | More

Notice of Application for Modification of Special Permit Pages 275 – 276 [FR DOC # 2014-30550] PDF | Text | More

Actions on Special Permit Applications Pages 920 – 921 [FR DOC # 2014-30546] PDF | Text | More

Delayed Applications Pages 2777 – 2778 [FR DOC # 2015-00707]                PDF | Text | More

Notice of Application for Special Permits Pages 2778 – 2779 [FR DOC # 2015-00706] PDF | Text | More

Notice of Application for Modification of Special Permit Pages 3012 – 3013 [FR DOC # 2015-00705] PDF | Text | More

Actions on Special Permit Applications Pages 3311 – 3312 [FR DOC # 2015-00678] PDF | Text | More

Information can be helpful but it’s useless if you are not able to make sense of it.  You must be able to determine how any changes to the rules and regulations (final or proposed) will affect your operations, and communicate the necessary information to your personnel.  I can help you to do that.

Please contact me for a free training consultation to determine your regulatory requirements and how training can help you to attain and maintain compliance with the regulations of the US Environmental Protection Agency (and your state) and the PHMSA, FAA, FRA, & FMCSA of the US Department Of Transportation.

If you discard anything from your home, business, or government office you are a generator of a solid waste.  As a generator of solid waste you are required to conduct a Hazardous Waste Determination to determine if your solid waste is subject to regulation – perhaps it is conditionally excluded from regulation as a hazardous waste if it is a Household Hazardous Waste – and what kind of hazardous waste it is (Listed, Characteristic, or both).

Once you have identified the hazardous waste you generate you are required to determine your hazardous waste generator status.  This is important since compliance with the RCRA regulations of the USEPA and your state will depend on your hazardous waste generator status.  It’s no surprise that the higher your hazardous waste generator status, the greater your regulatory burden.  The purpose of this article is to provide guidance in determining what wastes to consider and count when you are determining your hazardous waste generator status for the purpose of compliance with the RCRA regulations. (more…)

When the US Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) on October 21, 1976 it did not identify hazardous waste.  Instead it required the USEPA (founded December 2, 1970) to identify a hazardous waste (either by meeting a listing definition or by its characteristics) and ensure its cradle-to-grave management to prevent harm to human health and the environment.  On December 18, 1978 USEPA responded to this mandate by proposing regulations for the management of hazardous waste under Subtitle C of RCRA.  At this time it also proposed that certain wastes – six (6) categories of them – be deferred from management as a hazardous waste until further study could be conducted to determine the actual risk they posed to human health and the environment.  This deferral was believed justified since the wastes, which came to be known as “Special Wastes”, were generated in large quantities and were believed – at the time – to pose less risk to human health and the environment than the hazardous wastes for which cradle-to-grave regulation was proposed.  The “Special Wastes” proposed by USEPA were:

• Cement kiln dust
• Mining waste
• Oil and gas drilling muds and oil production brines
• Phosphate rock mining, beneficiation, and processing waste
• Uranium waste
• Utility waste (i.e., fossil fuel combustion waste)

With the ball back in their court, on October 12, 1980 the US Congress passed the Solid Waste Disposal Act Amendments of 1980. Among other changes to RCRA, the SWDA Amendments now exempted from regulation as a hazardous waste the Special Wastes identified by the USEPA in 1978.  The exempted wastes became associated with the Congressmen who sponsored the amendments and thus came to be known as the Bentsen and Bevill wastes on behalf of Senator Lloyd Bentsen and Representative Thomas Bevill, respectively.  Their amendments applied as follows:

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USEPA Special Waste  ≡ Bentsen and Bevill Waste

While the exemption lasted, the USEPA was required to complete a full assessment of each Special Waste and submit a formal report to Congress on its findings. The USEPA was given specific requirements for each Special Waste study and deadlines were established for submission of the final reports.  After completion of each respective final report (aka: “Report to Congress”), USEPA had six months to determine if the Special Waste in question should be managed as a hazardous waste.

USEPA issued a Report to Congress for each Special Waste between 1988 and 2002 and the final regulatory determinations have been made.  With limited exceptions, the agency determined that regulation under Subtitle C was not warranted for the Bentsen and Bevill Wastes/Special Wastes.  This then required the revision of Federal regulations in order to exclude, with conditions, the Special Waste from regulation as hazardous waste.  These conditional exclusions can be found today at 40 CFR 261.4(b), and look like this:

40 CFR §261.4(b) – Solid Wastes Which Are Not Hazardous Waste

• §261.4(b)(1) Household Hazardous Waste
• §261.4(b)(2) Agricultural Waste
• §261.4(b)(3) Mining Overburden
• §261.4(b)(4) Fossil Fuel Combustion Waste (Bevill Amendment)
• §261.4(b)(5) Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Wastes (Bentsen Amendment)
• §261.4(b)(6) Trivalent Chromium Wastes
• §261.4(b)(7) Mining and Mineral Processing Wastes (Bevill Amendment)
• §261.4(b)(8) Cement Kiln Dust (Bevill Amendment)
• §261.4(b)(9) Arsenically Treated Wood
• §261.4(b)(10) Petroleum Contaminated Media & Debris from Underground Storage Tanks
• §261.4(b)(11) Injected Groundwater
• §261.4(b)(12) Spent Chloroflurocarbon Refrigerants
• §261.4(b)(13) Used Oil Filters
• §261.4(b)(14) Used Oil Distillation Bottoms
• §261.4(b)(15) Landfill Leachate or Gas Condensate Derived from Certain Listed Wastes
• §261.4(b)(17) Project XL Pilot Project Exclusions
• §261.4(b)(18) Disposable Solvent-Contaminated Wipes (not Trichloroethylene)

So now you’re thinking, “Wait.  There are six USEPA Special Wastes.  Yet, their are only four RCRA conditional exclusions identified at 40 CFR 261.4(b).  What gives?”  The answer is that three of the original Special Wastes:  Mining waste; Phosphate rock mining, beneficiation, and processing waste; and Uranium waste are wrapped up into one exclusion:  §261.4(b)(7) Mining and Mineral Processing Wastes; which reflects how they were addressed in the Bevill Amendments of 1978.

So that settles it, right?  Well, not exactly…

Two original members of the USEPA Special Wastes that were converted into conditional exclusions at 40 CFR 261.4(b) have more recently come under increased scrutiny due primarily to two potential threats to human health and the environment that were not anticipated or investigated in the earlier Reports to Congress:

• The volume of generation.
• Higher levels of toxicity.

The two wastes that are the subject of recent controversy:

• Coal combustion residuals, excluded at 40 CFR 261.4(b)(4)
• Wastewater generated by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), excluded at 40 CFR 261.4(b)(5)

What’s next for these Bentsen and Bevill wastes?  Stay tuned.

Remember, Special Wastes, though conditionally excluded from being a hazardous waste, remain a solid waste subject to State regulation under Subtitle D of RCRA.

Contact me if you have any questions about Special Wastes, or for a free RCRA Training Consultation.

While most of the regulated community have some knowledge of the applicable regulations which with they must comply; and a passing familiarity with USEPA Guidance and Policy Documents; and a vague awareness of the law upon which they are all based; many lack a complete understanding of the relationship of these resources to their responsibility as a generator of hazardous waste.  The purpose of this article is to explain the role of these three elements:  the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the USEPA – and State – regulations, and Guidance & Policy Documents of both the USEPA and your state. (more…)

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  is aware of the difficulties faced by the retail sector in complying with the hazardous waste regulations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).  Complications specific to the retail sector include:

• A large number of diverse products that may become a RCRA hazardous waste when discarded.
• A need to make numerous hazardous waste determinations.
• Multiple (sometimes thousands) of sites.
• Management of waste routinely conducted by those with limited experience with or knowledge of RCRA regulations.

In order to address these and other hazardous waste management challenges and ensure the proper and safe “cradle to grave” management of hazardous waste, EPA is considering the development of hazardous waste regulations specific to the retail sector.  Before it can draft these regulations, the EPA is seeking to gain additional information about hazardous waste generation and management within the retail sector from the industry and other interested parties.  One effort to gain this information is the publication of a NODA (Notice of Data Availability) in the Federal Register on February 14, 2014 (79 FR 8926).

The purpose of the NODA is to present information assembled by the EPA during previous listening sessions and to provide an opportunity for stakeholders (not just the retail sector, but any  interested parties) to comment on this information.  It also offers the opportunity to provide additional information about any RCRA-related issues faced by the retail sector.

Additional Information Sought From Commenters by this NODA:

1. Suggestions for improving the RCRA hazardous waste policies, guidances and regulations for retail operations.
2. Information about the retail universe and the hazardous waste generated.
3. Information about episodic generation of hazardous waste.
4. Information about retail stores’ hazardous waste programs.
5. Information about hazardous waste employee training.
6. Information about aerosol cans.
7. Information about transportation and reverse logistics.
8. Information about reverse logistic centers.
9. Information about sustainability efforts under taken by retail facilities.

Within the NODA are suggested questions for each of the nine (9) categories of information sought by EPA.  While not limited to these questions, commenters are encouraged to use them as a guide for providing input.

The NODA also identifies methods for submitting comments and who to contact for further information.

And finally, just what does EPA mean by “the retail sector”?  See the table below.

NAICS Codes of Entities Potentially Affected by this Notice

Are you a member of the retail sector or do you have an interest in how hazardous waste is managed within the retail sector?  If so, then take advantage of this NODA from the USEPA to have your voice be heard and possibly influence the regulations that may result.

But hurry!  The deadline for comments is April 15, 2014.  Or it was anyway.  The EPA recently extended the deadline to May 30th, read about it here.