Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule (Proposed Rule)

Under the statutory authority of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), EPA originally promulgated the hazardous waste generator regulatory program in 1980. Since that time, the basic regulatory framework of the program has remained intact except for three major changes. First, pursuant to the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) of 1984, the Agency established regulations in 1986 that distinguished between generators generating more than 100 kilograms and less than 1,000 kilograms of hazardous waste in a calendar month (small quantity generators, or SQGs) and generators generating 100 kilograms or less in a calendar month (conditionally exempt small quantity generators, or CESQGs). Prior to the 1986 rule, CESQGs did not exist as a separate generator class, and all facilities generating less than 1,000 kilograms of hazardous waste in a calendar month were subject to the same requirements. Second, and also as a result of HSWA, EPA established Land Disposal Restriction (LDR) regulations. The Agency’s LDR program established treatment standards for hazardous wastes, and specified requirements that generators, transporters, and owners or operators of treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) that manage restricted wastes destined for land disposal must meet. Third, EPA modified the Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest regulations in 2005 to standardize the content and appearance of the manifest form, make the forms available from a greater number of sources, and adopt new procedures for tracking certain types of hazardous waste shipments. Over the course of the last 30 years, the Agency has become aware of ambiguities and gaps in the regulations, which, if corrected, could make the program more effective in protecting human health and the environment. For example current regulations do not require that hazardous waste container labels include information on the specific hazards of container contents or what risk these wastes could pose to human health and the environment when such waste is accumulated on-site. EPA has also become increasingly aware of certain inflexibilities in the generator regulations over the last 30 years. For example, some generators, particularly those located in urban environments, may find it infeasible to meet the requirement that containers holding ignitable or reactive waste be placed at least 15 meters (~50 feet) back from the facility’s property line. In addition, current regulations require that a CESQG or SQG that experiences an episodic generation event resulting in the generation of more than 1,000 kilograms of hazardous waste in a calendar month comply with the regulatory requirements for large quantity generators (LQGs). Requiring CESQGs or SQGs that rarely exceed their normal regulatory status to meet the full LQG requirements as a result of such episodic events may be burdensome. To address these shortcomings in the current generator regulations, EPA is implementing several specific changes to the hazardous waste generator program. These improvements are relatively minor on an individual basis yet address a wide range of issues. Specifically, EPA is (1) revising different components of the hazardous waste regulatory program; (2) addressing gaps in the current regulations; (3) providing greater flexibility for hazardous waste generators to manage their hazardous waste in a cost-effective manner; (4) reorganizing the hazardous waste generator regulations to improve their usability among regulated facilities; and (5) making technical corrections and conforming changes to address inadvertent errors, remove obsolete programs, and improve the readability of the regulations. In aggregate, the changes to the program are expected to significantly improve regulatory efficiency and provide further protection of human health and the environment.

The latest form for Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule (Proposed Rule) expires 2020-06-30 and can be found here.

Generators

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Environmental Management - Pollution Prevention and Control