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Yesterday we took a closer look at three aquatic or reproductive toxins for which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be conducting a new health and environmental assessment under Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform. The EPA chose 10 chemicals for its first round of evaluations; the remaining 7 chemicals are all known, probable, […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the first 10 chemicals it will evaluate for potential risks to human health and the environment under Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform. The chemicals were drawn from EPA’s 2014 TSCA Work Plan, a list of 90 chemicals selected based on their potential for high hazard and […]
The final Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule (Rule), published in the Federal Register on November 28, 2016, contains two of what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refers to as “voluntary programs”—meaning that generators of hazardous waste have the choice of whether to comply with the new programs’ requirements. The first program is a set […]
Q. Because of removing excess chemical inventories one month this year, I changed from being a small quantity generator (SQG) to a large quantity generator (LQG). Which set of requirements should I comply with and for how long?
Q. Can a cell phone be used to meet the communication device requirement for LQG 90 day areas?
The Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule (Rule), finalized on October 28, 2016, will require hazardous waste large quantity generators (LQGs) and small quantity generators (SQGs) to make many changes as to how they manage their hazardous waste. Because the current generator requirements will be in place in most states for months and months to come—that […]
As frequent visitors to EPA’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Online database already know, the Agency’s hazardous waste regulations prompt a constant stream of questions from both regulated entities and RCRA-authorized states about applicability, lack of clarity, and regulatory gaps. A small fraction of EPA’s answers and interpretations responding to such questions have now […]
In a final rule, the EPA has overhauled its regulations governing U.S. import and export of hazardous waste. One intent of the rule is to make EPA’s import/export provisions more consistent with import/export standards followed by members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The EPA also says the revisions respond to a […]
Yesterday we looked at preventive measures that can keep a spill controlled and contained until it can be dealt with. But what happens when the spill control fails or when it was inadequate or absent in the first place?
Here’s a scenario: A storm blows through your area, and the strong winds drop a tree on your hazardous waste storage building. A number of containers are damaged, and some materials have spilled. Do you have spill control measures in place? What about secondary containment?