Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

• Congressional Findings; Objectives and National Policy
• Definitions
• Interstate Cooperation; Application of Act and Integration with Other Acts
• Financial Disclosure; Solid Waste Management Information and Guidelines

• Office of Solid Waste and Interagency Coordinating Committee
• Authorities of EPA Administrator
• Resource Recovery and Conservation Panels; Grants
• Annual Report; Office of Ombudsman

Arguably the most notable provisions of the RCRA statute are included in Subtitle C, which directs EPA to establish controls on the management of hazardous wastes from their point of generation, through their transportation and treatment, storage and/or disposal. Because RCRA requires controls on hazardous waste generators (i.e., sites that generate hazardous waste), transporters, and treatment, storage and disposal facilities (i.e., facilities that ultimately treat/dispose of or recycle the hazardous waste), the overall regulatory framework has become known as the "cradle to grave" system. States are authorized to implement their own hazardous waste programs.[3] The statute imposes stringent recordkeeping and reporting requirements on generators, transporters, and operators of treatment, storage and disposal facilities handling hazardous waste.

EPA graphic explaining municipal solid waste

Subtitle D provides criteria for landfills and other waste disposal facilities, and banned open landfills.[6] EPA published its initial standards in 1979 for "sanitary" landfills that receive municipal solid waste.[7] The "solid waste" definition includes garbage (e.g., food containers, coffee grounds), non-recycled household appliances, residue from incinerated automobile tires, refuse such as metal scrap, construction materials, and sludge from industrial and sewage treatment plants and drinking water treatment plants.[8] Subtitle D also exempted certain hazardous wastes from the Subtitle C regulations, such as hazardous wastes from households and from conditionally exempt small quantity generators.

In 1980 Congress designated several kinds of industrial wastes as "special wastes," which are exempt from Subtitle C, including oil and gas exploration and production wastes (such as drill cuttings, produced water, and drilling fluids), coal combustion residuals generated by electric power plants and other industries, mining waste, and cement kiln dust.[9] See Solid Waste Disposal Amendments of 1980.

• Development of Specifications for secondary materials; Development of markets for recovered material.
• Technology promotion

• Application of Federal, State and Local Law to Federal Facilities
• Federal procurement
• Cooperation with EPA; Applicability of solid waste disposal guidelines to executive agencies

• Whistleblower protection. Employees in the United States who believe they were fired or suffered another adverse action related to enforcement of this law have 30 days to file a written complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
• Citizen Suits; Imminent Hazard suits
• Petition for regulations; Public participation

• Research, Demonstrations, Training; Special Studies
• Coordination, collection, dissemination of information

Background

The operation of underground storage tanks (USTs) became subject to the RCRA regulatory program with enactment of the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 (HSWA).[10] At that time there were about 2.1 million tanks subject to federal regulation, and the EPA program led to closure and removal of most substandard tanks.[11] As of 2009 there were approximately 600,000 active USTs at 223,000 sites subject to federal regulation.[12]

Regulatory requirements

The federal UST regulations cover tanks storing petroleum or listed hazardous substances, and define the types of tanks permitted. EPA established a tank notification system to track UST status. UST regulatory programs are principally administered by state and U.S. territorial agencies.[13]

The regulations set standards for:

• Groundwater monitoring
• Secondary Containment
• Release detection, prevention and correction
• Spill prevention
• Overfill prevention (for petroleum products)
• Restrictions on land disposal of untreatable hazardous waste products.

The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA) required owners and operators of USTs to ensure corrective action is completed when a tank is in need of repair, or removal, when it is necessary to protect human health and the environment.[14] The amendments established a trust fund to pay for the cleanup of leaking UST sites where responsible parties cannot be identified.[15]

It is also recommended that above-ground storage tanks are used whenever possible.[16][17]

RCRA Subtitle J regulated medical waste in four states (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island) and Puerto Rico, and expired on March 22, 1991. (See Medical Waste Tracking Act.) State environmental and health agencies regulate medical waste, rather than EPA. Other federal agencies have issued safety regulations governing the handling of medical waste, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration.[18]

Congress exempted several types of wastes from classification as hazardous under Subtitle C in its 1980 amendment to RCRA. The Solid Waste Disposal Amendments of 1980[19] designated the following categories as "special wastes" and not subject to the stricter permitting requirements of Subtitle C:

• coal combustion residuals (CCR) generated by electric power plants and other industries, including fly ash, bottom ash, slag waste and flue-gas desulfurization wastes
• mining waste from ore mines and mineral mines
• cement kiln dust
• drilling fluid, produced water, and other wastes from oil and gas wells.[20][9]

These legislative exemptions, known as the "Bevill exclusion" and the "Bentsen exclusion", were intended to be temporary, pending studies conducted by EPA and subsequent determinations as to whether any of these waste categories should be classified as hazardous. In its reviews following the 1980 amendments, EPA determined that most of the exempted waste types would continue to be classified as non-hazardous.[21]

EPA published a CCR regulation in 2015 that would restrict the continued use of unlined ash ponds (surface impoundments) by coal-fired power plants.[22] This regulation, was which was modified by the Trump administration in 2018,[23][24] has been challenged in litigation and remanded to EPA for further revision by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.[25][26] In response to the court decision, EPA published a proposed rule on December 2, 2019 that would establish an August 31, 2020 deadline for facilities to stop placing ash in unlined impoundments. The proposal would also provide additional time for some facilities—up to eight years—to find alternatives for managing ash wastes before closing surface impoundments.[27][28]

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as "Superfund," was enacted in 1980 to address the problem of remediating abandoned hazardous waste sites, by establishing legal liability, as well as a trust fund for cleanup activities.[29] In general CERCLA applies to contaminated sites, while RCRA's focus is on controlling the ongoing generation and management of particular waste streams. RCRA, like CERCLA, has provisions to require cleanup of contaminated sites that occurred in the past.

In 1984 Congress expanded the scope of RCRA with the enactment of Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA).[10] The amendments strengthened the law by covering small quantity generators of hazardous waste and establishing requirements for hazardous waste incinerators, and the closing of substandard landfills.[2]

The Land Disposal Program Flexibility Act of 1996 allowed some flexibility in the procedures for land disposal of certain wastes. For example, a waste is not subject to land disposal restrictions if it is sent to an industrial wastewater treatment facility, a municipal sewage treatment plant, or is treated in a "zero discharge" facility.[30]