Federal Waste Regulation

[asagady@sojourn.com]

Below is a piece generated by Dave Lennett, a former
Environmental Defense Fund attorney, who is a very
knowledgeable RCRA attorney who speaks for citizen/
environmental protection concerns on waste management.

He describes some pretty bad news below that folks should
be aware of.....

The proposed Stupak legislation (not yet introduced) would 
exempt cement kiln dust from hazardous waste combustion in 
cement kilns (which receive and burn the vast majority of 
all burnable hazardous wastes in the United States....) from 
current requirements under the Resource Conservation and 
Recovery Act.

The Trent Lott legislation would open the door to states allowing
hazardous waste produced by site cleanups to be dumped in 
ordinary solid waste landfills.

Some of these items are really bad news and I hope that folks
on the list will take this information to heart and act upon it.....

Regards,

Alex Sagady
Environmental Consultant

+++++++++++++++++++++++  Dave Lennett, J.D. piece is below......

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the Hazardous Waste Information Exchange.  This is the third
of what I hope will be many periodic summaries of important activities
involving hazardous and solid waste management at the federal and state
levels.  I hope you will continue spreading the word regarding its
existence, and will forward information or issues to me as they arise.

1.  On January 8, 1998, several national and state environmental groups
(EDF, NRDC, LEAN) petitioned EPA to repeal an exemption from RCRA
controls for wastewater treatment units (WTUs).  WTUs are tanks located
at industrial facilities used to store and treat hazardous wastewaters.
The discharge from the tanks is regulated under the Clean Water Act, but
the potential groundwater and air releases from the tanks are not
covered by that program.  The exemption was promulgated in 1980 without
public notice or an opportunity to comment, and was intended as a
"temporary" measure until EPA could develop groundwater protection and
air emission controls.  Those controls were never finalized.  As much as
1.5 billion tons of hazardous waste may be managed in exempt WTUs
annually, more than 5 times all the hazardous waste currently covered by
the national program.  I can e-mail a copy of the petition upon
request.  Letters of support would be appreciated, and should be
directed to the EPA Administrator.

2.  As a follow-up to the December 23 CBS special on oilfield wastes,
Chris Shuey of the Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) is
preparing a letter to Administrator Browner requesting that the
Administration submit a bill to Congress that would repeal the RCRA
provision preventing EPA from regulating oilfield wastes without an Act
of Congress.  Because no other industrial waste enjoys a similar
restriction on EPA's regulatory authority, and oilfield wastes can pose
significant risks to human health and the environment, the statutory
exemption for oilfield wastes warrants an Administration response (let
alone that Browner essentially called for such action in the CBS
Special).  If you are interested in signing onto the letter, please
contact Chris Shuey of SRIC.  His e-mail address is sric@igc.org.

3.  EDF has prepared fact sheets on two terrible RCRA bills currently
circulating in the Congress.  One bill, prepared by Congressman Stupak
of Michigan, would authorize EPA to enter into sweetheart "enforceable
agreements" with the cement industry, instead of issuing RCRA rules, to
control the disposal of cement kiln dust (CKD).  The second bill drafted
by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, would exempt from RCRA regulation
ALL wastes generated during cleanup activities, no matter how toxic they
may be.  Under this bill, each state could regulate these wastes as it
sees fit, without any baseline national standards, or minimum level of
public participation.  For more information on either bill, please
contact Karen Florini of EDF.  Her e-mail address is
karen_florini@edf.org.

4.  In September of this year, EPA will be a submitting a Report to
Congress on whether and how wastes from fossil fuel combustion should be
regulated under RCRA.  Following the Report to Congress, EPA is required
to issue a final regulatory determination six months later.  This
proceeding may prove extremely important environmentally, not just
because the wastes are generated in very high volumes and contain heavy
metals and other toxic contaminants, but also because in the inadequate
regulation of these wastes will encourage the additional burning of
fossil fuel combustion wastes in direct conflict with global warming
concerns.  Friends of the Earth and the Hoosier Environmental Council
(HEC) are preparing to participate in this proceeding, and are
interested in locating other organizations who may also wish to
participate.  Please contact Matt Waldo of HEC for more information.
His e-mail is hecindy@indy.net.

Take care.



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Alex J. Sagady & Associates        Email:  asagady@sojourn.com
Environmental Consulting and Database Systems
PO Box 39  East Lansing, MI  48826-0039  
(517) 332-6971 (voice); (517) 332-8987 (fax)