Solid Waste Disposal Act Amendments of 1983

Summary

Solid Waste Disposal Act Amendments of 1983 - Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act (as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976) to authorize appropriations for FY 1983 through 1987 for: (1) general administration by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to carry out such Act (including funds for Resource Recovery and Conservation Panels, hazardous waste management, and support for State, regional, local, and interstate agency solid waste plans); and (2) grants to State hazardous waste programs. Sets forth provisions for regulation and study of hazardous waste from small quantity (less than 1,000 kilograms per month) generators. Requires compliance with applicable rules promulgated by the Secretary of Transportation under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act by each generator of hazardous waste identified on the basis of ignitability, reactivity, or corrosivity or listed under specified hazardous waste management provisions which generates such wastes during any calendar month in a total quantity less than 1,000 kilograms, when such waste is transported off the premises on which it is generated. Requires, if such rules are not applicable, that: (1) the generator notify the transporter of specified information; and (2) such wastes be placed in suitable, sound, nonleaking containers according to specified criteria. Exempts from such requirements: (1) empty containers of less than one barrel in volume; and (2) waste transported for actual reuse, rerefining, or materials recovery. Exempts generators subject to such requirements from additional manifesting, recordkeeping, or reporting requirements beyond those in regulations promulgated prior to January 1, 1983, or except as required for a study under this Act. Requires transporters of wastes subject to such small quantity generator requirements to provide the operator of any treatment, storage, or disposal facility to which such waste is delivered with a notice containing the same specified information which the generator is required to supply to the transporter. Exempts such transporters from requirements to notify governmental authorities, beyond requirements in regulations promulgated prior to January 1, 1983, or except as required for a study under this Act or as provided in State or local law. Requires, until regulations based on a study are promulgated within three years after enactment of this Act, that any small quantity generator hazardous waste, which is not delivered to a hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal facility with a permit, be disposed of only in a facility which meets specified criteria for sanitary landfills and solid waste management. Directs the Administrator, within 30 months after enactment of this Act, to promulgate revisions of such criteria to take into account the potential receipt by such facilities of hazardous waste in household waste and from small quantity generators, as may be necessary to protect human health and the environment. Modifies standards applicable to owners and operators of hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities to provide for onsite storage of small quantity generator hazardous waste for up to 180 days without a permit. Declares that provisions for small quantity generator hazardous waste under this Act do not affect, modify, or render invalid any applicable requirements in regulations promulgated prior to January 1, 1983. Requires that any additional acute hazardous waste listed after such date shall be subject to all regulations applicable to acutely hazardous wastes. Directs the Administrator, in cooperation with the States, to study small quantity generator hazardous wastes. Authorizes the Administrator to require necessary information from such generators. Sets forth requirements for such study, including submission to the Congress within two years after enactment of this Act. Directs the Administrator, based upon such study and other available information, to promulgate, within three years after enactment of this Act, additional regulations for small quantity generator hazardous waste as may be necessary to protect human health and the environment. Sets forth guidelines for such regulations. Sets forth land disposal limitations. Directs the Administrator, within 12 months after enactment of this Act, to promulgate (and from time to time thereafter revise to add additional wastes) regulations prohibiting the disposal on or into land of specified identified or listed hazardous wastes through one or more methods of land disposal. Directs the Administrator to specify each hazardous waste for which one or more methods of land disposal may not be protective of human health and the environment, based on persistence, toxicity, mobility, and propensity to bioaccumulate. Directs the Administrator, in promulgating such regulations, to consider each hazardous waste: (1) which is prohibited from land disposal by any State; (2) which contains significant concentrations of halogenated organic compounds; or (3) on which any State or interested person petitions for such a prohibition. Makes such prohibitions effective on promulgation, unless the Administrator establishes another effective date, no later than two years after promulgation, on the basis of the earliest date on which an alternative treatment, recovery, or disposal method which protects human health and the environment will be technologically feasible. Establishes requirements with respect to liquids in landfills. Directs the Administrator, within one year after enactment of this Act, to promulgate final regulations which minimize the disposal of liquid hazardous waste in landfills. Directs the Administrator to maintain current requirements respecting landfill disposal of liquid hazardous waste and free liquids contained in hazardous waste, prior to promulgation of such regulations. Requires any new, replacement, or laterally expanded unit of a landfill or surface impoundment operating under an interim status permit to be subject to requirements respecting liners and leachate collection systems or equivalent protection applicable to facilities for which a final permit is issued. Directs the Administrator, when evaluating a petition to exclude a waste generated at a particular facility from being regulated as a hazardous waste, to consider criteria, constituents, or other related factors other than those for which the waste was listed. Requires notice and opportunity for public hearing before such a petition is granted or denied. Sets time limits on the temporary granting of such petitions prior to enactment of this Act without the opportunity for public comment and the full consideration of such comment. Requires that such petitions be accompanied by adequate information for evaluation, including information on samples of such waste determined to be representative on the basis of guidelines published by the Administrator. Requires that such information be certified by a responsible corporate official of the facility to be accurate, complete, and representative within the knowledge of employees or contractors of such facility. Directs the Administrator, within six months after the enactment date of this Act, to submit to the Congress a workplan: (1) for developing regulations identifying additional characteristics of hazardous waste, including measures or indicators for toxicity; (2) identifying those particular wastes on which the Agency intends to decide whether to list as a hazardous waste within two years after such enactment date, and those to be decided upon within five years after such date; and (3) developed by the National Toxicology Program in cooperation with the Administrator, evaluating the feasibility of determining whether the presence of certain constituents (such as known carcinogens, mutagens, or teratogens) at levels substantially excess of levels commonly agreed to affect health may cause wastes to be hazardous per se. Directs the Administrator, within six months after the enactment date of this Act, to promulgate regulations listing dioxin- and dibenzofuran - containing wastes as hazardous wastes. Directs the Administrator, within two years after the enactment date of this Act, to: (1) promulgate regulations identifying additional characteristics of hazardous waste; (2) reach decisions on all wastes identified for decision within two years and for each such waste either promulgate regulations listing such particular hazardous waste or publish a statement as to why such waste should not be so listed; and (3) report to the Congress on progress in evaluating the feasibility of determining whether health-threatening levels of certain constituents may cause wastes to be hazardous per se. Directs the Administrator: (1) within six months after the enactment date of this Act, to determine the appropriateness of using the extraction procedure toxicity characteristic for evaluating such petitions; and (2) within two years of such enactment date, to make necessary improvements in the procedure to predict more accurately the leaching potential of wastes. Requires, within 12 months after enactment of this Act, notification to the Administrator by: (1) the owner or operator of any facility producing a fuel from any hazardous waste alone or with other material or from used oil alone or with other material; (2) the owner or operator of any facility (other than a single or two-family residence) burning fuel containing any hazardous waste or used oil; and (3) any person who distributes or markets fuel containing hazardous waste or used oil. Requires that such notification describe the location, the facility, the identified or listed hazardous waste involved, and the production or energy recovery activity. Exempts facilities, such as residential boilers, from such notification requirements where the Administrator determines that such notification is not necessary for obtaining sufficient information respecting current practices of facilities using hazardous waste for energy recovery. Directs the Administrator, within two years after the enactment of this Act, to promulgate regulations establishing health and environmental standards applicable to owners or operators of facilities producing fuel from hazardous wastes or burning hazardous wastes for energy recovery and to distributors or marketers of such fuels. Exempts from such requirements, and from labeling and other specified requirements, petroleum refinery wastes containing oil which are converted into petroleum coke at the same facility at which such wastes were generated, unless the resulting coke product would exceed one or more characteristic by which a substance would be identified as a hazardous waste. Prohibits producers, distributors, or marketers of fuels containing hazardous wastes to distribute or market such fuels unless the invoice or bill of sale bears a conspicuous warning and lists the hazardous wastes contained in such fuel. Directs the Administrator, within 12 months after the enactment of this Act, to promulgate regulations requiring that any person who is required to file a notification in accordance with provisions for burning and blending hazardous wastes must maintain such records regarding fuel blending, distribution, or use as may be necessary to protect human health and the environment. Sets forth provisions for mandatory inspections at least every two years, beginning 12 months after enactment of this Act, at every facility for the treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous waste for which a permit is required. Directs the Administrator, after notice and opportunity for public comment, promulgate the minimum frequency and manner of such inspections and maintenance of inspection records. Authorizes the Administrator to distinguish between classes and categories of facilities commensurate with the risks posed. Directs the Administrator, within six months after enactment of this Act, to report to the Congress on the potential for such inspections by nongovernmental officers as a supplement to EPA or State inspections. Directs the Administrator to report at least biennially to the Congress and the President on the quantities and types of hazardous wastes generated, stored, treated, and disposed of. Requires compilation and updating of such information. Requires States with authorized programs to make available annual reports they have received to assist in preparation of such biennial report. Requires the first such report to cover calendar year 1983 and be transmitted to the Congress by September 30, 1984. Makes specified inspection authority available to implement such report provisions. Revises provisions for citizen suits to provide that only the prevailing or substantially prevailing party may be awarded litigation costs. Revises provisions for judicial review of final regulations and certain petitions and of the Administrator's actions with regard to specified permits and authorizations. Declares the intention that adequate provision be given to the present and future needs of the recycling and resource recovery interest, within the area encompassed by the comprehensive planning process, in determining the size of waste-to-energy facilities. Exempts from specified standards and permit requirements for treating, storing, or disposing of hazardous wastes any resource recovery facility recovering energy from the mass burning of municipal solid waste which: (1) receives and burns only household waste and solid waste from commercial or industrial sources that does not contain identified or listed hazardous waste; and (2) does not accept identified or listed hazardous wastes; and (3) whose owner or operator has established contractual requirements or other appropriate notification or inspection procedures to assure that hazardous wastes are not received or burned there. Makes technical corrections.

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3 official files

• Indefinitely postponed in Senate

  summary · EN · 25 July 1984

  Open at official source

• Reported to Senate with amendment(s)

  summary · EN · 28 October 1983

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• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 10 March 1983

  Open at official source

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