Effluent Limitations Guidelines, Pretreatment Standards, and New Source Performance Standards for the Commercial Hazardous Waste Combustor Subcategory of the Waste Combustors Point Source Category

This final rule represents the Agency's first effort to develop Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limitations guidelines and standards for wastewater discharges from the commercial hazardous waste combustor (CHWC) segment of the waste combustion industry. This rule generally applies to hazardous waste combustion facilities, except cement kilns, regulated as "incinerators" or "boilers and industrial furnaces" under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) under certain conditions. This regulation limits the discharge of pollutants into navigable waters of the United States and the introduction of pollutants into publicly-owned treatment works (POTWs) by existing and new stand-alone CHWCs that incinerate waste received from offsite. EPA estimates that compliance with this final regulation will reduce the discharge of pollutants by at least 170,000 pounds per year at an estimated annualized cost of $2 million. EPA predicts that the rule will improve water quality for both aquatic life and human health in five streams. EPA also projects that today's rule will reduce sewage sludge contamination associated with discharges from CHWC facilities at POTWs.