This rule will allow the implementation of a pilot project under the Project XL program that will provide site-specific regulatory flexibility under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), as amended, for the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) semiconductor manufacturing facility in Essex Junction, Vermont. The principal objective of this IBM Vermont XL project is to determine whether the wastewater treatment sludge resulting from an innovative copper metallization process (i.e., an electroplating operation) should be designated a RCRA hazardous waste (F006), and thus be subject to RCRA regulatory controls. If, as a result of this XL project, the Agency determines that the wastewater treatment sludge (which does not otherwise exhibit a hazardous characteristic) need not be subject to RCRA hazardous waste regulations to be protective of human health and the environment and removes such sludges from the hazardous waste program, this would not only enhance the cost-effectiveness of the innovative process by removing the costs of such regulatory controls, but could also encourage the development and installation of this innovative process (or similar ones) by other semiconductor manufacturers. To achieve this, this rule provides an exemption for the copper metallization process from the narrative listing description of electroplating operations that result in an F006 wastewater treatment sludge.