Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities and Hazardous Waste Generators; Organic Air Emission Standards for Tanks, Surface Impoundments, and Containers

Under the authority of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), as amended, the EPA has published standards (59 FR 62896, December 6, 1994) to reduce organic air emissions from certain hazardous waste management activities to levels that are protective of human health and the environment. (The standards are known colloquially as the ``subpart CC'' standards due to their inclusion in subpart CC of parts 264 and 265 of the RCRA subtitle C regulations). These air standards apply to certain tanks, containers, and surface impoundments (including tanks and containers at generators' facilities) used to manage hazardous waste capable of releasing organic waste constituents at levels which can harm human health and the environment. The EPA previously has stayed the effective date of those rules administratively in order to receive and evaluate comments and ultimately to revise the rules in an appropriate manner. Today's action amends and clarifies the regulatory text of the final standards, clarifies certain language in the preamble to the final rule, and in doing so provides additional options for compliance that give owners and operators increased flexibility in meeting the requirements of the rules while still providing sufficient controls to be protective of human health and the environment. In addition, today's action suspends the applicability and implementation of subpart CC of Parts 264 and 265 from October 6, 1996, to December 6, 1996.