Hazardous Waste Management System; Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste; Petroleum Refining Process Wastes; Land Disposal Restrictions for Newly Identified Wastes; And CERCLA Hazardous Substance Designation and Reportable Quantities

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is amending the regulations for hazardous waste management under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to reduce hazards to human health and the environment from wastes generated from petroleum refining. EPA is listing as hazardous four wastes generated during petroleum refining and is issuing a decision not to list ten other petroleum refining wastes. This action is taken under the authority of RCRA 3001(b)(1), which authorizes EPA to list wastes as hazardous, and 3001(e)(2), which directs EPA to make a decision whether to list as hazardous the various petroleum refining wastes. The effect of listing these four wastes will be to subject them to stringent management and treatment standards under RCRA and to emergency notification requirements for releases of hazardous substances to the environment. These notifications are required under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA). EPA is also issuing Reportable Quantity (RQ) adjustments for these notifications. This action also makes certain changes to the RCRA regulations to promote the environmentally sound recycling of oil-bearing residuals. Specifically, the Agency is excluding certain recycled secondary materials from the definition of solid waste. These materials include oil-bearing residuals from petroleum refineries when they are inserted into the petroleum refining process, oil from associated petrochemical facilities inserted into the petroleum refining process, and spent caustic from liquid treating operations when used as a feedstock to make certain chemical products. This rule also clarifies an existing exclusion for recovered oil from certain petroleum industry sources. Finally, EPA is applying universal treatment standards (UTS) under the Land Disposal Restrictions program to the petroleum refining wastes listed in this rulemaking.