The concept of Point-of-Generation

RCRA defines a solid waste as something that has been abandoned. For a material to be abandoned, someone (a person) has to make a decision to discard it. Once the material is abandoned and if it exhibits one of more of the 4 characteristics (ignitability, corrosively, reactivity and toxicity), it is classified as a  RCRA hazardous waste. If it has been listed as a listed waste (F,K,P or U), it is also classified as a hazardous waste.

The Point of Generation refers to the time when a material becomes a waste. If you have a brew of corrosive material inside a manufacturing vat, RCRA has NO jurisdiction over it because the material is in a manufacturing process and no one has decided to discard it. Once someone takes it out from the vat (remove it from the manufacturing process) and decides to discard (then abandon) the corrosive material, it becomes a solid waste and hazardous waste – in that order.

What if the manufacturing process stops, can the corrosive material sits inside the vat indefinitely? The answer is NO. The reason is that 40 CFR 261.4(c) states that the material will be considered abandoned by the operator after 90 days. This is to prevent people from storing their wastes inside an idle manufacturing unit indefinitely.

If you apply this principal to a clandestine drug bust, you get an interesting story. The illegal drug (a hazardous material) is brewing inside a vat when law enforcement (DEA) kicks down the door and arrests the operator. Has the operator abandoned the hazardous material inside the vat?  No. Why would he? He would love to sell that drug on the street. So why would he discard that material? In this scenario, it is the DEA agents that make the decision to discard everything in the drug lab as a matter of policy because it ASSUMES everything in the lab is contaminated. The policy decision to discard ALL material is made to protect the agents and the community at large.

Technically speaking, all that material sitting inside the vat is hazardous material (not hazardous waste) for 90 days before it becomes abandoned per 40 CFR 261.4 (c) or when someone decides to discard it – whichever comes first. But in reality, they are hauled off and disposed of as hazardous wastes (per DEA policy) by DEA – who will be the generator of those wastes.

A generator is a person that FIRST causes a material to be abandoned.

The concept of Generator’s Knowledge

There are two ways to determine if you have a hazardous waste: The first way is generator’s knowledge and the second way is laboratory analysis.

If you purchase and use 100 gallons of solvents a month to clean your machine, you know that you have generated spent solvent which in most instances is a hazardous waste. This is your “generator’s knowledge”. You do NOT need to analyze your spent solvent to show that it is hazardous. Based on your knowledge of how you use your material, you have the knowledge to determine that it is hazardous.

 

On the other hand, if you find 5 drums of unknown chemicals sitting in your warehouse and no one can tell you where they came from. You have NO generator’s knowledge and you must conduct chemical analysis to determine if these drums contain hazardous waste.

Secondary Containment for Hazardous Waste Generators

I was reading the June 2011 issue of Pollution Engineering magazine and noticed that there was an article in it that talked about secondary containment for hazardous waste container storage areas. It cited 40 CFR 264.175. The article was written by someone who makes and sells secondary containment units.

It is important to understand that there is NO federal requirement for secondary containment at hazardous waste storage area IF you are a generator. 40 CFR 264.175 pertains only to TSDF – these are the commercial facilities that treat store and dispose of other people’s hazardous wastes and they have a RCRA Part B permit.

Waste generators are exempt from this requirement because they store their wastes for no longer than 90/180/270 days. As long as they stay within their appropriate time limits, they are not required to have a RCRA permit and 40 CFR 264.175 does not apply.

It is good management practice to have secondary containment but it is NOT required by federal law. Some states do have state laws that require secondary containment for anyone who stores wastes on site. Pennsylvania is one of them.

“alcohol exclusion” in EPA’s ignitable waste definition

Under EPA’s hazardous waste regulations, any aqueous solution that has a flash point of less than 140 degree F is considered to be ignitable and therefore a hazardous waste.

There is one exclusion (40 CFR 261.21(a)(1)). The ignitability definition does not apply to any aqueous solution that is ignitable because it contains less than 24 percent alcohol by volume. That excludes wine and some liquors that have less than 24% alcohol by volume. It also means that  most bar tenders will not become hazardous waste generators.

The term alcohol refers to any form of alcohol – not just ethanol.  It includes any chemical containing the hydroxyl [-OH] functional group.  The term “aqueous solution” refers to any solution that has at least 50% by weight of water.

This is all documented in one of EPA’s guidance documents on RCRA Online.

Emergency Preparedness and Preparation

If you generate more than 100 kg of hazardous wastes in a calendar month, you are either a small or large quantity generator under federal hazardous waste regulations. A large quantity generator is someone who generates more than 1000 kg of hazardous wastes in a calendar month. That’s roughy equal to five 55-gallon containers a month.

As a waste generator, there are certain requirements pertaining to preparedness and prevention that you must adhere to:

1. You must have an accessible communication or alarm system that is capable of providing emergency instructions to your plant personnel. In the event of an emergency, you must instruct your plant personnel to either evacuate the facility or relocate to a safe area.
2. You must have the means to communicate your emergency and request assistance from local authorities such as the police department, fire department and emergency response team. A two-way communication device is needed.
3. Your preparedness plan must clearly identify the locations of fire extinguishers, water hose stations, automatic sprinklers and other forms of fire control equipment. It should also include a plant layout showing all exit routes.
4. You should also have a complete up-to-date list of spill control equipment such as pumps and absorbents that you keep on-site.
5. Your plan must include procedures to test and maintained your emergency equipment to make sure that they are always in a state of operational readiness. It is also critical to assign someone the responsibility of replenishing any expended spill control material (such as sorbents) so that you will have adequate supply in the next spill.
6. At the place where you store your hazardous wastes, you must maintain adequate aisle space to allow access for emergency and spill response personnel. The federal  regulation does not specify how large the aisle space need to be. As a general rule of thumb, the space should be at lease 24 inches or wide enough for a 55-gallon container to pass through.
7. You must also store your waste containers in such a manner that each individual container is easily accessible to an inspector. The inspector must be able to read and inspect the label on each container without having to go through some physical contortion.
8. You also need to have procedures in place to minimize the possibility of fire, explosion, or spills. That means that if you are storing highly flammable or ignitable wastes onsite, you need to have “NO SMOKING” signs posted at the storage area.
9. The federal rule requires you to “make arrangement” with local authorities on providing emergency response. What that means is that you need to send a copy of your plan to the fire department, police station and local hospital and let them know what kind of wastes you are storing at your facility. Make sure you document any effort you have made to reach out to these local authorities because it is your responsibility to do so under federal law.
10. If you have made contractual arrangements with a private emergency response company to handle any spills that you may have, make sure you include the contract in your preparedness plan.

One last point, the rule says that only large quantity generators need to have a WRITTEN plan. If you are a small quantity generator, you do not have to have a written plan – but you must have a plan nonetheless.

 

My advice is that you make a written plan regardless of your generator status. If you are going to have a plan, you might as well have it written out.

If you are a large quantity generator, you will also have to have a written RCRA Contingency Plan which will include the designation of an Emergency Coordinator who must have delegated authority from senior management to shut down operation in case of an emergency. This person must be accessible and reachable at all times. The Contingency Plan must also be kept up-to-date. Failure to keep a Contingency Plan up to date is one of the most frequently cited violations.

We discuss emergency response and preparedness at our 2-day environmental seminars.

 

Internal communication or alarm system

One of the most frequently cited violations under RCRA is the lack of an internal communication system at places where hazardous wastes are being handled.

40CFR264.34 (a) states that “whenever hazardous waste is being poured, mixed, spread, or otherwise handled, all personnel involved in the operation must have immediate access to an internal alarm or emergency communication device, either directly or through visual or voice contact with another employee”.

40CFR 264.32(b) goes on to state that “if there is ever just one employee on the premises while the facility is operating, he must have immediate access to a device, such as a telephone (immediately available at the scene of operation) or a hand-held two-way radio, capable of summoning external emergency assistance.”

The requirements are pretty clear. Yet many facilities do not have them and end up being cited by the inspector.

We have scheduled several online live webinars to discuss the most frequently cited RCRA violations and how to avoid them.

Here is what happens when you store chemical improperly

There was a chemical accident at a hazardous waste storage facility a number of years ago that released a massive amount of chlorine gas and caused the town to be evacuated.

The chemical Safety Board conducted an investigation and the following is some of its findings.

When you stack chlorine chemical on top of some strong oxidizer, you get yourself an explosive mixture.

Is BP’s spilled oil a hazardous waste?

RCRA regulation 40 CFR 261.4(b)(5) states that “drilling fluids, produced waters, and other wastes associated with the exploration, development, or production of crude oil, natural gas or geothermal energy” are solid wastes that are NOT hazardous wastes. In other words, they are exempt from RCRA regulations.

The key term is “associated” or “uniquely associated” as EPA later clarified. The rule of thumb EPA uses to determine if a waste is “uniquely associated” with oil and gas exploration and production is that the waste has to meet either one of the two following conditions:

1. The waste came from down hole (brought to the surface during oil, gas or geothermal energy exploration, development or production operations).
2. The waste was generated by contact with the oil, gas, or geothermal energy production stream during the removal of produced water or other contaminants from the well or the product.

Based on this interpretation, the crude oil that has been releasing from the BP exploration well a  mile beneath the ocean would be exempt from RCRA regulations. However, note that these are federal exemptions. Individual states are free to adopt more stringent regulations or reject the federal exemptions altogether.

Weekly inspection of your waste storage area

If you store your hazardous wastes at a central storage area (also referred to as central accumulation area) you are required by law to inspect it weekly. 40 CFR 265.174 requires the generator to “inspect areas where containers are stored, at least weekly, looking for leaks and for deterioration caused by corrosion or other factors”. You can set up a very simple weekly inspection log to keep track of your inspections. The key is to keep it SIMPLE.

The following is an excellent example of such a inspection log – taken from Cahill’s “Environmental Audits”:

Notice how the two incidents of problem were noted and actions taken in a timely manner. The acid waste found in a leaky drum on 5/3/93 was pumped into a new drum on 5/7/93. The missing bung found on 5/24/93 was replaced on 5/28.

This is the way it is supposed to be done.

New Mortal Sin!

Are you aware that polluting the environment is now officially a mortal sin according to the Catholic Church?

Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican body which oversees confessions and plenary indulgences, was quoted in the Vatican newspaper as saying the following:

“You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming or coveting your neighbour’s wife, but also by ruining the environment, carrying out morally debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations which alter DNA or compromise embryos,” he said.

So think twice before you dump that 55-gallons of toxic waste in your neighbor’s backyard.

Other new mortal sins also included taking or dealing in drugs, and social injustice which caused poverty or “the excessive accumulation of wealth by a few”.