Sensibly Regulating Electroplating Waste (RCRA F006)

摘要

In 1980, when EPA decided that sludge generated during the treatment of electroplating wastewater should be considered a hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), it might have been a sensible, or at least a defensible, position. Chromic-sulfuric acid etchant was still being used by many facilities, and wastewater treatment sludges from electroplating operations (circuit board and metal finishing) was known to contain a variety of metals, namely chromium, cadmium, nickel and complex cyanides. But many of these conditions no longer exist today―chromic-sulfuric acid is virtually unheard of, and the use of cyanide plating in the industry has also been sharply reduced. It is no longer accurate to say that all F006 waste contains hazardous levels of cyanide, cadmium and chromium.