EAB Rejects EPA Policy On RCRA Waste Rules For Injected Hydrocarbons

摘要

EPA's Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) has rejected EPA's position that injection of hydrocarbon materials such as chemical by-products into iron blast furnaces subjects them to Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) "waste" regulations, setting a potential precedent for future RCRA enforcement against such injections. In a complicated Feb. 2 ruling in In Re: Carbon Injection Systems, LLC, the board therefore scrapped an EPA enforcement action that sought to apply RCRA rules to hydrocarbon material injections at a furnace at an industrial facility in Ohio. The board said EPA's enforcement that sought to impose RCRA rules for generating "chemical" energy from the injection was too expansive and at odds with 1985 agency policy limiting rules to "heat" energy.(Doc. ID: 188693).