Final Rule Exempts Waste From Rcra, Allowing Materials To Be Burned As Fuel

摘要

The Environmental Protection Agency released a final rule Dec. 12 that will allow industries to burn certain hazardous wastes as fuel by exempting these materials from Resource Conservation and Recovery Act regulation-provided that their emissions are comparable to those of fuel oil.rnThese "emission-comparable fuels" include sludges and manufacturing byproducts that are "treated as valuable commodities through all phases of management .. . based on their substantial physical identity with fuel oil," EPA said in the rule.rnThe final rule also includes conditions for tanks and containers storing such wastes to assure that these compounds are not inappropriately discarded.rnIt expands EPA's Comparable Fuels Exclusion Rule at 40 C.F.R. Part 261.38, published in 1998, which excluded from the definition of solid waste certain secondary material fuels whose hazardous constituents and physical properties are comparable to those found in fossil fuels such as fuel oil.rnThe rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register soon and will take effect 30 days after publication, EPA said (232 DEN A-5, 12/3/08).