U.S. EPA requests comments regarding “corrosive” waste current pH values

Proposed rule, “Hazardous Waste Management System: Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Corrosivity Hazardous Characteristic,” comments are due June 10, 2016.  This notification is an tentative denial of petition for changes to “corrosive” waste pH value and definition.  The petition requested a lower pH level of 11.5 instead of the current level of 12.5.  Additionally, the petition called for the expansion of the “RCRA corrosivity definition to include nonaqueous wastes in addition to the aqueous wastes currently regulated. After careful consideration, the Agency is tentatively denying the petition, since the materials submitted in support of the petition fail to demonstrate that the requested regulatory revisions are warranted, as further explained in this document. The Agency’s review of additional materials it identified as relevant to the petition similarly did not demonstrate that any change to the corrosivity characteristic regulation is warranted at this time.”

. . . . “The majority of public comments urged expanding the range of pH values that would not be classified as corrosive. For example, some commenters urged the Agency to raise the alkaline range pH regulatory value to either pH 12.5 or 13, in part, because they believed the proposed pH value would have resulted in lime-stabilized wastes, which when treated were otherwise non-hazardous, being classified as hazardous because of their pH. These commenters also believed treatment to de-characterize these wastes (i.e., make them less corrosive) would potentially allow the mobilization of toxic metals that were stable in the waste at the higher pH. The Agency generally agreed with these concerns and set a final alkaline range pH value of 12.5 and above for defining corrosive hazardous waste. (11) The petition reflects concern about this as part of the basis for the pH regulatory value, and argues that it is no longer necessary or a valid basis for the regulation because of other changes in the regulations of wastewater treatment sludges in particular. However, there is no documentation in the petition supporting these assertions. High alkalinity materials continue to be used as an important option in the treatment of metal-bearing wastes to reduce metal mobility (see LDR Treatment Technology BDAT Background Document pages 101-109, January 1991; Chen et al., 2009; Malvia and Chaudhary, 2006).”

Docket EPA-HQ-RCRA-2016-0040 comments should be submitted through http://www.regulations.gov.

See attached for further detail.

EPA-HQ-RCRA-2016-0040-0001