AM-91-10 RCRA AND CWA: WHAT WILL THE 1990’s HOLD?

Description:

Regulatory activity in the 1980s forced major changes in the refining industry’s management of solid and hazardous wastes and wastewater effluents. Prominent initiatives included the 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which led to loss of interim status and closure of many older landfills and some surface impoundments. Promulgation of the Toxicity Characteristic (TC) pulled more refinery wastes into the hazardous waste system, and Land Ban imposed technology-based treatment standards and may have doomed land farming as a practicable disposal method for refinery sludges. Looking ahead into the ’90s the regulatory impact will increase as minimum technology requirements become practical realities for refinery operators, and RCRA corrective action forces remediation programs to clean up environmental effects of past waste management practices.