Goal of `level playing field` eludes hazwaste combustion groups

Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995 · Environmental Solutions

OSTI ID:93024

Bishop, J

Destroying hazardous waste by burning it once seemed to be the most logical action a waste generator could choose. Burning implied elimination of material that otherwise might harm the environment, threaten public health and impose onerous legal liabilities on its owner. In many cases, that logic remains sound -- but the conditions for applying it have become increasingly complicated. Foremost among those complications is the definition of what constitutes ``burning`` hazardous waste. The concept in 1991 officially and legally became divided into two distinct categories, when the Environmental Protection Agency issued separate regulations for boilers and industrial furnaces (BIFs) that burn hazardous wastes as fuel, many in cement-kiln operations. Although the rules were issued in part to alleviate disputes between BIF operators` and hazardous waste incinerator interests, the rule has not had that effect. Before the BIF rules were promulgated, BIF burning processes were not regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which governs hazardous waste incinerators. However, BIFs had been regulated under RCRA storage permit requirements and Clean Air Act regulations, as were the incinerator concerns. With some exceptions, the BIF rules applied the same air emissions and RCRA permitting requirements to BIFs and hazardous waste incinerators. As soon as the new rules were issued, both sides invoked a common rallying cry -- that the regulations fail to provide a ``level playing field`` for the two processes.

• OSTI ID: 93024
• Journal Information: Environmental Solutions, Journal Name: Environmental Solutions Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 8; ISSN ESOLE7; ISSN 1077-2537
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
CLEAN AIR ACTS
COMBUSTION
COMPLIANCE
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
INCINERATORS
POLLUTION REGULATIONS
RESOURCE RECOVERY ACTS