2010-5697. Hazardous Waste Technical Corrections and Clarifications Rule

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Proposed rule.

SUMMARY:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) is proposing a number of technical changes that would correct or clarify several parts of the hazardous waste regulations that relate to hazardous waste identification, manifesting, the hazardous waste generator requirements, the standards for owners and operators of hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities, the standards for the management of specific types of hazardous waste and specific types of hazardous waste management facilities, the land disposal restrictions program and the hazardous waste permit program.

DATES:

Written comments must be received by May 3, 2010.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2008-0678, by one of the following methods:

• http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments.
• E-mail: [e-mail] and [e-mail]. Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2008-0678.
• Fax: [phone]. Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2008-0678.
• Mail: RCRA Docket (2822T), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460. Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2008-0678. Please include a total of 2 copies.
• Hand Delivery: EPA West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed information.

Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2008-0678. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the public docket without change and may be made available online at http://www.regulations.gov,, including any personal information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site is an “anonymous access” system, which means EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without going through http://www.regulations.gov,, your e-mail address will be automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses. For additional information about EPA's public docket, visit the EPA

Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/​epahome/​dockets.htm.

Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the HQ-Docket Center, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2008-0678, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is [phone], and the telephone number for the RCRA Docket is [phone]. A reasonable fee may be charged for copying docket materials.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For more information on this rulemaking, contact Jim O'Leary, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery (MC:5304P), 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460, Phone: [phone]; or e-mail: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Why Is EPA Issuing This Proposed Rule?

This document proposes a number of technical changes that would correct or clarify several parts of the hazardous waste regulations that relate to hazardous waste identification, manifesting, the hazardous waste generator requirements, the standards for owners and operators of hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities, the standards for the management of specific types of hazardous waste and specific types of hazardous waste management facilities, the land disposal restrictions program, and the hazardous waste permit program. In the “Rules and Regulations” section of this Federal Register, EPA is making these technical changes as a Direct Final rule without a prior proposed rule because we view this as a noncontroversial action and anticipate no adverse comment. We have explained our reasons for this action in the preamble to the Direct Final rule. If we receive no adverse comment on any of the individual technical changes we are promulgating today, we will not take further action on this proposed rule. If, however, we receive such comment, we will publish a timely withdrawal in the Federal Register to notify the public that those paragraphs or amendments of the Direct Final rule for which the Agency received adverse comment will not take effect, and the reason for such withdrawals. We do not intend to institute a second comment period on this action. Any parties interested in commenting must do so at this time. For further information, please see the information provided in the ADDRESSES section of this document.

II. Does This Action Apply to Me?

Entities potentially affected by this action include facilities subject to the RCRA hazardous waste regulations and States implementing the RCRA hazardous waste regulations.

III. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

For a complete discussion of all the administrative requirements applicable to this action, see the Direct Final rule in the Rules and Regulations section of this Federal Register.

A. The Regulatory Flexibility Act

The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) generally requires an agency to prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis of any rule subject to the notice and comment rulemaking requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act or any other statute unless the agency certifies that the rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Small entities include small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions.

For purposes of assessing the impacts of today's rule on small entities, small entity is defined as: (1) A small business as defined by the Small Business Administrations' regulations at 13 CFR 121.201; (2) a small governmental jurisdiction that is a government of a city, county, town, school district or special district with a population of less than 50,000; and (3) a small organization that is any not-for-profit enterprise which is independently owned and operated and is not dominant in its field.

After considering the economic impact of today's proposed rule on small entities, I certify that this action will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. This action does not create any new regulatory requirements, but rather corrects typographical errors and incorrect citations, and makes conforming changes (where they have not been made previously) to all applicable parts of the hazardous waste regulations.

Although this proposed rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, EPA nonetheless has tried to reduce the impact of this rule on small entities.

List of Subjects

40 CFR Part 260

• Environmental protection
• Administrative practice and procedure
• Confidential business information
• Hazardous waste
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements

40 CFR Part 261

• Environmental protection
• Hazardous waste
• Recycling
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements

40 CFR Part 262

• Environmental protection
• Exports
• Hazardous materials transportation
• Hazardous waste
• Imports
• Labeling
• Packaging and containers
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements

40 CFR Part 263

• Environmental protection
• Hazardous materials transportation
• Hazardous Waste
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements

40 CFR Part 264

• Environmental protection
• Air pollution control
• Hazardous waste
• Insurance
• Packaging and containers
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
• Security measures
• Surety bonds

40 CFR Part 265

• Environmental protection
• Air pollution control
• Hazardous waste
• Insurance
• Packaging and containers
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
• Security measures
• Surety bonds
• Water supply

40 CFR Part 266

• Environmental protection
• Energy
• Hazardous waste
• Recycling
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements

40 CFR Part 268

• Environmental protection
• Hazardous waste
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements

40 CFR Part 270

• Environmental protection
• Administrative practice and procedure
• Confidential business information
• Hazardous materials transportation
• Hazardous waste
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
• Water pollution control
• Water supply

Dated: March 10, 2010.

Lisa P. Jackson,

Administrator.