RCRAOverview.pptVIP

RCRA Overview Environmental Law 2008 Brief chronology of RCRA: Mid-’70s--RCRA enacted; mainly solid waste management (trash and garbage) Starts out as a kind of EPA “backwater” 1978: Love Canal inspires a media “feeding frenzy” The Love Canal dilemma FEMA can help only the victims of natural disasters This is a manmade disaster So, go bring a tort action Love Canal’s Lessons Learned There needs to be a program for dealing with hazwaste—an unknown (but large) number of “ticking time bombs” RCRA imminent hazard provision pressed into service Superfund (CERCLA) enacted in 1980, states follow suit with parallel programs Hazwaste Politics Jan. 1980—lame-duck administration approves Superfund; incoming Reagan team says “No son of Superfund!” Sweetheart settlements, scandals RCRA landfill regs approved despite admitted concerns over leakage of dumps, because it was cost-effective RCRA’s General Approach: Command-and-control (to the point of micromanagement) Permitting of parts of waste disposal industry Post-closure liability (CERCLA and PCLFs) Hierarchy of preferred options for hazwaste Features of HASWA ‘84: Land bans Increased regulation of TSDFs “Hammer” provisions Tighter small generator exemptions “Nondelegation run riot” What is hazwaste? Listed Wastes (Rulemaking but we won’t go there) Characteristic wastes Ignitable Corrosive Reactive (old) Extraction Potential Toxicity (EP tox) (current) TCLP (toxic constituent leachate potential) What can be done with hazwaste? Incineration Deep-well injection Chemical alteration (e.g., neutralization)--sometimes Landfilling Re-use or recycle (or incorporate in product) Avoid generating (toxics use reduction) Which of these alternatives should we prefer? What incentives should we create so better alternatives will be used? RCRA and the MSW Incineration Problem Incineration (“energy recovery”) emerges as the soluti