EPA’s November 28, 2016 Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule combined an organizational change with substantive revisions. It placed most generator provisions in 40 CFR part 262 and introduced more than 60 revisions and new provisions. Technical rules, including air-emissions and land-disposal requirements, were exceptions to that consolidation. The agency did not reduce the entire program to a single location. [2016-27429]

The September 25, 2015 proposal had connected usability, compliance and environmental protection. Its episodic-generation concept would let qualifying smaller generators retain their category through a temporary waste increase, subject to conditions. That earlier design explains the problem being addressed, but is not a substitute for final requirements. The two documents are stages of one EPA rulemaking, not independent evaluations. [2016-27429][2015-23166]

The final analysis projected annualized industry compliance costs of $5.9 million to $13.3 million at a 7 percent discount rate. It estimated benefits of $8.3 million to $14.4 million for entities choosing two voluntary programs: same-owner waste consolidation and episodic generation. Those figures are modeled amounts, not observed savings for an individual facility or a measurement of every environmental benefit. [2016-27429]

The rule specified May 30, 2017 effectiveness. These non-HSWA changes would apply on that date in states without final base-program authorization; authorized states had their own adoption obligations, with less-stringent changes optional. Separating structure, projections and applicability prevents three different claims from being collapsed into one. A reorganized rulebook is established by the text; its practical results still require evidence beyond the announcement. [2016-27429]

Source documents

  1. Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rulehttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-11-28/html/2016-27429.htm
  2. Hazardous Waste Generator Improvementshttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2015-09-25/html/2015-23166.htm