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Date: May 1998
The following key points represent California Integrated Waste Management
Board (CIWMB) staff’s understanding of the proposal based on information provided by
the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC):
- Hazardous waste classification would become a two-tier system, consisting of fully
regulated hazardous waste and lower-risk hazardous waste that has fewer regulatory
requirements.
- Lower-risk hazardous waste would be known as "Special Waste" and would be
regulated by DTSC, including generator activities, storage, onsite treating/recycling,
transportation, transfer stations, offsite treatment/recycling, and disposal at a Class I
landfill.
- All Special Waste would be required to be disposed in a Class I landfill unless:
- DTSC issues a variance for disposal at a solid waste landfill disposal facility,
- the landfill’s waste discharge requirements (WDRs), issued by the Regional Water
Quality Control Board (RWQCB), allow disposal of Special Waste, and
- the generator of the Special Waste has obtained concurrence from DTSC that the waste
meets the criteria for classification as Special Waste.
Disposal at Nonhazardous Waste Landfill
- The variance issued by DTSC to the SW operator is required by Health and Safety Code
section 25143 (d) to include the following:
- The name and location of the landfill site, the type of hazardous waste that is to be
managed, or the type of hazardous waste management activity.
- A description of the physical characteristics and chemical composition of the hazardous
waste or the specifications of the waste management activity or unit to which the variance
applies.
- The time period during which the variance is effective.
- A specification of the legislative (Ch. 999, Statutes 1996) requirements from which the
variance is granted.
- A specification of the conditions, limitations, or other requirements to which the
variance is subject.
- Special Waste (hazardous waste) that is issued a variance by DTSC is classified by the
Water Code section 1373 as Designated Waste. Current SWRCB regulation (Title 27 section
20210) limits disposal of Designated Waste to Class II landfills, unless the RWQCB finds
that the waste can be disposed at a Class III landfill or an unclassified landfill. There
are approximately 12 Class II landfills currently operating that could receive this waste,
including Keller Canyon, Ostrom Road, Altamont, Forward, Fink Road, American Avenue,
McKittrick, Los Lobos, and West Contra Costa.
Class II landfills can most likely receive this waste with little change required to their
WDRs, SWF Permits, and CUPs since they are already approved to receive designated waste.
CEQA for Class II landfills already addresses the disposal of designated waste at these
sites. Class III landfills may not already contain such approvals and would need to revise
their WDRs, SWF Permits, and CUPs. CEQA may not already acknowledge the receipt of
designated waste.
- Nonhazardous waste landfill operators would be required to return copies of the manifest
to the generator and DTSC. Operators will most likely be required to retain records and to
report periodically to DTSC. At this time, it is unknown what other efforts will be
undertaken by DTSC to monitor Special Waste at a solid waste landfill.
- Special Waste could be co-mingled with other waste in a nonhazardous waste landfill,
unless limited by the RWQCB.
- Enforcement of the proper classification of Special Waste, potential mismanagement at a
landfill (spill, offsite migration, release) would fall under the jurisdiction of DTSC.
The CIWMB would regulate management of the landfill, but not specific concerns related to
the hazardous waste itself.
- DTSC has no numbers on the volume of material that would fall into the Special Waste
tier. According to DTSC, a wider range of hazardous waste could qualify for disposal at
solid waste landfills than has qualified in the past. They anticipate the waste primarily
being in the form of ashes, sludges, and soils. According to DTSC, very few variances have
been issued for the disposal of hazardous waste at solid waste landfills.
DTSC has no numbers on the volume of material that is currently hazardous and that would
become nonhazardous via their proposal. It addition to other changes being proposed by
DTSC, DTSC is proposing to change the extraction test used to determine hazardous waste
based on its solubility, which will most likely result in more inorganic toxic metals and
lead-containing wastes qualifying as nonhazardous wastes.
DTSC estimates that 70% of chemicals currently classified as hazardous or nonhazardous
will remain the same. Of the remaining 30%, approximately 40% will become Special Waste or
nonhazardous and 60% will become hazardous. Staff from Laidlaw Environmental, who
performed their own analysis, indicated different numbers: 90% of California-only
hazardous waste would become Special Waste and 25% to 30% of nonhazardous waste would
become Special Waste.
- At this time, it is unknown how much waste currently contained in solid waste landfills
would now be classified as hazardous waste. DTSC has indicated that the proposed changes
would not be retroactive at solid waste landfills, meaning that DTSC would not take action
to enforce the management of hazardous waste at the landfills. However, landfill operators
could become liable under CERCLA.
- DTSC will collect the disposal fee for Special Waste at Class II/III landfills. The
CIWMB’s waste disposal fee is limited to nonhazardous waste.
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