All News Releases By Date

PA EPA ANNOUNCES FINAL AIR TOXICS RULE FOR OFF SITE WASTE

Release Date: 5/31/96
Contact Information:

PA EPA ANNOUNCES FINAL AIR TOXICS RULE FOR OFF SITE WASTE

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1996

EPA ANNOUNCES FINAL AIR TOXICS RULE FOR OFF-SITE WASTE AND RECOVERY OPERATIONS

EPA today announced a final rule significantly reducing air toxics such as benzene and methylene chloride from off-site waste and recovery operations. Air toxics are those pollutants known or suspected of causing cancer, birth defects or other serious health effects. Off-site waste and recovery facilities treat, store, recycle or dispose of material received from other industries -- such as chemical manufacturing plants -- where the material is a waste or byproduct of manufacturing processes. Examples of off-site facilities affected by this rule are those used in hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal; industrial wastewater treatment; solvent recycling and used oil recycling. Examples of operations exempt from this regulation are incinerators, municipal solid waste landfills, publicly-owned sewage treatment works and cleanup activities at Superfund and other remediation sites. EPA may develop air toxics standards for these exempt activities in the future. Today's rule will cut air toxic emissions by an estimated 43,000 tons per year from existing and new off-site facilities -- an 82 percent reduction from current levels; it will also reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by an estimated 51,000 tons annually, an 82 percent reduction from current levels. VOCs contribute significantly to the formation of ground-level ozone (smog), the nation's most pervasive air pollutant. EPA estimates that this regulation will affect approximately 250 existing off-site facilities, as well as any new operations begun in the future. EPA will require these off-site waste and recovery operations to use maximum achievable control technology, a term generally defined by the Clean Air Act as the best demonstrated pollution control technology or practice in current use by similar sources. Today's action will appear soon in the Federal Register, but will be computer-accessible immediately through EPA's electronic bulletin board system, the Technology Transfer Network (TTN) at 919- 541-5742 (backup number for access problems is 919-541-5384) under "Recently Signed Rules" on the TTN's Clean Air Act Amendments bulletin board.

R-78 # # #