Assesment and control of pollution release from waste management: current and developing US policy and regulations
Regulation and control of hazardous waste in the U.S. is administered at the national level by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA, or EPA), with support by the 50 states. The EPA develops national rules and regulations, under the authority of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). RCRA requires the identification and control of wastes which, if improperly managed, may damage human health or the environment. The hazardous waste regulations establish rules to classify waste as hazardous (or not), and to require the proper storage, transportation, treatment, recycling, and final disposal of hazardous waste. Within the EPA, the national rules are developed by the Office of Solid Waste (OSW), with the help and cooperation of other EPA Offices, in particular the Office of Research and Development (ORD). The public is involved through scientific peer review and comment on the proposed program, and also through the legislature. The 50 states adopt laws and regulations as stringent as the national regulations (or at state discretion, more stringent), and perform dayto-day administration and enforcement of the regulations.
Under the U.S. system, materials must first be identified as a waste to come under the authority of RCRA; hazards from products are regulated under other laws. All discarded materials, including waste waters, contaminated soils and debris, and most recyclables1 are classified as wastes. Once identified as a waste, the generator must apply the regulations to determine whether it is a hazardous waste. If classified as hazardous, handling of the waste is controlled; if it is not a hazardous waste, few national controls apply, and individual states decide what handling is proper.
The hazardous waste management requirements focus to a large degree on risk of groundwater contamination for both classifying waste as hazardous and controlling management and disposal of hazardous waste2. In developing the U.S. system going into the future, the EPA is refining its ability to estimate risks to groundwater and developing models to estimate risk to human health and the ecology through waste constituent release to other environmental media.
Gregory Helms
Article réservé aux abonnés en ligne, Identifiez-vous sur l'espace abonné ou achetez-le à l'unité (après avoir ouvert un compte utilisateur, vous pourrez l'acheter à l'unité ou constituer un panier):
Abonnez-vous
Achetez à l'unité au prix de 5,40 €