Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published its amendments to, and reorganization of, the regulations governing generators of hazardous waste, 81 Fed. Reg. 85,732 (Nov. 28). These rules govern the hundreds of thousands of enterprises nationally that produce wastes characterized or listed as hazardous under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 42 U.S.C. Sections 6901-91i. For the most part, these amendments do not change the requirements that generators face, but merely reorganize the regulations in a way that will make old guidance and citations obsolete. However, the final rule also codifies a number of EPA interpretations of the rules found in letters and memoranda that the EPA has written over the years. In addition, in some respects the rules will change when this rulemaking becomes effective on May 30, 2017.
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