Christopher Rhodes (rhodch@ipc.org)
Mon, 26 Feb 1996 14:50:03 -0600 (CST)

Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 14:50:03 -0600 (CST)
From: Christopher Rhodes
Subject: EPA PROPOSED HAZARDOUS WASTE IDENTIFICATION RULE (HWIR)
To: ComplianceNet@ipc.org

As you may know, the U.S. EPA has issued a proposed Hazardous Waste Identification Rule (HWIR). This HWIR is intended to replace the "mixture and derived-from" rules which were vacated and remanded to the EPA in a court case in 1991.

This HWIR proposal was issued on 21 December 1995 (FR v.60 no.245 pp. 66344-66469), with an original comment deadline of 20 February 1996. Due to the length, complexity and importance of this rule, IPC has retained counsel to analyze and assist with developing IPC comments on behalf of the PWB/PWA industry.

IPC's summary analysis of the HWIR proposal and a draft outline of IPC comments are now available. In addition, the new deadline to submit comments to EPA on the HWIR proposal is now 22 April 1996. Therefore, IPC would like to disseminate our HWIR summary across the industry and gather data to include in IPC's comments. If you would like a copy of the IPC HWIR summary and comment outline, or of the entire HWIR proposal, please contact Star Summerfield at IPC (847/509-9700 x347; fax 847/509-9798; email summst@ipc.org). The entire HWIR proposal is over 100 pages long. Therefore, IPC will send only the summary unless you specifically ask for the full HWIR proposal.

EPA's stated purpose in proposing HWIR is to reduce any overregulation of low-risk wastes captured by the mixture and derived-from rule. The HWIR proposal would establish risk-based exit levels within which waste would no longer be considered hazardous and thus no longer subject to RCRA subtitle C. However, the exit levels that EPA proposes are so low that IPC does not believe they would provide any substantial relief to our industry. In addition, the testing requirements that HWIR would entail would be prohibitively expensive.

IPC welcomes your interpretation and feedback on the HWIR proposal.