The House and Senate have passed a bill that allows states to exempt small arid landfills from the groundwater monitoring requirements of the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle D.
H.R. 2036, now awaiting President Clinton signature, provides relief from federally-mandated monitoring if a landfill receives no more than 20 tons per day of municipal solid waste and is located in an area that receives an average of no more than 25 inches of rain annually.
In addition, small remote landfills that are inaccessible during extended periods of time during the year (primarily in Alaska) are exempted from the monitoring requirements. States will still be permitted to require more stringent monitoring from such landfills if necessary to protect groundwater resources.
The Senate added language to the bill that would allow the governor of Alaska to exempt landfills in remote Alaskan villages from any or all Subtitle D requirements.
In addition, EPA is directed to revise its guidelines and criteria to provide additional flexibility to states to tailor Subtitle D regulations for any landfills — whether in arid areas or not — accepting an average of less than 20 tons per day.
The bill also includes other unrelated provisions regarding hazardous wastewaters. It overturns a 1992 court case which required the treatment of “already-treated” wastewaters. Under the bill, these wastes would be exempt from RCRA Subtitle C hazardous waste management requirements as long as they are managed in Clean Water Act-equivalent surface impoundments or injection wells covered by the Safe Drinking Water Act.