2022 Joint Hazardous Waste & Materials Management Training Presentations

The incorporation of Environmental Justice (EJ) into State and U.S. EPA hazardous waste and materials management programs will be discussed. The moderator will share State perspectives. The U.S. EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) speaker will provide a high-level overview of how U.S. EPA defines EJ as an administration priority and highlight aspects of OLEM’s draft Environmental Action Plan including ORCR initiatives. The U.S. EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) speaker will discuss OECA EJ directives that apply to the enforcement program.

Agencies are in a transitional time - many long-term staff are retiring, and many new staff are arriving, often without overlap. Mid-term managers are faced with training new staff in addition to carrying out their daily job responsibilities. This session will explore how institutional knowledge and experience can be transferred more efficiently. The session will also seek input from attendees on what has been learned from the coronavirus pandemic in terms of ways of doing business and preparing for staff succession.

1. EPA Corrective Action 2030 Goal 4/ 9 LTS elements
This session will review the 9 elements for an effective LTS program for RCRA Corrective Action: Legal Authorities; Information Regarding Engineering and Institutional Controls; Long-Term Facility Oversight, Monitoring, and Maintenance; Recordkeeping and Tracking; Meaningful Engagement and Consultation; Funding; Enforcement; Enforceable Mechanisms; and Dedicated Resources.

2. LTS Best Practices This presentation will discuss Region 3's best practices for a successful Long-Term Stewardship program and lessons learned. The goal of the program is to assess the long term effectiveness of completed remedies at corrective action facilities.

Extended Producer Responsibility legislation is one of many policy tools employed to divert difficult-to-manage materials from landfills. As of March 2022, 34 States and Territories (States) have an EPR law covering at least one product, with two jurisdictions - California and Maine- each having laws covering nine different items. Many States considering expanding their own legislative EPR portfolios have looked to other jurisdictions for guidance. Directly mirroring programs from State-to-State has benefits and detriments. Moreover, some States have sought to implement programs that operationally mirror EPR without requiring legislation. This session will cover lessons learned from retrofitting legislative EPR models from State-to-State and how some States have proceeded with an EPR concept without statutory changes.

This session will provide an overview of biopile composting for animal mortality management, including research and efforts to manage carcasses of wildlife infected with prion diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease through evaluation of composting as a feasible method to manage carcasses and deactivate prions, as well as composting as a management tool for Avian Influenza.

The session will address the current regulatory status related to PFAS and RCRA vs. CERCLA designations, and provide an update on the activities of the ASTSWMO Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC) Steering Committee. The speaker from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will highlight the DEQ’s Action Strategy for PFAS and discuss how PFAS is being addressed in the State’s hazardous waste and other waste management programs.

Radioactive materials can have an impact on hazardous waste and solid waste facilities. This session will discuss what agencies regulate the materials and how they interact.

State and federal RCRA programs have been amassing vast amounts of information for approximately 40 years. Multiple tools provide access to this information: Metabase, RITA, ECHO, RCRAInfo Reports, and more. This session will focus on the promotion of these tools and feedback will be sought on barriers to their use.

This session will begin will an overview of the RCRA Inspection Targeting Assistant (RITA), which can be used to prioritize and prepare for inspections and support enforcement. The tool was developed by EPA's National Targeting Center (NTC) and released for national use in June 2021. It is designed to bring the most pertinent data for targeting together in a single location to make targeting easier, more comprehensive, and ultimately more effective at identifying and prioritizing handlers for inspection.

This session will include: (1) discussion of the national RCRA hazardous waste permitting priorities, including live audience voting to inform the selection of FY23/24 priorities; (2) EPA’s approach to update the 1988 RCRA Model Permit; and (3) the status and projected contents of a forthcoming rulemaking to update various RCRA permitting regulations for hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities.

This session will present varying approaches to State regulatory frameworks for Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM), followed by a roundtable discussion of challenges in developing and implementing regulations and lessons learned.

This session will include a discussion on States' efforts to measure PFAS concentrations in biosolids and landfill leachate as well as their overlapping issues and how they are being addressed.

This presentation will focus on identifying hazardous secondary materials (HSM), how HSMs are regulated under RCRA, and when a HSM is eligible for a recycling exclusion. Examples and case studies will be used to illustrate the most recent definition of solid waste (DSW) exclusions, speculative accumulation, and the definition of legitimate recycling.

This session will highlight various corrective action program issues through presentation and discussion of case studies.

Closure of waste disposal facilities resulting in disposal capacity shortfalls has implications not only in the State where the disposal facility is located but regionally. The session will explore the issues facing States and address approaches State solid waste management and sustainable materials management programs are taking to address these issues.

During this session, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) inspectors will walk through how they are using Survey123 as a ground-breaking tool for conducting inspections and generating inspection reports. Gain a fundamental understanding of how implementing Survey123 as an inspection tool has benefitted ADEQ and extrapolate on unique ways to improve processes within your organization.

This session will discuss EPA’s recent policy memorandum related to permitting open burning/open detonation (OB/OD) units and other activities involving OB/OD, such as EPA’s forthcoming proposed rulemaking. In addition, this session will include a Virginia OB/OD case study.

This talk will cover Colorado's experience with solid and hazardous waste issues across a variety of cannabis facilities, recent changes to Colorado's cannabis regulations, and emerging issues related to cannabis waste management.

EPA provided updates on: Part A and B implementation, collaboration with State partners (site-specific issues and program approval) and future rulemakings.

• Circular Economy Strategy Series: National Recycling Strategy, Food Waste, Plastics, Electronics/Critical Minerals
• Update on ORCR led Save Our Seas 2.0 Activities
• Solid Waste Management Data
• Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Work - Solid Waste Infrastructure (SWIFR) Grant Program, Education and Outreach, and Batterie