Revision of Wastewater Treatment Exemptions for Hazardous Waste Mixtures (“Headworks Exemptions”)

Résumé

In today's action, the Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing the addition of benzene and 2-ethoxyethanol to the list of solvents whose mixtures with wastewaters are exempted from the definition of hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The scrubber waters derived-from the combustion of any of the exempted solvents also are included in the exemption. In addition, the Agency is revising the rule by adding an option to allow generators to directly measure solvent chemical levels at the headworks of the wastewater treatment system to determine whether the wastewater mixture is exempt from the definition of hazardous waste. Finally, the Agency is extending the eligibility for the de minimis exemption to other listed hazardous wastes (beyond discarded commercial chemical products) and to non-manufacturing facilities.