Ralph - the notification of hazardous waste activity that every generator
must complete in order to get an EPA number is the initial basis for
determining generator classification. However, the way the regulations are
written a generator's status can literally change month to month, since what
is generated "in any given month" determines status. That said, every state
& federal inspector I've encountered does the math - how much total waste
was generated over a year divided by 12. What is actually more important
than the generation rate is the frequency of removal! If a small generator
has more than 1000 KG per month, BUT moves it off-site within the LG 90 day
window, there is no violation. Essentially, as long as you remember
"accumulation" is not the same as "storage", you will be fine as long as you
meet the criteria for the higher generator status. In other words, if a SQG
manages waste to comply with the LG requirements, then slipping over the
accumulation time limit for the lower category is not a problem as long as
the 90 day limit is not exceeded.

But... it is not difficult to notify the state environmental agency of a
temporary change in generator status in order to complete a cleanout. I do
it with a short letter along the lines of "we will be a large generator in
November 2019 while we complete a cleanout of surplus chemicals but will
revert to our normal SQG status on December 1."

Russ

Russ Phifer
WC Environmental, LLC
1085C Andrew Drive
West Chester, PA 19380
610-322-0657
rphifer**At_Symbol_Here**wcenvironmental.com

-----Original Message-----
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety On
Behalf Of Stuart, Ralph
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2019 8:53 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Nerdy RCRA question

I was talking to a student about the wonders of RCRA and he asked a question
that I'm not sure of the answer to. Perhaps people on the list have some
experience with it.

We were talking about the RCRA system of classifying waste generators into
various classes based on the amount generated - large quantity generators,
small quantity generators, etc. (I would note that New Hampshire does not
follow the federal model in this regard, but I don't think that nuance
affects this question.) The student asked whether there was a presumption
that a particular waste generator was a large quantity generator until they
proved otherwise or if a generator could presume to be a small quantity
generator until proven otherwise by the regulator.

Complicating this question is the fact that the regulatory concept of waste
generation rates is separate from the shipping of hazardous waste from a
location in this regard. So you can't just look at your manifests to
determine what size generator you are. The practical version of this
question is how do people track intermittent waste generators such as labs
to identify what size RCRA generator a location is?

Thanks for any experiences you have on this deep dive topic.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
Environmental Safety Manager
Keene State College
603 358-2859

ralph.stuart**At_Symbol_Here**keene.edu

---
For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional
membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas

---
For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional membership chair at membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas

Previous post   |  Top of Page   |   Next post