Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to grant, with conditions, US Ecology Nevada Inc.'s (USE) petition for a site-specific treatability variance from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) treatment standards. USE's petition is for treatment and disposal of elemental mercury waste generated from retorting high mercury waste in accordance with the LDR technology-based standard of RMERC. The EPA believes that the petition demonstrates that the LDR standard for placing elemental mercury generated from RMERC back into commerce for reuse is inappropriate and the treatment variance is sufficient to minimize threats to human health and the environment posed by land disposal of the waste. If the variance is granted, the existing LDR treatment standard of RMERC will continue to apply to high mercury hazardous wastes, but the elemental mercury generated from this process will be treated and land disposed subject to specified conditions at both Bethlehem Apparatus in Hellertown, Pennsylvania and USE's Beatty, Nevada, Subtitle C treatment, storage, and disposal (TSD) facility where treated mercury wastes will be disposed in a designated monofill.
Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Environmental Protection Agency 40 CFR Part 268 [EPA-HQ-OLEM-2025-2038; FRL-8504-02-OLEM] RIN 2050-AH21 AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Proposed rule. SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to grant, with conditions, US Ecology Nevada Inc.'s (USE) petition for a site-specific treatability variance from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) treatment standards. USE's petition is for treatment and disposal of elemental mercury waste generated from retorting high mercury waste in accordance with the LDR technology-based standard of RMERC. The EPA believes that the petition demonstrates that the LDR standard for placing elemental mercury generated from RMERC back into commerce for reuse is inappropriate and the treatment variance is sufficient to minimize threats to human health and the environment posed by land disposal of the waste. If the variance is granted, the existing LDR treatment standard of RMERC will continue to apply to high mercury hazardous wastes, but the elemental mercury generated from this process will be treated and land disposed subject to specified conditions at both Bethlehem Apparatus in Hellertown, Pennsylvania and USE's Beatty, Nevada, Subtitle C treatment, storage, and disposal (TSD) facility where treated mercury wastes will be disposed in a designated monofill. DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 9, 2026. ADDRESSES: You may send comments, identi…
Citation: 91 FR 5400
