Expansion of RCRA Comparable Fuel Exclusion

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 261 [EPA-HQ-RCRA-2005-0017; FRL-8753-4] RIN 2050-AG24 AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: This final action adds a new exclusion to the rules implementing subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The rule already provides exclusions for comparable fuels and synthesis gas. These fuels are energy-rich hazardous secondary materials which would otherwise be hazardous wastes, but which have the same hazardous constituent concentrations as fossil fuels that would be burned in their place. EPA is establishing a new category of excluded fuel that has its own set of conditions, some of which overlap with the comparable fuels exclusion. These newly excluded hazardous secondary materials are called “emission-comparable fuel” (ECF). ECF is a hazardous secondary material that, when generated, is handled in such a way that it is not discarded in any phase of management, but rather is handled as a valuable commodity. ECF meets all of the hazardous constituent specifications (over 160) for comparable fuel, with the exception of those for oxygenates and hydrocarbons (constituents which contribute energy value to the fuel). The rule specifies conditions on burning ECF which assure that emissions from industrial boilers burning ECF are comparable to emissions from industrial boilers burning fuel oil. The ECF exclusion also includes conditions for tanks and containers storing E…