SLUDGE/BIOSOLIDS AS A HAZARDOUS WASTE
Why did Congress allow EPA's wastewater treatment division to put our air, water, land, food and public health at risk?
Our fear is not from foreign terrorist -- it is from federal and state agencies who insist on poisoning public health and the
environment with hazardous waste disguised as a soil amendment or fertilizer
"if Congress gives EPA regulatory authority over hazardous wastes," Sanjour said," Will we have one policy for
hazardous wastes which go through municipal treatment plants and a different policy if it goes through and
industrial treatment plant? if so, we will end up in court looking like fools." WILLIAM SANJOUR, CHIEF,
HAZARDOUS WASTE IMPLEMENTATION BRANCH (1978 -1979 sludge wars)
{This could be called the Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome]
Industrial policy
§ 403.3 (a)(ii) Sludge Requirements shall mean the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued
thereunder (or more stringent State or local regulations): Section 405 of the Clean Water Act; the Solid Waste Disposal
Act (SWDA) (including title II more commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) and State
regulations contained in any State sludge management plan prepared pursuant to subtitle D of SWDA); the Clean Air
Act; the Toxic Substances Control Act; and the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act. (2006)
Sanjour said, "By September, everyone involved recognized the futility of resisting the sludge juggernaut -- everyone
but me, that is. I was finally instructed by Gary Dietrich, Jorling's hatchet man, to weaken the standards for land farming
hazardous industrial waste to the comfort level of the Water Office, regardless of the consequences to human health
(14) And the consequences of this cruel decision were indeed far ranging and severe as not only sewage sludge but
raw industrial hazardous waste is "recycled" into fertilizer to this day"
Also see peer reviewed paper:
The Dirty Work of Promoting “Recycling” of America’s Sewage Sludge, CAROLINE SNYDER, PHD
Note below that biosolids with the highest level of arsenic (and chromium) can not be placed in a part 503 surface
disposal site where stormwater runon and runoff must be controlled. EPA claims there is no relationship between the
high levels allowed in sludge/biosolids and the very low hazardous waste level.
Municipal policy -- Combined Table of hazardous-toxic pollutants (regulated and unregulated) for use (as
Class A and B fertilizer) and disposal can be found at http://403-503-removal_credit_Table.html
Municipal treatment plant hazardous waste policy for sludge/biosolids disposal
Part 503.13 Part 503.23
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Hazardous waste
Part 261
|
|
Hazardous substance
Toxic pollutant
Pollutant - ETC.
|
Parts Per Million
allowed in Class B
sludge/biosolids
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Parts Per Million
allowed in Class A
sludge/biosolids
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Parts Per Million
allowed in part 503
surface disposal site
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Parts per Million
regulated industrial
hazardous waste level
|
|
The Part 261 hazardous waste level has no direct human health exposure relationship. This is the level at which the
chemicals leaching out of a mismanaged landfill would contaminate groundwater under the landfill above the drinking
water limits.
HAZARDOUS WASTE LIST OF INORGANIC AND ORGANIC CHEMICALS
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?
c=ecfr&sid=ac0633bbc5a929de7ed7f9a0a8494fea&rgn=div8&view=text&node=40:25.0.1.1.2.3.1.5&idno=40
§ 261.24 Toxicity characteristic.
(a) A solid waste (except manufactured gas plant waste) exhibits the characteristic of toxicity if, using the Toxicity
Characteristic Leaching Procedure, test Method 1311 in “Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste, Physical/Chemical
Methods,” EPA Publication SW-846, as incorporated by reference in §260.11 of this chapter, the extract from a
representative sample of the waste contains any of the contaminants listed in table 1 at the concentration equal to or
greater than the respective value given in that table. Where the waste contains less than 0.5 percent filterable solids,
the waste itself, after filtering using the methodology outlined in Method 1311, is considered to be the extract for the
purpose of this section.
(b) A solid waste that exhibits the characteristic of toxicity has the EPA Hazardous Waste Number specified in Table I
which corresponds to the toxic contaminant causing it to be hazardous.
Table I which corresponds to the toxic contaminant causing it to be hazardous.
Table 1_Maximum Concentration of Contaminants for the Toxicity
Characteristic
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regulatory
EPA HW No. \1\ Contaminant CAS No. \2\ Level (mg/
L)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
D004 Arsenic................... 7440-38-2 5.0
D005 Barium.................... 7440-39-3 100.0
D018 Benzene................... 71-43-2 0.5
D006 Cadmium................... 7440-43-9 1.0
D019 Carbon tetrachloride...... 56-23-5 0.5
D020 Chlordane................. 57-74-9 0.03
D021 Chlorobenzene............. 108-90-7 100.0
D022 Chloroform................ 67-66-3 6.0
D007 Chromium.................. 7440-47-3 5.0
D023 o-Cresol.................. 95-48-7 \4\ 200.0
D024 m-Cresol.................. 108-39-4 \4\ 200.0
D025 p-Cresol.................. 106-44-5 \4\ 200.0
D026 Cresol.................... ........... \4\ 200.0
D016 2,4-D..................... 94-75-7 10.0
D027 1,4-Dichlorobenzene....... 106-46-7 7.5
D028 1,2-Dichloroethane........ 107-06-2 0.5
D029 1,1-Dichloroethylene...... 75-35-4 0.7
D030 2,4-Dinitrotoluene........ 121-14-2 \3\ 0.13
D012 Endrin.................... 72-20-8 0.02
D031 Heptachlor (and its 76-44-8 0.008
epoxide).
D032 Hexachlorobenzene......... 118-74-1 \3\ 0.13
D033 Hexachlorobutadiene....... 87-68-3 0.5
D034 Hexachloroethane.......... 67-72-1 3.0
D008 Lead...................... 7439-92-1 5.0
D013 Lindane................... 58-89-9 0.4
D009 Mercury................... 7439-97-6 0.2
D014 Methoxychlor.............. 72-43-5 10.0
D035 Methyl ethyl ketone....... 78-93-3 200.0
D036 Nitrobenzene.............. 98-95-3 2.0
D037 Pentrachlorophenol........ 87-86-5 100.0
D038 Pyridine.................. 110-86-1 \3\ 5.0
D010 Selenium.................. 7782-49-2 1.0
D011 Silver.................... 7440-22-4 5.0
D039 Tetrachloroethylene....... 127-18-4 0.7
D015 Toxaphene................. 8001-35-2 0.5
D040 Trichloroethylene......... 79-01-6 0.5
D041 2,4,5-Trichlorophenol..... 95-95-4 400.0
D042 2,4,6-Trichlorophenol..... 88-06-2 2.0
D017 2,4,5-TP (Silvex)......... 93-72-1 1.0
D043 Vinyl chloride............ 75-01-4 0.2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Hazardous waste number.
\2\ Chemical abstracts service number.
\3\ Quantitation limit is greater than the calculated regulatory level.
The quantitation limit therefore becomes the regulatory level.
\4\ If o-, m-, and p-Cresol concentrations cannot be differentiated, the
total cresol (D026) concentration is used. The regulatory level of
total cresol is 200 mg/l.
[55 FR 11862, Mar. 29, 1990, as amended at 55 FR 22684, June 1, 1990; 55 FR 26987, June 29, 1990; 58 FR 46049,
Aug. 31, 1993; 67 FR 11254, Mar. 13, 2002]