Hazardous Waste Notification Program explanation

On July 24, 1990, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated in the Federal Register changes to the general pretreatment regulations (cf., 55 FR 30082). The changes affected both publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) and industrial users (IUs) of POTWs. "Industrial users" or "IUs" includes nondomestic users such as commercial users and businesses. One of the changes requires IUs to submit a notification of hazardous wastes discharged to POTW sewerage collection systems. It is a pretreatment program Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) reporting requirement. This pretreatment program requirement is codified in the Code of Federal Regulations at 40 CFR 403.12(p).(PDF, 16.6KB)

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is the pretreatment program Approval Authority for Oregon. The DEQ and federal regulations (cf., 40 CFR 403.8(f)(2)(iii) PDF, 12.3KB), require us to notify you of this RCRA reporting requirement. It is one of the requirements of our approved pretreatment program.

Who Must Notify:

All non-domestic users of the Clean Water Services sewerage collection and treatment facilities that discharge listed or characteristic RCRA hazardous waste to any of the POTWs we operate (except as described below) must notify Clean Water Services and other regulatory agencies. RCRA listed and characteristic wastes are described in 40 CFR Part 261.

Notification Must be Sent to:

• Clean Water Services
• The EPA Regional Waste Management Division Director, and
• State of Oregon Hazardous Waste Authority.

Simply download the Sewered Waste Reporting Form (PDF, 24.1KB) for the addresses above.

This notification must be submitted in writing, for any discharge into the Clean Water Services  sanitary sewer system, of any substance, which, if otherwise disposed of, would be a hazardous waste under 40 CFR Part 261.

Wastes Covered by the Notification:

1) Any discharge to the POTW of > 15 kilograms (kg) (33 lb.) per calendar month of a RCRA hazardous waste, or a discharge of any quantity of an acutely hazardous waste identified in 40 CFR 261.30(d) (PDF, 15KB) and 261.33(e) (PDF, 11.5KB), must be reported as a one-time notification.

2) A discharge to the POTW of < 15 kg (33 lb.) per calendar month of a RCRA hazardous waste need not be reported, except for acutely hazardous waste identified in 40 CFR 261.30(d) (PDF, 15KB) and 261.33(e) (PDF, 11.5KB).

3) A subsequent discharge of > 15 kg (33 lb.) per calendar month, or of any quantity of an acutely hazardous waste, must be reported as a one-time notification.

If you are already permitted under the industrial pretreatment program with Clean Water Services, pollutants already reported under the reporting requirements for categorical industrial users in base line monitoring, final and periodic compliance reports are not subject to this notification requirement.

Notification Must Include:

Name of the hazardous waste as set forth in 40 CFR Part 261;

EPA hazardous waste number;

Type of discharge to the sewer (continuous, batch, or other);

A certification that you have in place a program to reduce the volume and toxicity of hazardous wastes generated to the degree you have determined to be economically practical.

If you discharge more than 100 kilograms (220 lb.) of hazardous waste per calendar month to the POTW, the one-time notification shall also contain the following information to the extent such information is known or readily available:

An identification of the hazardous constituents contained in the wastes;

An estimation of the mass and concentration of such constituents in the wastestream discharged during the calendar month in which the one-time report is made;

An estimation of the mass of constituents in the waste stream expected to be discharged during the twelve months following the notification

When the Notification Must be Submitted:

If you commenced discharging such wastes before August 23, 1990, you were required to have submitted this notification by no later than February 23, 1991. If you fall into that category and have not yet submitted the notification, do so right away. If you commence discharging after August 23, 1990, you must submit the notification no later than 180 days after the discharge of the listed or characteristic hazardous waste.

In the case of any new regulations under Section 3001 of RCRA identifying additional characteristics of hazardous waste or listing any additional substance as a hazardous waste, you must notify Clean Water Services, EPA and the State of Oregon of the discharge of such substance within 90 days of the effective date of such regulations.

The notification need be submitted only once for each hazardous waste discharged, except when there will be a substantial change in the volume or character of the hazardous waste discharged (generally because of a planned change in your facility operations). In this case, you must notify Clean Water Services in advance.

How to Count the Volume of Hazardous Waste Discharged:

If a hazardous waste is mixed with a non-hazardous process or non-process waste stream and the entire mixture is then discharged to the sewer, the volume of the entire waste stream containing hazardous waste is considered hazardous according to the RCRA "mixture rule" in 40 CFR 261.3(a)(2)(iv) (PDF, 47.6KB). The effect of this rule is summarized as follows:

Characteristic Wastes: These wastes are classified as hazardous because they exhibit one of the hazardous characteristics identified in 40 CFR 261.20 - 40 CFR 261.24 (PDF, 26.7KB) (i.e., they are ignitable, corrosive, reactive, or toxic). If these wastes are mixed with non-hazardous materials and the mixture is then discharged to the sewer, the notification must be submitted only if the entire mixture actually discharged is > 15 kg (33 lb.) per calendar month and if the entire mixture discharged still exhibits the characteristic(s).

Listed Wastes: These are wastes that are classified as hazardous pursuant to being listed in 40 CFR 261.30 - 40 CFR 261.33 (PDF, 170KB). If these listed wastes are mixed with non-hazardous materials and then discharged to the sewer, the entire waste stream is considered hazardous and a notification must be submitted. Thus, only if the entire waste stream containing the hazardous waste amounted to < 15 kg

(33 lb.) per calendar month, would the above exemption apply.

Questionable Wastes: If you have any doubt about whether a mixture discharged to the sewer is hazardous, or if you do not wish to perform any calculations which may be necessary under the mixture rule (cf., 40 CFR 261.3(a)(2)(iii) (PDF, 15KB) you should submit the one-time notification.