Industry Troubled by EPA's Dual Regulatory Scheme for Coal Waste

Date: June 11, 2010

Source: News Room

Industry continues to be troubled by the EPA's lack of clarity on how it proposes to regulate the beneficial reuse of coal ash in its first-time proposed rule regulating the waste's disposal. On the one hand, the agency says that a strict hazardous designation for coal combustion residues (CCR) would not stigmatize its beneficial reuse, while on the other, it is raising questions about the safety of some beneficial reuses. At the same time, EPA suspended its long-time involvement in the Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2), a voluntary partnership with industry to promote coal waste reuse, during the rulemaking.

In its proposed rule, EPA seeks comment on "potential refinements for certain beneficial uses" as part of its dual RCRA proposal that formally exempts beneficial use from regulation, while also seeking comment on regulating CCR under RCRA subtitle C as well as under non-hazardous subtitle D. In the proposal, EPA asks for comment on limiting some CCR reuse that could pose health or environmental risks, such as unencapsulated uses of CCR applied to land, such as in road embankments and agricultural applications. EPA's proposal points to "a significant increase in the use of CCR" since 2000, as ingredients in specific products, "such as resin-bound products or mineral filler in asphalt." However, it does note that using OCR as filler for cement can hold many greenhouse gas benefits.

Recently, the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) required EPA to restate its estimated costs in its cost/benefit analysis of regulating OCR as hazardous from a lower-end benefit of $87 million to negative $230 million.

In its current proposal, EPA asks for information, specifically analyses and other data, supporting the claims that a stigma "will drive people away from the use of valuable products," or that states would prohibit CCR reuse if EPA regulates any aspect of coal waste as hazardous under RCRA subtitle C.

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