On February 11, 2000, EPA announced the settlement of litigation with the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Technology Council. In 1993, EPA promulgated the Corrective Action Management Unit ("CAMU") Rule to address the potential disincentives to cleanup created by RCRA rules when applied to the management of RCRA hazardous remediation wastes during cleanup. Basically, the rule would allow less stringent standards to be met within a CAMU, which can include the whole site, than those which might be applicable to individual solid waste management units under RCRA. The CAMU Rule allows for the removal of hazardous waste from one part of the site to another part of the site without creating a new disposal facility. The environmental groups mentioned above challenged this regulation in court and it is this litigation that the proposal would settle. Under it, EPA would propose amendments to the regulation by August 7, 2000, and publish a final rule by October 8, 2001. The proposed amendments are to include the following:
1. Clarifying language to the existing definition of "remediation waste" to make clear that "as-generated" wastes from routine hazardous waste management activities are not eligible for management in a CAMU. Only wastes "managed for implementing cleanup" are to be included in the CAMU.
2. Provides a "kick-out" provision that allows exclusion from CAMU of wastes not managed in compliance with certain RCRA requirements.
3. Consistent with the long-standing approach for landfills, liquids should generally not be placed in CAMUs. The regulations will provide, however, for instances where it is appropriate to place liquids or wastes containing liquids in CAMUs to facilitate the remedies selected for the waste.
4. Provides for the identification by EPA of "principal hazardous constituents." These are constituents that pose a risk substantially higher than the cleanup levels or goals at the site. These constituents must be subject to applicable treatment standards.
5. Establishes treatment standards for waste placed in CAMUs. General treatment standards for principal hazardous constituents are established and then adjustments may be made by the director to a higher or lower level of treatment based on one or more of the following factors:
--the technical impracticability of treatment;
--the levels or methods of treatment will result in concentrations of hazardous constituents that are significantly above or below cleanup standards;
--the views of the affected local community on the treatment levels or methods;
--the short-term risks presented by the on-site treatment method necessary to achieve the levels or treatment methods established; and
--the long-term protection offered by the engineering design of the CAMU and related engineering controls.
6. Establishes design criteria including liners and groundwater monitoring.