Ms. Penny M. Wilson, CPM, authored a March 25th memorandum submitted to the Arkansas Department to the Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment – Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) Hazardous Waste Generator email list addressing what she described as a:
. . . reoccurring misinterpretation of Arkansas Pollution Control & Ecology Commission (“APC&EC”) Rule No. 23 (Hazardous Waste Management).
Ms. Wilson serves as the Hazardous Waste Compliance Branch Manager of DEQ’s Office of Land Resources.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) provides the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) the authority to control hazardous waste from the “cradle-to-grave.” This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous waste. To implement these requirements, the EPA issued regulations. Subtitle C in the RCRA is focused on hazardous solids waste.
Subtitle C permits EPA to grant states the authority to implement key provisions of hazardous material requirements in lieu EPA. DEQ was given the RCRA Subtitle C program several years ago. The Hazardous Waste Branch of the Office of Land Resources implements Arkansas’s RCRA Subtitle C Waste Management Program governing the management and disposition of hazardous waste, used oils, and universal waste.
The federal (i.e. EPA) and Arkansas hazardous materials regulations require large generators of hazardous waste to meet the preparedness, preventive, and emergency procedures standards. Large generators must develop a written contingency planning that aims to minimize and limit the dangers of chemical releases, spillages, leaks, fires, and explosions. The facility must have a copy of the contingency planning at all times.
The memorandum cites APC&EC No. 23 Section 262.262 (a) states that:
. . . the large quantity generator must submit a copy of the contingency plan and all revisions to all local emergency responders (i.e., police departments, fire departments, hospitals and State and local emergency response teams that may be called upon to provide emergency services)” (emphasis added).
Ms. Wilson’s memorandum addressing contingency plan submission to local emergency responders notes that there have been:
. . . Arkansas hazardous waste generators have submitted their contingency plans to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management in order to comply with the APC&EC Rule No. 23 Section 262.262(a).
The memorandum clarifies that the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (“ADEM”) serves as a “liaison” between the local offices of emergency management and coordinates with senior officials of federal, state, and local governments, and entities within the private sector having roles and responsibilities for emergency management. ADEM does not respond individually to incidents at hazardous waste facilities in order to provide emergency service. As a result, the memorandum is intended to provide that ADEM does not fall within the scope of the 262.262(a) phrase “local emergency responders.”
You can download a copy the DEQ memorandum Here.
