U.S. Ecology Nevada, Inc. High Mercury Subcategory Wastes Land Disposal Restrictions Variance

Official abstract: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is granting, with conditions, U.S. Ecology Nevada Inc.'s (USE) petition for a site- specific treatability variance (SSTV) from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) treatment standards. USE's petition is for a variance from the existing treatment and disposal standard for elemental mercury waste generated from retorting high mercury waste as prescribed by the LDR technology-based standard of RMERC. The petition demonstrated that the LDR standard for placing elemental mercury waste generated from RMERC back into commerce for reuse is inappropriate and the alternative treatment variance proposed by USE is sufficient to minimize threats to human health and the environment posed by land disposal of the waste. Under the approved SSTV, the existing LDR treatment standard of RMERC will continue to apply to high mercury hazardous wastes, but the elemental mercury generated from this process will be treated and land disposed subject to specified conditions at both Bethlehem Apparatus's facility in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and USE's Beatty, Nevada, subtitle C treatment, storage, and disposal (TSD) facility where the treated mercury wastes will be disposed in a designated RCRA subtitle C compliant monofill.