RACHEL’s Hazardous Waste News #21

=======================Electronic Edition========================

RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #21
—April 20, 1987—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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EPA FAILING TO COMPLY WITH LAW INTENDED TO CLOSE ILLEGAL DUMPS.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to enforce laws requiring land disposal facilities
to certify compliance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) or shut down, according
to a report by the General Accounting Office (GAO). The GAO is an investigative arm of the Congress. On
November 8, 1985, land disposal operators were supposed to certify that they were in compliance with
RCRA or cease operation.

GAO reports that only 543 of 1538 land disposal operations land disposal facilities nationwide actually
certified compliance with RCRA. The remaining 995 were thus legally required to close down.

According to the law, the 995 had exactly one year in which to submit closure plans to the EPA, to receive
approval for the plan from EPA, and to close down.

In the three EPA regions surveyed by GAO in September, 1986, less than two months from the statutory
deadline, only 2 of 458 non-complying land disposal operations (0.4%) had actually closed. Only 191
closure plans (19%) had been approved nationwide.

EPA officials say their poor performance is attributable to insufficient resources for getting the job done.
They say certification of closure plans may take another three years, given the staffing available to do the
job. Meanwhile, they agree that the non-complying facilities “represent a potential environmental hazard.”

The GAO report, titled, “Hazardous Waste: Enforcement of Certification Requirements for Land Disposal
Facilities” [GAO/RCED 87 60BR], is available free from: GAO, P.O. Box 6015, Gaithersburg, MD 20877;
phone: (202) 275-6241.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.

Descriptor terms: misfeasance; studies;

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