Application of Site-Specific Hazard Assessment Testing to Solid Wastes

ABSTRACT: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) proposes to use a leaching test as one of the criteria for estimating the environmental hazard of on-land disposal of hazardous wastes. There are many significant technical problems with the specific protocols proposed for use, such as not specifying a defined redox condition under which the tests are to be conducted. The most significant deficiency is in the proposed method for interpretation of leaching test results. The use of these tests as currently formulated could readily result in chemicals that present minimal risk to the environment and human health being classified as hazardous. More importantly, their use could cause truly hazardous wastes to be classified as acceptable for on-land disposal with minimum restrictions. Adopting the U.S. EPA's proposed approach will result in unnecessarily large amounts of money being spent for control of "hazardous " chemicals and, in certain cases, without providing adequate environmental or human health protection. This paper reviews some of the problems associated with the use of the U.S. EPA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) leaching test for classifying th