Acknowledgment and Disclaimer





Regulatory Reform for
Cost-Effective Regulatory Compliance



Project Description and Significance

In this era of shrinking budgets and expanding waste management and cleanup requirements, it is essential that every effort be made to reduce the costs of regulatory compliance without compromising worker and public health and safety. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has become increasingly receptive to proposals for regulatory reform that could result in substantial cost savings for waste management operations, while providing acceptable protection of human health and the environment.


The Office of Technical Services (EM-37) within the Department of Energy's Office of Waste Management has initiated a study of complex-wide waste management operations. This study will identify where external regulatory requirements are primary programmatic drivers, determine if increased protection of human health and the environment can be directly attributed to compliance with these external regulations, and identify the discrete costs associated with achieving that compliance. This effort is also looking both qualitatively and quantitatively at DOE waste streams that pose acceptable risk because the concentrations of radioactive or hazardous constituents are very low. When a single waste constituent poses an overwhelmingly dominant hazard (e.g., the radiation hazard in spent fuel), proposals for an alternative regulatory regime may be developed.


Sandia's Contribution

Sandia has provided technical support for proposed regulatory changes that DOE intends to submit to the Environmental Protection Agency during the comment period for EPA's Hazardous Waste Identification Rule (HWIR), released December 21, 1995. Supporting documents include a technical data package and a performance evaluation.


A technical data package supports the position that mixed debris (debris contaminated with both radioactive and hazardous constituents) treated by immobilization in accordance with 40 CFR 268.45 can be exempted from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), subtitle C land disposal requirements at the time the treatment is complete. A positive ruling by the EPA on this issue would allow immobilized mixed debris to be managed as low-level waste and would result in significant cost savings.


The technical data package supports the position that vitrified mixed waste managed as radioactive waste provides protection of human health and the environment that is at least equivalent to the protection afforded by RCRA Subtitle C controls. The technical data package includes data summary of DOE mixed waste streams that, based on the concentration of hazardous constituents, could potentially be excluded ("delisted") from RCRA Subtitle C requirements. It includes position paper that outlines a risk-based procedure for identifying de minimis levels of hazardous constituents in mixed waste streams and establishes a formal process for waste stream delisting based on analyses and site-specific disposal.


A performance evaluation for RCRA toxic metal disposal in DOE low-level waste disposal facilities has also been prepared to support DOE's imput into the HWIR program.


Future Work

The initial technical data packages and position papers developed by Sandia are being expanded in a team effort between DOE site area offices and contractors to provide comprehensive evidence that supports the proposed regulatory changes. These expanded technical data packages will be submitted to the EPA during the public comment period for the HWIR. Sandia personnel will continue to act as technical advisors and analysts throughout this process.

Sandia's Capabilities


For further information, contact:

Ken Sorenson
Sandia National Laboratories, MS-0720
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0720
Phone: (505) (505) 844-0074
e-mail: kbsoren@sandia.gov

or

Susan Carson
Sandia National Laboratories, MS-0720
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0720
Phone: (505) (505) 845-8713
e-mail: sdcarso@sandia.gov

Submitted October 1996
Layout design by Wanda Mar.