ARIZONA MINING PERMITTING GUIDE - AZGS Document Repository

Arizona Mining Permitting Guide
General Information, Bevill Amendment - Continued
It is important to work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region or the
authorized state agency to identify whether a waste is or is not subject to RCRA subtitle C.
Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR):
May 26, 1998, Final Rule Promulgating Treatment Standards for Metal Wastes and Mineral
Processing Wastes: Mineral Processing Secondary Materials and Bevill Exclusion Issues;
Treatment Standards for Hazardous Soils, and Exclusion of Recycled Wood Preservation
Wastewaters.
What Wastes Does the May 26, 1998 LDR Rule Cover?
EPA considers mineral processing hazardous wastes to be newly identified or listed for
purposes of determining when LDR prohibitions apply, since their status as hazardous
wastes was not established until after 1984. The final rule applies the Universal Treatment
Standards (UTS) to the newly identified characteristic mineral processing waste.
The rule only applies to primary mineral processing. The rule made no changes to the
regulatory status of extraction/beneficiation wastes.
EPA has amended the rules to define which secondary materials from mineral processing
are considered to be wastes and potentially subject to Land Disposal Restrictions. The
intended effect is to encourage safe recycling of mineral processing secondary materials
by reducing regulatory obstacles to recycling, while ensuring that hazardous wastes are
properly treated and disposed.
The rule eliminates the current regulatory distinctions between mineral processing
sludges, by-products and spent materials and creates a new class of materials referred to as
mineral processing secondary materials eligible for a conditional exclusion from the
definition of solid waste.
EPA is not reopening in any respect the Bevill determinations previously made by the
Agency, including the Agency’s articulation in 1989 of the functional distinctions
between beneficiation and mineral processing (61 Federal Register 2354).
The mineral processing section of the final rule does not alter in any way the regulatory
status of listed wastes or wastes from secondary mineral processing facilities.
Rule Implementation Dates
The requirements related to mineral processing wastes published in the final rule became
effective as of August 24, 1998, with the following exceptions:
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