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Glossary

pile of dictionaries, some opened, some closed

Many of the terms we use in documents throughout this web site may be unfamiliar to you. We have included two glossaries to help you out:

LDR Glossary

Area of Contamination (AOC) Policy: EPA interprets RCRA to allow certain discrete areas of generally dispersed contamination to be considered RCRA units. Therefore consolidation of material within an AOC and treatment of material, in situ, within an AOC does NOT CREATE A POINT OF HAZARDOUS WASTE GENERATION FOR PURPOSES OF RCRA.

Best Demonstrated Available Technology (BDAT): The treatment technology that best minimizes the mobility or toxicity (or both) of the hazardous constituents for a particular waste.

Characteristic Waste: Waste that is considered hazardous under RCRA because it exhibits any four different properties: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity.

Contained-in Determination for Soil: Granted by EPA or an authorized state that certifies that soil is no longer considered a hazardous waste. You can apply for a contained-in determination if soil should not be managed as a hazardous waste because:
(1) the soil does not exhibit a characteristic of hazardous waste when generated, or
(2) the soil contaminated with a listed hazardous waste has concentrations of hazardous constituents that are below health-based levels.

Contained-in Policy: The "contained-in" policy dates back to a 1986 memorandum which states that although groundwater is not a solid waste, it can be considered a hazardous waste if it "contains" a hazardous waste. This policy was then applied to soil and debris.

Debris: Any solid material exceeding a 60 mm particle size that is intended for disposal and that is a manufactured object, or plant or animal matter, or natural geologic material.

Decharacterize: Treat a characteristic waste so that it no longer exhibits a characteristic property. For characteristic wastes treated in Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking water Act systems, decharacterize means dilution.

Determination of Equivalent Treatment (DET): A type of variance from the treatment standards in 40 CFR 268.40; applicable when a technology is specified as the treatment standard. Allows an alternative technology to be used in lieu of the specified technology, if the petitioner can demonstrate that the alternative technology can achieve a measure of performance equivalent to that of the specified technology.

Generator: Any person whose act first creates or produces hazardous waste.

Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA): Amendments to RCRA, enacted in 1984.

Listed Waste: Wastes that are considered hazardous under RCRA because they meet specific listing descriptions.

Mixed Waste: Radioactive waste that is also a hazardous waste under RCRA. Such wastes are jointly regulated by RCRA and Atomic Energy Act.

Non-Analyzable Constituents: Constituents that lack appropriate test methods or chemical standards and therefore cannot be properly measured to determine compliance with LDR concentration-based standards in 268.40 and 268.48.

Nonwastewater (NWW): Wastes that do not meet the criteria for wastewaters defined below.

Point of generation (POG) of a Hazardous Waste: The point at which a waste is first determined to be hazardous. For listed wastes this is the point at which the waste first meets the listing description, and for characteristic wastes it is the point the waste first exhibits the characteristic.

Prohibited Wastes: Wastes that have to meet their treatment standards before land disposal.

Restricted Wastes: Wastes that have LDR treatment standards, but can be land disposed without treatment because of an exemption (e.g., a capacity variance).

Soil: Unconsolidated earth material composing the superficial geologic strata (material overlying bedrock) consisting of clay, silt, sand or gravel size particles as classified by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, or a mixture of such materials with liquids, sludges or solids which is inseparable by simple mechanical removal processes and is made up primarily of soil by volume based on visual inspection.

Subtitle C Landfill: A landfill that accepts hazardous waste (including treated hazardous waste).

Subtitle D Landfill: A landfill that accepts nonhazardous waste.

Total Waste Analysis: Analytic test method used to measure compliance with most of the organic treatment standards. Carbon disulfide, cyclohexanone, and methanol treatment standards are measured using toxicity characteristic leaching procedure.

Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP): Analytic test method used to measure compliance with the metal treatment standards.

Transfer Facilities: Any transportation-related facility such as loading docks, parking areas, storage areas, or other similar areas where shipments of hazardous waste are temporarily held during the normal course of transportation.

Transporter: Any person engaged in the off-site transportation of hazardous waste by air, rail, highway, or water.

Treatability Group: A grouping of hazardous wastes that can be treated to similar concentrations using identical technologies.

Treatment, Storage, Disposal Facilities: Facilities engaged in the treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous waste.

Underlying Hazardous Constituent (UHC): Any constituent listed in 40 CFR 268.48, “Table UTS - Universal Treatment Standards”, except fluoride, selenium, sulfide, vanadium, and zinc, which can reasonably be expected to be present at the point of generation of the hazardous waste, at a concentration above the constituent-specific universal treatment standard.

Universal Treatment Standards (UTS): These are the constituent-specific treatment standards found in §268.48.

Use Constituting Disposal: The direct placement of recycled materials, that is wastes or waste derived-products, on the land. Note, remediation activities involving replacement of treated soils onto the land is not a type of use constituting disposal, in part, because it is a supervised remediation instead of an unsupervised recycling activity.

Waste Analysis Plan (WAP): A plan that outlines the procedures necessary to ensure proper treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous waste.

Wastewater (WW): Wastes that contain less than 1% by weight total organic carbon (TOC) and less than 1% by weight total suspended solids (TSS).

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