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Solvents
Related Links
Solvents Study (PDF) (52 pp, 304K)
Wipes NODA | Industrial Wipes Proposed Rule - November 20, 2003 | Solvents Final Rule - November 19, 1998 | Proposal Not to List 14 Solvents as Hazardous Waste - August 14, 1996
Hazardous Waste Management System: Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste: Conditional Exclusions from Hazardous Waste and Solid Waste for Solvent-Contaminated Industrial Wipes - Proposed Rule - November 20, 2003
Hazardous Waste Management System; Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste; Solvents Final Rule, November 19, 1998
EPA issued a final decision not to list wastes generated from the use of 14 chemicals as solvents as hazardous under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The determinations in this rule are limited to specific solvent wastes. This rule is a determination only that the solvent wastes considered will not be added to the list of hazardous wastes and is not a determination that the underlying chemicals are nontoxic in all circumstances in which they are used or discarded.
Today's final decision became effective on December 21, 1998.
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Federal Register Notice (PDF) (31 pp, 322K)
Environmental Fact Sheet (PDF) - No Hazardous Waste Listing Determined for 14 Solvents (2 pp, 12K) || Text Version (Text File) (3K)
Support Materials
- Hazardous Waste Listing Determination: Spent Solvents Response to Comments (PDF) (189 pp, 588K)
- Memorandum from Ron Josephson, United States EPA, Regarding the Use of Cyclohexanol at DuPont Sabine River Plant, Orange, TX. October 8, 199* (PDF) (1 pg, 4K) || Text Version (Text File) (1K)
Proposal Not to List 14 Solvents as Hazardous Waste - August 14, 1996
Background
The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 obligated the Agency to study and make a hazardous waste listing determination for solvents. In 1980 and 1986, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) listed a total of 30 chemicals as hazardous waste spent solvents. Many of these solvents were widely used in many different industries, and had caused environmental damage at many sites. Although the Agency listed these solvents as hazardous, other solvents that may have been potentially hazardous to human health and the environment were not examined. As a result of a consent decree issued in June 1991, EPA agreed to make hazardous waste listing determinations on wastes generated from the use of 14 chemicals as solvents.
Action
EPA proposes not to amend the regulations for hazardous waste management under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for wastes generated during the use of certain organic solvents. The Agency proposes not to list as hazardous wastes that are generated from the solvent use of any of the following 14 chemicals: acetonitrile, benzyl chloride, cumene, cyclohexanol, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, epichlorohydrin, ethylene dibromide, 2-ethoxyethanol acetate, furfural, isophorone, 2-methoxyethanol, 2-methoxyethanol acetate, methyl chloride, and phenol.
Based on current management practices and low levels of exposure, the Agency has determined that these solvent wastes pose little or no risk to human health or the environment. Only a few of these chemicals are widely used as solvents, and most either have no significant solvent uses, or have only very specialized solvent uses. The proposal is not a determination that these chemicals are nontoxic. The vast majority of the nonwastewaters residuals generated from solvent uses are, in fact, already regulated as hazardous waste because they exhibit a hazardous waste characteristic. Rather, this is a determination that these specific wastes do not need to be added to the RCRA hazardous waste listings.