United States Environmental Protection Agency Solid Waste and Emergency Response Office of Solid Waste, OSW (Note: Office of Solid Waste, OSW, was renamed Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, ORCR, on January 18, 2009)(5305W) EPA530-F-01-023 October 2001 Environmental Fact Sheet: Three Inorganic Chemicals Now Listed as Hazardous Wastes EPA adds three new wastes from inorganic chemical manufacturing processes to the list of hazardous waste. Regulating these chemical wastes will protect human health and the environment by eliminating potential pathways of exposure. Background The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requires EPA to determine if wastes are hazardous. EPA identifies hazardous wastes in two ways. A waste may be hazardous if it exhibits certain properties (called "characteristics") that pose threats to human health and the environment or if it is included on a specific list of wastes EPA evaluated. EPA "lists" a waste as hazardous when the Agency determines that it poses unacceptable risks to the environment or people. EPA conducted extensive investigations of wastes from the inorganic chemical manufacturing industry. We reviewed specific sectors within the industry including: antimony oxide, barium carbonate, boric acid, cadmium pigments, inorganic hydrogen cyanide, phenyl mercuric acetate, phosphoric acid from the dry process, phosphorus pentasulfide, phosphorus trichloride, potassium dichromate, sodium chlorate, sodium dichromate, sodium phosphate from wet process phosphoric acid, and titanium dioxide. In September, 2000, after making detailed assessments of the waste streams from these sectors, EPA proposed to list three of them as hazardous waste. EPA took extensive comment on the proposed rulemaking. After considering the comments, EPA is making the hazardous waste listings final with modification to the K178 listing. ACTION The Administrator signed a final rule on October 31, 2001 to add three new wastes to the K-coded list of hazardous wastes regulated under RCRA (40 CFR 261.32). K-code wastes come from specialized manufacturing processes, such as those found in the inorganic chemical manufacturing industry. The three wastes are: K176 Baghouse filters from the production of antimony oxide, including filters from the production of intermediates (e.g., antimony metal or crude antimony oxide) K177 Slag from the production of antimony oxide that is speculatively accumulated or disposed, including slag from the production of intermediates (e.g., antimony metal or crude antimony oxide) K178 Solids from manufacturing and manufacturing-site storage of ferric chloride from acids formed during the production of titanium dioxide using the chloride-ilmenite process. The rule also includes the final "no list" determinations made for the remaining 171 wastestreams evaluated for the rule. As part of the rule, EPA is adding the following constituents to Appendix VII of 40 CFR 261 because these constituents serve as the basis for new listings and can pose hazards to human health and the environment: arsenic and lead (K176), antimony (K177), and thallium (K178). Two of the newly listed wastes (K176 and K177) are being issued under the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) to RCRA. This means that the federal government will implement the regulations until the states are authorized for the new listings. The effective date for the HSWA listings is six months after the date of publication. The remaining newly listed waste (K178) is being issued under a non-HSWA provision of RCRA. Therefore, the K178 will become effective on a state-by-state basis as states adopt and then are authorized for the K178 listing. For More Information The Federal Register notice, this fact sheet, and related documents are available on the Internet at