Valvoline
MICHAEL J. DUFFY
Vice President, Environmental, Health & Safety
(606) 357-7457

                                        June 4, 1998


VIA TELECOPY AND REGULAR MAIL

RCRA Docket Information Center
Office of Solid Waste (name changed to Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery on January 18, 2009) (5305G)
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20460


     Re:  Docket Number F-98-CUOP-FFFFF
     Proposed Rule, May 6, 1998 Federal Register, 63 FR
     25006-25010

The Valvoline Company, a division of Ashland Inc. ("Valvoline")
is pleased to take this opportunity to provide the United States
Environmental Protection Agency ("U.S. EPA" or "Agency") with
comments on the referenced proposal to eliminate errors and
clarify ambiguities in the used oil management standards.

Before providing specific comments on the recent proposal, a
brief explanation of why Valvoline is in a unique position to
provide a broad based, real world perspective to its comments is
appropriate. Valvoline is a large and diverse company with
several operating divisions and subsidiaries involved in the
generation and transportation of used oil and related automotive
wastes. Valvoline has been in existence for over 135 years and
its primary business over that period of time has been the
production of motor oil, particularly for the do-it-yourself
(DIY) market; those individuals that change their own oil and
work on their own car. Today, Valvoline manufactures and sells
many lines of automotive related products, both for DIYers and
for installers - those businesses that make a living servicing
cars.

In the last decade, Valvoline has taken a number of steps to
implement product stewardship programs for the products that it
manufactures and sells, including used oil and used oil filters.
Of primary significance, in 1990, Valvoline purchased the used
oil collection assets of an Indiana based re-refiner and formed a
new company to provide used oil collection services to not only
Valvoline-owned facilities, but to industry at large. This new
company was named Ecogard, Inc., and a division known as First
Recovery was created to provide the used oil collection services
for the industrial, installed and retail markets on a national
basis. First Recovery currently collects more than 50 million
gallons of used oil on an annualized basis in 48 states. Over
time, First Recovery expanded its services to include other
automotive related wastes, including used oil filters, used
antifreeze, the new SystemOneŽ and traditional parts washers and
fluids or mineral spirits.

Although Valvoline fully supports the adoption of each of the
four separate clarifications and corrections, our comments relate
primarily to the issue of the applicability of the used oil
management standards to PCB contaminated used oil.

As noted in the preamble, there has been considerable confusion
within the industry regarding which management standards applied
to used oil containing detectable levels of PCBs, particularly
material containing greater than 2 ppm but less than 50 ppm PCBs.
We applaud the Agency's unambiguous statement that used oil
containing PCBs is effectively regulated under a three tiered
scheme:

     1. Used oil fuel containing less than 2 ppm PCBs and
     otherwise meeting the requirements of Part 279.11 is
     "specification" used oil fuel and no longer subject to
     regulation.

     2. Used oil fuel containing greater than 2 ppm but less than
     50 ppm PCBs is regulated, subject to the specific
     limitations of Part 761.20(e), as "off-specification" used
     oil fuel under Part 279.

     3. Used oil fuel containing 50 ppm or greater is regulated
     under Part 761.

The elimination of this confusion will further encourage the
responsible, cost effective recycling of used oil.

In summary, First Recovery and Valvoline wholeheartedly support
the regulatory changes proposed by the U.S. EPA and encourage the
Agency to adopt the regulatory changes as proposed with no
modifications. We thank the Agency for their attention to this
issue and are very pleased with the direction it has taken. If we
can be of any assistance to the Agency, please do not hesitate to
let us know.

                              Very Truly Yours,



                              Michael J. Duffy