Last week, the Environmental Daily Advisor discussed listed hazardous wastes, SPCC plan amendments, and liquified petroleum gas in rail cars.

Here's the Environmental Daily Advisor week in review.

Hazardous Waste Determination--How does EPA tell you figure out if your solid waste is hazardous under RCRA regulations? One way is to look at EPA's lists of hazardous wastes. The other is to determine the waste's characteristics.

What Are Listed Hazardous Wastes?--Listed wastes are wastes that are determined by EPA to be hazardous because EPA found them to pose substantial present or potential hazards to human health or the environment.

When Are Amendments Required to SPCC Plans?--Basically, there are two types of SPCC plan amendments--those that the facility operator performs within 6 months of a change that materially affects a facility’s potential for a discharge, and those that must be conducted as directed by the applicable EPA Regional Administrator (RA).

Amending Your SPCC Plan: When EPA Does Not Have to Be Involved--SPCC plans require updating and amending to reflect changes in site conditions and operations. In addition, training, mock events, and paperwork updates should be included in reviews of the SPCC plan. Basically, there are two types of plan amendments--those that the facility operator performs within 6 months of a changes that materially affects a facility’s potential for a discharge, and those that must be conducted as directed by the applicable EPA Regional Administrator (RA). There are some instances when EPA doesn’t have to be involved.

LPG Odorants in Rail Tank Cars --Adding odorants to shipments of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a safety measure that exists in both state and federal regulations and industry codes. The rules and standards are intended to allow individuals to detect by odor a leak of LPG and prevent a condition called “odorant fade,” which may result in the inability of an individual with a normal sense of smell to detect a leak.

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