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Land Ban Provisions of the 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA)

Introduction

The 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) ban certain wastes from land disposal but companies can apply for an exemption under the UIC program to dispose of these wastes underground through injection wells. Granting or denying such an exemption is a Federal authority that remains the sole responsibility of the EPA to carry-out. Under this responsibility, the EPA regulates all hazardous waste injection wells disposing of restricted waste in all Region 5 states.

Companies seeking exemption in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin and on all tribal lands within these states must submit a petition/application to our regional office for approval. There are currently 11 active facilities in Region 5 with approved petitions for exemption under the land ban provisions. Four of these facilities are up for a mandatory review to reassess whether the projections on waste isolation remain valid.

To continue injecting banned hazardous wastes under these regulations, operators must:

  1. treat the wastes below the EPA specified contaminant levels (referred to as treatment standards), or
  2. submit a petition demonstrating that there is no migration of hazardous constituents from the injection zone.

We have prepared a general discussion of the containment of wastes under the land ban program to explain the process of obtaining an exemption from the ban on land disposal of hazardous wastes and the components of a no-migration petition.

Land Ban Exemptions in Region 5

In Region 5, the following hazardous waste facilities have approved land ban exemptions:

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, available as a free download, to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more about PDF, and for a free link to the free Acrobat Reader.
State Facility Date of Original Exemption End of Modeling Period* Federal Register Notices**
Illinois Allied Signal, Inc., Danville, IL (Well plugged 11/99) May 8, 1990 2003 (Note: this well has been plugged.) Draft 55 FR 5265 - 5268 (2/14/90)
Cabot Corp., Tuscola, IL Nov. 6, 1990 2007 Draft 55 FR 34739 - 34744(8/24/90)
Final 55 FR 49340 - 49341 (11/27/90)
LTV Steel Co., (now ISG) Hennepin, IL July 24, 1990 2007 Final 55 FR 32294 (8/8/90)
Indiana Bethlehem Steel Corp. (now ISG Burns Harbor), Burns Harbor, IN Aug. 8, 1990 2007 Draft: 55 FR 8527 - 8532 (3/8/90)
Final: 55 FR 32293 - 32294 (8/8/90)
Midwest Steel (now US Steel), Portage, IN Aug. 8, 1990 2007 Draft PDF (4 pp, 133 K)
Final PDF (1 p, 111 K)
Michigan Environmental Disposal Systems, Inc., Romulus, MI Mar. 16, 2004 2026 Draft 67 FR 77981 - 77994 (12/20/02)
Final 69 FR 15328 - 15342 (3/25/04)
Pharmacia & Upjohn, Kalamazoo, MI Feb. 27, 1990 2014 1997 Modification: Final
Pfizer Global Manufacturing , Holland, MI
(f.k.a. Parke-Davis)		 Apr. 6, 1998 Feb. 28, 2009
Ohio AK Steel Co., Middletown, OH
(formerly Armco Steel)		 July 30, 1990 2007 Draft
Final
Final PDF (1 p, 103 K)
Innovene (formerly BP Chemicals, Inc.), Lima, OH May 7, 1992 2011*** Draft 57 FR 8753 - 8759 (3/12/92)
Final 57 FR 23094 - 23095 (6/1/92)
8/19/93 Modification (add Well #4):
Draft 58 FR 39826 - (5/27/93)
Final
9/22/95 Modification:
Draft 60 FR 37892 - 37894 (7/24/95)
Final 60 FR 51476 - 51477 (10/2/95)
Vickery Environmental, Vickery, OH
(formerly Chemical Waste Management, Inc.)
Commercial Hazardous Waste Disposal 		Aug. 7, 1990 2009 Final

*The Modeling Period is the projected operational period of the well that was used in the demonstration of no migration. See the discussion of the containment of wastes under the land ban program mentioned above for more information.

**Notices are published in the Federal Register announcing draft and final decisions. Links will be added here as the documents are made available on the internet.

***Innovene has submitted a petition to renew its exemption connected with the drilling of the proposed fifth injection well.

Withdrawn Petitions in Region 5

Withdrawn Petitions
State Facility Withdrawal Date
Indiana Inland Steel Corp., East Chicago, IN July 30, 1990
USX Corp., Gary, IN Jan. 12, 1990
Michigan BASF Corp., Holland, MI Nov. 9, 1990
Detroit Coke, Detroit, MI Nov. 20, 1991
Total Petroleum, Alma, MI Aug. 27, 1991
Ohio Aristech Chemical Corp., Haverhill, OH Sept. 29, 1990

Information for Petitioners

Companies submitting petitions for exemption from the land disposal restrictions are required to submit copies of all external documents referenced with the petition. However, if the Region 5 UIC office has a copy of the document on file, the petition may reference the copy on file. In these cases, the petitioner does not need to submit a copy of the external document. The documents in this general land ban administrative record are found in the List of Documents.

U.S. EPA Region 6 (the Dallas, TX office) UIC program has also prepared a web page about land ban issues.

Land Ban Regulations

Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR) contains the regulations applicable to these activities and can be searched over the Internet.

Environmental Disposal Systems' Exemption

The Region 5 Water Division has issued several technical documents related to the Environmental Disposal Systems, Inc. land ban petition. (Many of these documents are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.) On November 15, 2002, the Region 5 Water Division announced its proposed response (PDF file, 15 pp, 103 kb) to EDS's petition and prepared a two-page summary. Region 5's final decision was published as a Federal Register notice. Region 5 also prepared a detailed Response to Comments (PDF file, 134 pp, 412 kb) document on the comments received on the proposed EDS Land Ban Decision before issuing the final decision. This document includes detailed discussion of land ban issues in the specific context of the EDS decision.

 

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