Tech Bulletin: Hazardous Waste Generator Improvements Rule

**The rule is effective as on October 2020. Read the latest here. 

Ohio is currently in the rule making process of adopting federal Generator Improvements Rule. Ohio EPA has come out with a draft version of the rule (along with other rules) for Interested Party Review. Comment period for this review ends on January 20, 2020. These new rules clarify existing requirements, increase flexibility, as well as improve environmental protection.

Our team of environmental, health and safety consultants have been waiting patiently to share more information about the rule—here goes:

To improve generator compliance:

• Replacing the term “conditionally exempt small quantity generator” with the term “very small quantity generator” (VSQG) to be consistent with the other two generator categories—large quantity generator (LQG) and small quantity generator (SQG).
• Clarifying generator categories when both non-acute and acute hazardous wastes are accumulated within a calendar month.

Improving environmental protection:

• SQGs will need to re-notify EPA of their generator activities once every four years instead of a one-time notification.
• Hazardous waste containers and tanks must now be labeled with the hazard of the waste contained within (may be a pictogram or words).
• Including the local emergency planning committees (LEPC) within the SQG and LQG emergency notification process with which a generator may make response arrangements.
• Requiring LQGs to make a quick reference guide to accompany their contingency plan for quicker emergency response.

Generator flexibility:

• Allowing a VSQG or a SQG to maintain existing generator category if an incident occurs in which the VSQG or SQG generates a quantity of hazardous waste in a calendar month that would otherwise bump the generator into a more stringent generator regulatory category.
  • Under the new rule—generators that satisfy the certain conditions do not have to comply with the more stringent generator standards when an unusual event such as a cleanout or an act of nature causes its generator category to temporarily increase.
• VSGQ may send their hazardous waste to an LQG that is under the control of the same person, to consolidate it there before sending it to a RCRA-designated facility, provided certain conditions are met.