COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT IMPLICATIONS OF DOCUMENTING COMPLIANCE WITH THE HWC MACT INTERIM EMISSIONS STANDARDS

摘要

The majority of the hazardous waste combustion facilities in the U.S. have recently completed documenting compliance with the Hazardous Waste Combustors (HWC) MACT 1 Interim Standards. Since this compliance effort is largely self implementing, facilities can either rely on historical test data alone, in combination with, or rely solely on new data collected from the Comprehensive Performance Test (CPT). Both the Documentation of Compliance (DOC) and the Notification of Compliance (NOC) required under the HWC MACT program include facility generated information and data that can be subject to administrative or technical adequacy reviews by a regulatory agency. Even though historical data and new data generated under an approved CPT may be relied upon for compliance demonstration and was collected under agency auspices, facilities are not without risk of those results being viewed as not adequately demonstrating compliance under the HWC MACT regulations. A growing number of U.S. HWC facilities are now receiving formal feedback from agencies on DOCs and NOCs in the form of Notice of Deficiency and Notice of Violation Letters despite their good faith efforts to comply with the new regulations. In addition, as semi-annual and other periodic reports are submitted, a growing volume of compliance information will be subject to review by agencies and the public. This paper examines several types of potential deficiencies that facilities have experienced and discusses how agencies and the courts have responded. Included in this paper will be a discussion of compliance and enforcement policy issues that these situations raise in light of historical agency actions relative to the US combustion industry.