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5. Federal Role
Hazardous Waste Management
· RCRA Subtitle C Program
- Provide compliance assistance to regulated entities subject to new federal regulations.
- Provide compliance assistance to qualifying small businesses in priority sectors (i.e.,
industrial organic chemicals and metal services).
- Provide assistance to IEPA, if requested by IEPA’s BOL and/or Illinois’ Small
Business Program for IEPA delivery of compliance assistance in accordance with
USEPA’s “Policy on Compliance Incentives for Small Business,” issued May 20,
1996, effective June 10, 1996, for RCRA authority regulations.
- Coordinate compliance monitoring and enforcement efforts developed through the
Greater Chicago Senior Managers Enforcement Committee.
- Discuss with, and/or explain to IEPA: (a) new or revised federal RCRA rules, (b)
new or revised Strategic Plans affecting HW, (c) USEPA’s Hazardous Waste Civil
Enforcement Response Policy, (d) USEPA’s RCRA Civil Penalty Policy, (e)
USEPA’s computerized programs to determine financial status of RCRA-regulated
entities, (f) USEPA’s sector-, waste-, or rule-specific enforcement strategies, (g)
RCRAInfo and other U.S. data management developments.
- Provide assistance to IEPA in conducting financial analyses of violators’ claim of
inability to pay for injunctive relief and/or monetary penalties in formal enforcement
actions brought by the State of Illinois.
- Inspect installations handling hazardous waste: Criteria for USEPA’s selection of
installations include (a) statutory mandate (i.e., installations managing hazardous
waste in a manner for which RCRA requires a permit, which are owned and/or
operated by State and/or local governments; and treatment, storage, and disposal
facilities receiving CERCLA waste from off-site locations), (b) requests from IEPA,
(c) Federal facilities, (d) installations subject to open Federal enforcement judicial
and/or administrative decrees/orders, (e) treatment, storage, and disposal facilities
subject to RCRA permit conditions issued, administered, and enforced by USEPA,
and (f) installations handling waste in USEPA’s Regional priority sectors, such as
metal services (electroplating and coating operations) and organic chemicals.
- Investigate and, if necessary, inspect installations in USEPA's National Priority
Sector, such as those handling certain commercial and/or industrial wastes in manners
that illegally evade RCRA requirements for permits. Such operations include (a)
waste-derived fertilizers, (b) metal foundries, (c) waste recycling, and (d)
impermissible diluters of hazardous waste prohibited from land disposal.
- Issue enforcement responses to RCRA violations detected by USEPA, or referred to
USEPA by IEPA, in accordance with USEPA’s Hazardous Waste Civil Enforcement
Response Policy, USEPA’s RCRA Civil Penalty Policy, and relevant USEPA
enforcement strategies.
- Conduct inspections at state and local TSDFs and coordinate any enforcement efforts
with BOL.
