Terminology Services

RCRA Orientation Manual 2014 Glossary

Description:

Glossary of terms used in the RCRA Orientation Manual 2014

Publishing Organization:

Office of Land and Emergency Management/Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery

Last Update:

October 2014

Program Site:

https://www.epa.gov/hwgenerators/resource-conservation-and-recovery-act-rcra-orientation-manual

Terms & Acronyms

Search Terms

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	Term
	Abandoned	Definition: For purposes of defining a material as a solid waste under RCRA Subtitle C, a material that is disposed of, burned, or incinerated.
	Accumulated Speculatively	Definition: Storage of a material in lieu of expeditious recycling. Materials are usually accumulated speculatively if the waste being stored has no viable market or if a facility cannot demonstrate that at least 75 percent of the material has been recycled in a calendar year.
	Acknowledgment of Consent	Definition: Notice sent by EPA to an exporter of hazardous waste, indicating that the importing country has agreed to accept such waste.
	Administrative Action	Definition: Enforcement action taken by EPA or a state under its own authority, without involving a judicial court process.
	Administrative Procedures Act	Definition: The Act that establishes rulemaking procedures as well as site-specific licensing procedures, access to agency information, and procedures and standards for judicial review of agency actions. All environmental rulemakings proposed and finalized by EPA include public participation throughout the process.
	Aggregation Points	Definition: Centers that accept used oil only from places owned by the same owner and operator as the aggregation point, or from do-it-yourselfers.
	Alternative Concentration Limits	Definition: For purposes of TSDF ground water monitoring, hazardous constituent limits established by the EPA Regional Administrator that are allowed to be present in ground water.
	Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements	Definition: Standards, criteria, or limitations under federal or more stringent state environmental laws, including RCRA, that may be required during a Superfund remedial action, unless site-specific waivers are obtained.
	Authorized State	Definition: A state that has been delegated the authority by EPA to implement and enforce its own regulations for hazardous waste management under RCRA. The state program must be at least as stringent as the federal standards.
	Basel Convention	Definition: The international treaty that establishes standards for global trade of hazardous waste, municipal waste, and municipal incinerator ash. Because the United States is not a party to the convention, U.S. businesses can only export waste to those countries with which the U.S. government has negotiated a separate waste trade agreement.
	Bentsen Wastes	Definition: Geothermal exploration, development, and production waste exempt from RCRA Subtitle C regulation.
	Best Demonstrated Available Technology	Definition: The technology that best minimizes the mobility or toxicity (or both) of the hazardous constituents for a particular waste.
	Bevill Wastes	Definition: Fossil fuel combustion wastes, mining and mineral processing wastes, and cement kiln dust wastes exempt from RCRA Subtitle C regulation.
	Biennial Report	Definition: A report submitted by hazardous waste LQGs and TSDFs to enable EPA and the states to track the quantities of hazardous waste generated and the movements of those hazardous wastes.
	Boiler	Definition: An enclosed device that uses controlled flame combustion to recover and deliver energy in the form of steam, heated fluid, or heated gases.
	Bottom Ash	Definition: Ash that collects at the bottom of a combustion chamber.
	Burners	Definition: Handlers who burn used oil for energy recovery in boilers, industrial furnaces, or hazardous waste incinerators.
	Burning for Energy Recovery	Definition: Burning hazardous waste for its heating value as a fuel, and using wastes to produce fuels or as ingredients in fuels.
	By-Products	Definition: Materials that are not one of the intended products of a production process and includes most wastes that are not spent materials or sludges.
	California List	Definition: Interim LDR treatment standards that ensured adequate protection of human health and the environment during the time EPA was promulgating final LDR treatment standards.
	Capacity Assurance Plan	Definition: A written statement which ensures that a state has hazardous waste treatment and disposal capacity. This capacity must be for facilities that are in compliance with RCRA Subtitle C requirements and must be adequate to manage hazardous wastes projected to be generated within the state over 20 years.
	Cathode Ray Tubes	Definition: Vacuum tubes, made primarily of glass, which constitute the video display component of televisions and computer monitors. These tubes are generally hazardous for lead.
	Cement Kiln	Definition: Type of industrial furnace that receives hazardous waste to burn as fuel to run its cement process. Cement is produced by heating mixtures of limestone and other minerals or additives at high temperatures in a rotary kiln, followed by cooling, grinding, and finish mixing.
	Characteristic Waste	Definition: Waste that is considered hazardous under RCRA because it exhibits any of four different properties: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity.
	Civil Action	Definition: A formal lawsuit, filed in court, against a person who has either failed to comply with a statutory or regulatory requirement or an administrative order, or against a person who has contributed to a release of hazardous waste or hazardous constituents.
	Clean Air Act	Definition: The Act that regulates air emissions from area, stationary, and mobile sources. CAA limits the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere in order to protect human health and the environment from the effects of airborne pollution. Acronym: CAA
	Clean Closure	Definition: The process of completely removing all waste that was treated, stored, or disposed in a hazardous waste unit.
	Clean Water Act	Definition: The Act that sets the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants to surface waters of the United States. CWA imposes contaminant limitations or guidelines for all discharges of wastewater into the nation's waterways. Acronym: CWA
	Closure	Definition: The procedure that a solid or hazardous waste management facility undergoes to cease operations and ensure protection of human health and the environment in the future.
	Codification	Definition: The process by which final regulations are incorporated into the CFR, which is published annually.
	Collection Centers	Definition: Centers that accept used oil from multiple sources, including both businesses and private citizens.
	Combustion	Definition: The controlled burning in an enclosed area as a means of treating or disposing of hazardous waste.
	Commercial Chemical Products	Definition: Unused or off-specification chemicals, spill or container residues, and other unused manufactured products that are not typically considered chemicals. For the purposes of hazardous waste listings, CCPs include only unused, pure chemical products and formulations. Acronym: CCPs
	Compliance Monitoring	Definition: For purposes of RCRA TSDF ground water monitoring, a program that seeks to ensure that the amount of hazardous waste that has leaked into the uppermost aquifer does not exceed acceptable levels.
	Composting	Definition: Processes designed to optimize the natural decomposition or decay of organic matter, such as leaves and food. The end product of composting is a humus-like material that can be added to soils to increase soil fertility, aeration, and nutrient retention.
	Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act	Definition: The Act that authorizes EPA to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites and respond to accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of hazardous substances. CERCLA provides EPA with enforcement authority to ensure that responsible parties pay the cleanup costs of remediating a site contaminated with hazardous substances. Acronym: CERCLA
	Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System	Definition: A computerized database used to track hazardous substance sites.
	Comprehensive Performance Testing	Definition: The initial and periodic evaluation procedure for demonstrating compliance with the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants and establishing revised operating limits for hazardous waste combustors.
	Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines	Definition: A list, updated every two years, which designates items with recycled content that procuring agencies should aim to purchase. This list currently contains 59 items within 8 product categories.
	Concentration Limits	Definition: For purposes of TSDF ground water monitoring, the maximum levels of hazardous constituents allowed to be present in the ground water.
	Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators	Definition: Facilities that produce less than 100 kg of hazardous waste, or less than 1 kg of acutely hazardous waste, per calendar month. A CESQG may only accumulate less than 1,000 kg of hazardous waste, 1 kg of acutely hazardous waste, or 100 kg of spill residue from acutely hazardous waste at any one time. Acronym: CESQG
	Construction Quality Assurance	Definition: A program required by EPA to ensure that a landfill, surface impoundment, or waste pile meets all of the technological requirements.
	Contained-In Policy	Definition: An EPA policy that determines the health threats posed by contaminated environmental media and debris, and whether such materials must be managed as RCRA hazardous wastes.
	Containers	Definition: Portable devices in which a material is stored, transported, treated, or otherwise handled.
	Containment Building	Definition: A completely enclosed structure used to store or treat noncontainerized waste.
	Contaminants	Definition: Any element, substance, compound, or mixture that, after release into the environment and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into any organism, will or may reasonably be anticipated to cause illness, death, or deformation in any organism. The definition of pollutant or contaminant specifically excludes petroleum and natural gas.
	Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems	Definition: A system that directly and continuously measures one or more pollutants exiting a combustion unit.
	Continuous Monitoring Systems	Definition: A device which continuously samples the regulated parameter without interruption, evaluates the detector response at least once every 15 seconds, and computes and records the average value at least every 60 seconds.
	Corporate Guarantee	Definition: The demonstration that a corporate grandparent, corporate parent, or sibling corporation can meet financial assurance requirements on behalf of a TSDF owner and operator. Firms with a "substantial business relationship" with a TSDF owner and operator can also make this demonstration.
	Corrective Action	Definition: An EPA program to address the investigation and cleanup of contamination from solid and hazardous waste facilities.
	Corrective Action Management Unit	Definition: A physical, geographical area designated by EPA or states for managing remediation wastes during corrective action.
	Corrosivity Characteristic	Definition: The characteristic which identifies wastes that are acidic or alkaline (basic) and can readily corrode or dissolve flesh, metal, or other materials.
	Counting	Definition: Totaling the hazardous wastes at a given facility for a particular month in order to determine hazardous waste generator status.
	Covered States	Definition: States that participated in EPA's medical waste tracking program from June 22, 1989 to June 22, 1991, which included Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
	Cradle to Grave	Definition: The time period from the initial generation of hazardous waste to its ultimate disposal.
	Criminal Action	Definition: Enforcement action reserved for the most serious violations, which can result in fines or imprisonment.
	De minimis	Definition: Very small amounts of hazardous waste that are discharged to wastewater treatment facilities and thus, are exempt from the mixture rule.
	Debris	Definition: A broad category of large manufactured and naturally occurring objects that are commonly discarded (e.g., construction materials, decommissioned industrial equipment, discarded manufactured objects, tree trunks, boulders).
	Delisting	Definition: A site-specific petition process whereby a handler can demonstrate to EPA that a particular wastestream generated at its facility that meets a listing description does not pose sufficient hazard to warrant RCRA regulation. Owners and operators can also use the delisting process for wastes that are hazardous under the mixture and derived-from rules that pose minimal hazard to human health and the environment.
	Derived-From Rule	Definition: A rule that regulates residues from the treatment of listed hazardous wastes.
	Designated Facility	Definition: A hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal facility which has received a RCRA permit (or interim status), or is a recycling facility regulated under 40 CFR Section 261.2(c)(2) or Part 266, Subpart F, and has been designated on the manifest by the generator.
	Destination Facilities	Definition: Facilities that treat, dispose of, or recycle a particular category of universal waste.
	Destruction and Removal Efficiency	Definition: Standard which verifies that a combustion unit is destroying the organic components found in hazardous waste.
	Detection Monitoring	Definition: For purposes of RCRA TSDF ground water monitoring, the first step of monitoring at land disposal units, where the owner and operator monitors for indication of a leak from the unit, looking for potential changes in the ground water quality from normal (background) levels.
	Dilution Prohibition	Definition: The LDR requirement that prohibits the addition of soil or water to waste in order to reduce the concentrations of hazardous constituents instead of treatment by the appropriate LDR treatment standards.
	Direct Discharges	Definition: Discharges from point sources into surface water pursuant to a CWA NPDES permit.
	Disposal	Definition: The discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any solid or hazardous waste on or in the land or water.
	Disposal Prohibition	Definition: The LDR requirement that prohibits the land disposal of hazardous waste that has not been adequately treated to reduce the threat posed by such waste.
	Distillation Bottoms	Definition: Residues that form at the bottom of a distillation unit.
	Do-it-Yourselfers	Definition: Individuals who generate used oil through the maintenance of their own personal vehicles and equipment and are not considered used oil generators.
	Drip Pads	Definition: Engineering structures consisting of a curbed, free-draining base, constructed of non-earthen materials, and designed to convey wood preservative chemical drippage from treated wood, precipitation, and surface water run-on to an associated collection system at wood preserving plants.
	Elementary Neutralization Units	Definition: Containers, tanks, tank systems, transportation vehicles, or vessels which neutralize wastes that are hazardous only for exhibiting the characteristic of corrosivity.
	Eligible Academic Entities	Definition: For Purposes of the Academic Laboratories Rule, a college or university, or a non-profit research institute that is owned by or has a formal written affiliation agreement with a college or university, or a teaching hospital that is owned by or has a formal written affiliation agreement with a college or university.
	Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act	Definition: The Act designed to help communities prepare to respond in the event of a chemical emergency and to increase the public's knowledge of the presence and threat of hazardous chemicals.
	Environmental Justice	Definition: The fair distribution of environmental risks across socioeconomic and racial groups.
	Environmental Media	Definition: Materials such as soil, surface water, ground water, and sediment.
	EPA Identification Number	Definition: A unique number assigned by EPA to each hazardous waste generator, transporter, or treatment, storage, and disposal facility.
	Episodic Generation	Definition: The situation in which a generator's status changes from one month to the next, as determined by the amount of waste generated in a particular month. If a generator's status does in fact change, the generator is required to comply with the respective regulatory requirements for that class of generators for the waste generated in that particular month.
	Equipment	Definition: Each valve, pump, compressor, pressure relief device, sampling connection system, open-ended valve or line, or flange or other connector, and any other control devices or systems.
	Exception Report	Definition: A report, submitted by LQGs and SQGs, detailing efforts to locate wastes when a signed copy of the manifest has not been received.
	Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act	Definition: The Act that provides procedures for the registration of pesticide products to control their introduction into the marketplace.
	Federal Procurement Program	Definition: A program that sets minimum recycled content standards for certain designated items and requires procuring agencies to purchase those items composed of the highest percentage of recovered materials practicable.
	Final Authorization	Definition: Authorization by EPA that indicates that a state's program is equivalent to, or no less stringent than, as well as consistent with, federal hazardous waste regulations.
	Financial Assurance	Definition: Under RCRA Subtitle C, the requirements designed to ensure that TSDF owners and operators will have the financial resources to pay for closure, post-closure, and liability costs. Under RCRA Subtitle D, the requirements designed to ensure that MSWLF owners and operators will have the financial resources to pay for closure, post-closure, and corrective action costs.
	Financial Test	Definition: A test of self-insurance which demonstrates that an owner and operator has sufficient financial strength to satisfy the TSDF financial assurance requirement.
	Float	Definition: The lighter materials present in petroleum refinery wastewater. As components of oily waste, float rises to the surface in the first step of wastewater treatment.
	Fly Ash	Definition: Particles of ash, such as particulate matter which may also have metals attached to them, that are carried up the stack of a combustion unit with gases during combustion.
	Formal Administrative Action	Definition: An enforcement action that is taken when a serious violation is detected, or when the owner and operator does not respond to an informal administrative action.
	Freedom of Information Act	Definition: The Act that grants private parties the right to obtain information in the government's possession. FOIA requires each federal agency to establish procedures for handling requests regarding government statutes, regulations, standards, permit conditions, requirements, orders, and policies. Acronym: FOIA
	Generator	Definition: Any person, by site, whose act first creates or produces a hazardous waste, used oil, or medical waste, or first brings such materials into RCRA regulation.
	Ground Water Monitoring	Definition: Sampling and analysis of ground water for the purpose of detecting the release of contamination from a solid or hazardous waste land-based unit.
	Hammer Provisions	Definition: Requirements written directly into RCRA by Congress, as in the case of the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984, that would automatically become regulations if EPA failed to issue its own regulations by certain dates.
	Hazard Communication Standard	Definition: The OSHA standard that provides workers with access to information about the hazards and identities of the chemicals they are exposed to while working, as well as the measures they can take to protect themselves.
	Hazard Ranking System	Definition: A model devised under CERCLA that determines the relative risk to public health and the environment posed by hazardous substances in ground water, surface water, air, and soil. Only those sites with a score of 28.5 (on a scale of 0 to 100) are eligible for placement on the NPL.
	Hazardous Constituents	Definition: For purposes of RCRA TSDF ground water monitoring, those constituents that have been detected in the uppermost aquifer and are reasonably expected to be in or derived from the waste contained in the unit.
	Hazardous Substance	Definition: A comprehensive designation under CERCLA for RCRA hazardous wastes as well as other toxic pollutants regulated by CAA, CWA, and TSCA. EPA has the authority under CERCLA to designate any additional element, compound, mixture, or solution as a hazardous substance. The definition of hazardous substance specifically excludes petroleum and natural gas.
	Hazardous Waste	Definition: A waste with properties that make it dangerous or capable of having a harmful effect on human health and the environment. Under the RCRA program, hazardous wastes are specifically defined as wastes that meet a particular listing description or that exhibit a characteristic of hazardous waste.
	Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Worker Protection Standard	Definition: The OSHA standard that protects the health and safety of workers engaged in operations at hazardous waste sites, hazardous waste treatment facilities, and emergency response locations.
	Ignitability Characteristic	Definition: The characteristic which identifies wastes that can readily catch fire and sustain combustion.
	Incinerator	Definition: An enclosed device that uses controlled flame combustion and does not meet the criteria for classification as a boiler, industrial furnace, sludge dryer (a unit that dehydrates hazardous sludge), or carbon regeneration unit (a unit that regenerates spent activated carbon). Incinerators also include infrared incinerators (units that use electric heat followed by a controlled flame afterburner) and plasma arc incinerators (units that use electrical discharge followed by a controlled flame afterburner).
	Incorporation by Reference	Definition: This occurs when the regulatory language in a state's regulation actually cite, or refer to, the federal regulations.
	Indirect Discharges	Definition: Wastewater that is first sent to a POTW, and then after treatment by the POTW, discharged pursuant to a NPDES permit.
	Industrial Furnace	Definition: An enclosed unit that is an integral part of a manufacturing process and uses thermal treatment to recover materials or energy from hazardous waste.
	Informal Administrative Action	Definition: Any communication from EPA or a state agency that notifies the handler of a problem.
	Inherently Waste-Like	Definition: For purposes of defining a material as a solid waste under RCRA Subtitle C, a material, such as dioxin-containing wastes, that is always considered a solid waste because of its intrinsic threat to human health and the environment.
	Insurance	Definition: A policy to cover the TSDF financial assurance requirement.
	Interim Authorization	Definition: A temporary mechanism that is intended to promote continued state participation in hazardous waste management while encouraging states to develop programs that are fully equivalent to the federal program and will qualify for final authorization.
	Interim Measures	Definition: Under RCRA Subtitle C corrective action, short-term actions to control ongoing risks while site characterization is underway or before a final remedy is selected.
	Interim Status Facilities	Definition: TSDFs that were already in operation when the RCRA standards were established and that are operating under less stringent standards until they receive a permit.
	Lab Packs	Definition: Drums filled with many small containers packed in nonbiodegradable absorbent materials.
	Land Disposal	Definition: For purposes of RCRA Subtitle C regulation, placement in or on the land, except in a corrective action unit of hazardous waste, and includes, but is not limited to, placement in a landfill, surface impoundment, waste pile, injection well, land treatment facility, salt dome formation, salt bed formation, underground mine or cave, or placement in a concrete vault or bunker intended for disposal purposes.
	Land Farms	Definition: See Land Treatment Units.
	Land Treatment Units	Definition: Also known as land farms, land treatment units involve the application of hazardous waste on the soil surface, or the incorporation of waste into the upper layers of the soil in order to degrade, transform, or immobilize hazardous constituents present in hazardous waste.
	Landfill	Definition: For purposes of RCRA Subtitle C, a disposal unit where nonliquid hazardous waste is placed in or on the land.
	Large Quantity Generators	Definition: Facilities that generate more than 1,000 kg of hazardous waste per calendar month, or more than 1 kg of acutely hazardous waste per calendar month.
	Large Quantity Handlers of Universal Waste	Definition: Handlers that accumulate a total of 5000 kg or more of universal waste at any one time.
	Leachate	Definition: Any liquid, including any suspended components in the liquid, that has percolated through or drained from waste.
	Letter of Credit	Definition: A credit document issued to an owner and operator to cover the TSDF financial assurance requirement.
	Liabilities	Definition: Damages that may result from an unexpected release of contaminants into the environment.
	Lightweight Aggregate Kiln	Definition: Type of industrial furnace that produces lightweight aggregate and burns liquid hazardous waste as fuel to run its process. Lightweight aggregate refers to a wide variety of raw materials (such as clay, shale, or slate) which, after thermal processing, can be combined with cement to form concrete products. Lightweight aggregate is produced either for structural or thermal insulation purposes.
	Listed Wastes	Definition: Wastes that are considered hazardous under RCRA because they meet specific listing descriptions.
	Manifest	Definition: Paperwork that accompanies hazardous waste from the point of generation to the point of ultimate treatment, storage, or disposal. Each party involved in the waste's management retains a copy of the RCRA manifest, which contains specific information about the waste.
	Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act	Definition: This Act requires a permit for any material that is transported from a U.S. port or by a U.S. vessel for disposition at sea.
	Marketers	Definition: Used oil handlers who either 1) direct shipments of used oil to be burned as fuel in regulated devices, or 2) claim that used oil to be burned for energy recovery is on-specification.
	Maximum Achievable Control Technology Process	Definition: Technology-based concentration limits developed under CAA to limit emissions of individual constituents from hazardous waste combustion units.
	Maximum Contaminant Levels	Definition: For purposes of RCRA ground water monitoring, contaminant-specific levels borrowed from SDWA that are the maximum levels of hazardous waste or hazardous constituents allowed to be present in the groundwater.
	Medical Waste	Definition: Culture and stocks of infectious agents, human pathological wastes, human blood and blood products, used sharps, certain animal wastes, certain isolation wastes, and unused sharps.
	Memorandum of Agreement	Definition: An agreement between a state's director and its EPA Regional Administrator outlining the nature of the responsibilities to enforce a regulatory program and defining the level of coordination and oversight between EPA and the state agency.
	Military Munitions	Definition: For purposes of defining a material as a solid waste under RCRA Subtitle C, ammunition products and components produced for or used by the military for national defense and security.
	Miscellaneous Units	Definition: Hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal units regulated under RCRA that do not meet any of the other definitions of regulated units.
	Mixed Waste	Definition: Radioactive waste that is also a hazardous waste under RCRA. Such wastes are jointly regulated by RCRA and Atomic Energy Act.
	Mixture Rule	Definition: A rule that is intended to ensure the regulation of mixtures of listed wastes with nonhazardous solid wastes.
	Municipal Solid Waste	Definition: Durable goods (e.g., appliances, tires, batteries), nondurable goods (e.g., newspapers, books, magazines), containers and packaging, food wastes, yard trimmings, and miscellaneous organic wastes from residential, commercial, and industrial nonprocess sources.
	Municipal Solid Waste Landfill	Definition: A discrete area of land or excavation that receives municipal solid waste.
	National Ambient Air Quality Standards	Definition: Regulations promulgated by EPA under CAA for six criteria pollutants - sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and lead - in order to protect the public from toxic emissions to the atmosphere.
	National Corrective Action Prioritization System	Definition: A resource management tool by which EPA sets priorities for the Subtitle C corrective action program.
	National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants	Definition: Standards set by EPA under CAA to control emissions from specific industrial sources.
	National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan	Definition: The NCP contains the regulations that implement the CERCLA response process. The NCP also provides information about the roles and responsibilities of EPA, other federal agencies, states, and private parties regarding releases of hazardous substances. Acronym: NCP
	National Priorities List	Definition: EPA's priority hazardous substance sites for cleanup. EPA only funds remedial actions at hazardous waste sites on the NPL. Acronym: NPL
	Nonsudden Accidental Occurrences	Definition: For purposes of TSDF financial assurance, events that take place over time and involve continuous or repeated exposure to hazardous waste.
	Notice of Deficiency	Definition: A notice requiring that a TSDF permit applicant supply more information for a complete permit application.
	Notice of Intent to Deny	Definition: A notice issued by a permitting agency which tells a TSDF permit applicant that the application does not demonstrate compliance with the RCRA standards.
	Notice of Noncompliance	Definition: An informal letter to a handler written as part of an informal administrative action.
	Notice of Violation	Definition: An informal letter to a handler written as part of an informal administrative action.
	Occupational Safety and Health Act	Definition: The Act that is designed to save lives, prevent injuries, and protect the health of employees in the workplace. OSHA accomplishes these goals through several regulatory requirements including the HCS and HAZWOPER standards. Acronym: OSHA
	OECD Council Decision	Definition: A multilateral agreement by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that establishes procedural and substantive controls for the import and export of recyclables between member nations. Because the United States is a member of the OECD, U.S. businesses can trade recyclables with other member nations.
	Off-Specification Used Oil	Definition: Used oil that is tested and does not meet given parameters for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, flash point, lead, and total halogens.
	Omnibus Provision	Definition: The authority which allows EPA to add conditions to a TSDF permit that are not specifically addressed by the RCRA regulations.
	On-Specification Used Oil	Definition: Used oil that meets all the given parameters for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, flash point, lead, and total halogens.
	Open Dumps	Definition: Solid waste disposal facilities that fail to comply with the Subtitle D criteria.
	Operating Requirements	Definition: Parameters established by a facility and written into a permit that will ensure a combustion unit meets numerical performance standards.
	Operation and Maintenance	Definition: The operation and maintenance phase of the CERCLA response process. Operation and maintenance may include activities such as ground water pump and treat, and cap maintenance. EPA conducts review of operation and maintenance activities to ensure that the remedy selected is still protective of human health and the environment.
	Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development	Acronym: OECD
	Overfiling	Definition: When a state fails to enforce its hazardous waste program properly, EPA can overfile, or enforce a provision for which a particular state has authorization.
	Particulate Matter	Definition: Small dust-like particles emitted from hazardous waste combustion units.
	Payment Bond	Definition: For purposes of TSDF financial assurance, a type of surety bond that will fund a standby trust fund in the amount equal to the value of the bond.
	Performance Bond	Definition: For purposes of TSDF financial assurance, a type of surety bond that guarantees that owners and operators will comply with their closure, post-closure, and liability requirements.
	Performance Standards	Definition: The numerical pollutant emission limits for hazardous waste combustion units developed by EPA.
	Permit-as-a-Shield	Definition: The provision which ensures that TSDF permittees will not be enforced against for violating new requirements that were not established in the original permit.
	Permit-by-Rule	Definition: A special form of a RCRA permit that is sometimes granted to facilities with permits for activities under other environmental laws.
	Permitted Facilities	Definition: Facilities that have obtained a TSDF permit from EPA or the state agency to engage in the treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous waste.
	Petroleum Brownfields	Definition: Abandoned or underutilized industrial and commercial properties where redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental petroleum contamination.
	Point of Compliance	Definition: For purposes of RCRA TSDF ground water monitoring, the vertical point where a TSDF owner and operator must monitor the uppermost aquifer to determine if the leak exceeds the ground water protection standard.
	Point Source Discharges	Definition: Discharges of treated wastewater directly into a lake, river, stream, or other water body. Point source discharges are regulated under CWA.
	Pollutants	Definition: Any element, substance, compound, or mixture that, after release into the environment and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or assimilation into any organism, will or may reasonably be anticipated to cause illness, death, or deformation in any organism. The definition of pollutant or contaminant specifically excludes petroleum and natural gas.
	Post-Closure	Definition: Period after closure during which owners and operators of solid or hazardous waste disposal units conduct monitoring and maintenance activities in order to preserve the integrity of the disposal system.
	Potentially Responsible Party	Definition: The person or persons who may be held liable for hazardous substance contamination under CERCLA. PRPs may include the owners and operators, generators, transporters, and disposers of the hazardous substances. Acronym: PRP
	Precious Metals Reclamation	Definition: The recycling and recovery of precious metals (i.e., gold, silver, platinum, palladium, iridium, osmium, rhodium, and ruthenium) from hazardous waste.
	Preliminary Assessment	Definition: A review of all readily available site information such as maps, deeds, and other records to determine if further CERCLA response action is necessary. During the PA, EPA tries to determine what type of substances may have been released and the potential impacts to human health and the environment. Acronym: PA
	Principal Organic Hazardous Constituents	Definition: Selected organic constituents, which are high in concentration and difficult to burn, that are monitored to ensure a hazardous waste combustion unit's destruction and removal efficiency.
	Process Vent	Definition: Any open-ended pipe or stack that is vented to the atmosphere either directly, through a vacuum-producing system, or through a tank associated with hazardous waste distillation, fractionation, thin-film evaporation solvent extraction, or air or steam stripping operations.
	Processors and Rerefiners	Definition: Facilities that process used oil so that it can be burned for energy recovery or reused.
	Procuring Agency	Definition: Agencies that purchase $10,000 or more worth of an item designated under the federal procurement program during the course of a fiscal year. Procuring agencies include: federal government departments or agencies; state government agencies that use appropriated federal funds for procurement of a designated item; local government agencies that use appropriated federal funds for procurement of a designated item; and government contractors that work on a project funded by appropriated federal funds with respect to work performed under the contract.
	Publicly Owned Treatment Works	Definition: A municipal wastewater treatment plant that receives domestic sewage from households, office buildings, factories, and other places where people live and work. Treatment at a POTW is regulated by CWA. Acronym: POTW
	RCRAInfo	Definition: A database that tracks RCRA Subtitle C facility-specific data (i.e., events and activities related to hazardous waste generators, transporters, and TSDFs), and hazardous waste activity reports, known as biennial reports, that are submitted by LQGs and TSDFs.
	Reactivity Characteristic	Definition: The characteristic which identifies wastes that readily explode or undergo violent reactions.
	Rebuttable Presumption	Definition: For purposes of RCRA, an objective test that focuses on the halogen level in used oil to determine whether the used oil has been mixed with a listed hazardous waste.
	Reclaimed	Definition: For purposes of defining a material as a solid waste under RCRA Subtitle C, a material is reclaimed if it is processed to recover a usable product or regenerated by processing it in a way that restores it to usable condition.
	Record of Decision	Definition: A remedial action plan document that describes the remedy selected for a Superfund site.
	Recovered Materials Advisory Notice	Definition: A notice that provides suggested recycled content levels and other purchasing information for each item designated in the CPG. Procuring agencies can use these levels as guidelines but are encouraged to exceed EPA's recommendations.
	Recovered Materials Content Levels	Definition: The minimum amount of recovered material that designated items under the federal procurement program should contain.
	Recycled	Definition: For purposes of defining a material as a solid waste under RCRA Subtitle C, a material is recycled if it is used or reused, or reclaimed.
	Recycling	Definition: The separation and collection of wastes, their subsequent transformation or remanufacture into usable or marketable products or materials, and the purchase of products made from recyclable materials.
	Recycling Presumption	Definition: The assumption that all used oil that is generated will be recycled.
	Regulated Community	Definition: The group of organizations, people, industries, businesses, and agencies that, because they perform certain activities, fall under the purview of RCRA.
	Regulations	Definition: Rules issued by an agency, such as EPA, that translate the general mandate of a statute into a set of requirements that the regulated community and the agency must work within.
	Remedial Action	Definition: Longer-term CERCLA response actions that ultimately represent the final remedy for a site and generally are more expensive and of a longer duration than removals.
	Remedial Action Plans	Definition: Special form of RCRA permit that a facility may obtain to treat, store, or dispose of hazardous remediation waste at a remediation waste management site.
	Remedial Design/Remedial Action	Definition: Remedial design is a phase in the CERCLA response process in which technical drawings are developed for the chosen remedy, costs for implementing the remedy are estimated, and roles and responsibilities of EPA, states, and contractors are determined. During the remedial action phase, the remedy is implemented generally by a contractor, with oversight and inspection conducted by EPA or the state (or both).
	Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study	Definition: A remedial investigation is a phase in the CERCLA response process that entails an in-depth examination of the nature and extent of contamination at a site and the associated risks to human health and the environment. The feasibility study entails an analysis of remedial action alternatives comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each.
	Remediation Waste	Definition: All solid and hazardous wastes and all media (including ground water, surface water, soils, and sediments) and debris that are managed for implementing cleanup.
	Removal Action	Definition: Short-term cleanup action taken under CERCLA that usually addresses problems only at the surface of a site. A removal is conducted in response to an emergency and generally is limited to 12 months duration or $2 million in expenditures.
	Resource Conservation Challenge	Definition: A major national effort to find flexible, yet more protective, ways to conserve our valuable natural resources through waste reduction and energy recovery. To achieve the goals of the RCC, EPA has formed voluntary partnership programs, including the National Waste Minimization Partnership Program, the Greenspace Alliance, Plug-In to eCycling, Product Stewardship Partnerships, WasteWise, the Coal Combustion Partnership Program, and America's Marketplace Recycles. Acronym: RCC
	Rulemakings	Definition: Rules issued by an agency, such as EPA, that translate the general mandate of a statute into a set of requirements that the regulated community and the agency must work within.
	Safe Drinking Water Act	Definition: The Act designed to protect the nation's drinking water supply by establishing national drinking water standards (MCLs or specific treatment techniques) and by regulating UIC wells.
	Scrap Metal	Definition: Worn or extra bits and pieces of metal parts, such as scrap piping and wire, or worn metal items, such as scrap automobiles and radiators.
	Secondary Materials	Definition: The five categories of solid wastes regulated under Subtitle C, which include: spent materials, by-products, sludges, commercial chemical products, and scrap metal.
	Sham Recycling	Definition: Illegitimate activities executed under the guise of recycling in order to be exempt from or subject to lesser regulation.
	Site Inspection	Definition: An in-depth assessment of on-site conditions, conducted as part of the CERCLA response process, to rank the site's hazard potential by determining the site's hazard ranking system score. Activities to assess the site may include sampling, field reconnaissance, and examination of site records (e.g., topographical maps, logs).
	Sludges	Definition: Any solid, semisolid, or liquid wastes generated from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control device.
	Small Quantity Generators	Definition: Facilities that generate between 100 kg and 1,000 kg of hazardous waste per calendar month.
	Small Quantity Handlers of Universal Waste	Definition: Handlers that do not accumulate 5000 kg of all universal waste categories combined at their location at any one time.
	Sole Active Ingredient	Definition: For purposes of determining if a waste is P or U listed, the only chemical ingredient serving the function of a commercial product formulation.
	Solid Waste	Definition: Any garbage, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations and from community activities. For the purposes of hazardous waste regulation, a solid waste is a material that is discarded by being either abandoned, inherently waste-like, a certain waste military munition, or recycled.
	Solid Waste Management Units	Definition: For purposes of Subtitle C corrective action, discernible units where solid or hazardous wastes have been placed at any times, or any area where solid wastes have been routinely and systematically released.
	Source Reduction	Definition: Maximizing or reducing the use of natural resources at the beginning of an industrial process, thereby eliminating the amount of waste produced by the process. Source reduction is EPA's preferred method of waste management.
	Spent Materials	Definition: Materials that have been used and can no longer serve the purpose for which they were produced without processing.
	Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures	Definition: Regulations establishing spill prevention procedures and equipment requirements for nontransportation-related facilities with certain aboveground or underground storage capacities that could reasonably be expected to discharge oil into or upon the navigable waters of the United States or adjoining shorelines.
	Staging Pile	Definition: An accumulation of solid, non-flowing remediation waste that is not a containment building and that is used only during remedial operations for temporary storage at a facility.
	State Authorization Tracking System	Definition: A tool used by EPA to chart those states that have been authorized to implement the RCRA hazardous waste program.
	Storage	Definition: Holding hazardous waste for a temporary period, after which the hazardous waste is treated, disposed of, or stored elsewhere.
	Storage Prohibition	Definition: LDR provision that prevents the indefinite storage of untreated hazardous waste for reasons other than the accumulation of quantities necessary for effective treatment or disposal.
	Sudden Accidental Occurrences	Definition: For purposes of TSDF financial assurance, events that are not continuous or repeated.
	Superfund	Definition: The common name for CERCLA. Superfund refers to the entire CERCLA program as well as the trust fund established to fund cleanup of contaminated sites where potentially responsible parties cannot be identified, or are unwilling or unable to pay.
	Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act	Definition: SARA, enacted in 1986, reauthorized and amended CERCLA to include additional enforcement authorities, technical requirements, community involvement requirements, and various clarifications. SARA Title III authorized EPCRA. Acronym: SARA
	Supplemental Environmental Projects	Definition: Environmentally beneficial projects which a defendant or respondent agrees to undertake in the settlement of a civil or administrative enforcement action, but which the defendant is not otherwise legally required to perform.
	Surety Bond	Definition: A guarantee which certifies that a surety company will cover the TSDF financial assurance requirement on behalf of the owner and operator.
	Surface Impoundment	Definition: A natural topographic depression, man-made excavation, or diked area formed primarily of earthen materials that is used to treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste.
	Tanks	Definition: Stationary devices used to store or treat hazardous waste.
	Technical Grade	Definition: For purposes of determining if a waste is P or U listed, a commercial chemical product that is not 100 percent pure but is of a grade of purity that is either marketed or recognized in general usage by the chemical industry.
	Temporary Units	Definition: Containers or tanks that are designed to manage remediation wastes during corrective action at permitted or interim status facilities.
	Thermal Treatment	Definition: The treatment of hazardous waste in a device that uses elevated temperatures as the primary means to change the chemical, physical, or biological character or composition of the waste.
	Totally Enclosed Treatment Units	Definition: Units that are designed and constructed to practically eliminate the potential for hazardous wastes to escape into the environment during treatment.
	Toxic Substances Control Act	Definition: The Act that controls the manufacture and sale of certain chemical substances.
	Toxicity Characteristic	Definition: The characteristic which identifies wastes that are likely to leach dangerous concentrations of toxic chemicals into ground water.
	Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure	Definition: A lab procedure designed to predict whether a particular waste is likely to leach chemicals into ground water at dangerous levels.
	Transfer Facilities	Definition: Any transportation-related facility such as loading docks, parking areas, storage areas, or other similar areas where shipments of hazardous waste, used oil, or universal waste are held temporarily during the normal course of transportation.
	Transporter	Definition: Any person engaged in the off-site transportation of hazardous waste, used oil, universal waste, or medical waste.
	Treatment	Definition: Any method, technique, or process designed to physically, chemically, or biologically change the nature of a hazardous waste.
	Treatment Standards	Definition: LDR criteria that hazardous waste must meet before it is disposed.
	Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities	Definition: Facilities engaged in the treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous waste. These facilities are the last link in the cradle-to-grave hazardous waste management system.
	Trial Burn	Definition: Burn conducted to test the performance of a hazardous waste combustion unit over a range of conditions.
	Trust Fund	Definition: A financial mechanism by which a facility can set aside money in order to cover the TSDF financial assurance requirement.
	Underground Injection Control Well	Definition: Units into which hazardous waste is permanently disposed of by injection 1/4 mile below an aquifer with an underground source of drinking water (as defined under SDWA).
	Underground Storage Tanks	Definition: A tank and any underground piping connected to the tank that is used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances and that has at least 10 percent of its combined volume underground.
	Underlying Hazardous Constituents	Definition: Constituents that must be treated in order to meet contaminant-specific levels for purposes of the LDR program.
	Universal Treatment Standards	Definition: Contaminant-specific hazardous waste LDR treatment levels.
	Universal Wastes	Definition: Commonly recycled wastes with special management provisions intended to facilitate recycling. There are four categories of universal wastes: hazardous waste batteries, hazardous waste pesticides that have been recalled or collected in waste pesticide collection programs, hazardous waste lamps, and hazardous waste mercury-containing equipment.
	Use Constituting Disposal	Definition: The direct placement of wastes or waste-derived products (e.g., asphalt with petroleum refining wastes as an ingredient) on the land.
	Used Oil	Definition: Any oil that has been refined from crude or synthetic oil that has been used and, as a result of such use, is contaminated by physical or chemical impurities.
	Violation	Definition: The act or an instance of breaking or disregarding the law.
	Waste Analysis Plan	Definition: A plan that outlines the procedures necessary to ensure proper treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous waste.
	Waste Minimization	Definition: The reduction, to the extent feasible, in the amount of hazardous waste generated prior to any treatment, storage, or disposal of the waste. Because waste minimization efforts eliminate waste before it is generated, disposal costs may be reduced, and the impact on the environment may be lessened.
	Waste Pile	Definition: An open pile used for treating or storing nonliquid hazardous waste.
	Wastewater Treatment Units	Definition: Tanks or tank systems that treat hazardous wastewaters and discharge them pursuant to CWA.
	Zero Discharges	Definition: Wastewater that is not directly or indirectly discharged to a navigable water (e.g., wastewater that is land disposed through spray irrigation) under CWA. Zero discharge facilities are subject to federal or state regulatory limitations that are as strict as those that apply to direct and indirect dischargers under CWA.

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