EPA Finalizes Rule
on Modernizing Hazardous Waste Regulations for Ignitable Liquids Determinations
EPA finalized changes to the hazardous waste regulations that modernize how the hazardous waste characteristic of ignitability
is determined under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The rulemaking, signed on June 8, 2020, allows the use of additional test methods (see SW-846 Methods 1010B and 1020C) that use modern equipment and techniques, including non-mercury thermometers,
for measuring the flash point of a liquid waste when determining if that waste is an ignitable hazardous waste. These changes reduce potential mercury exposures to humans and the environment by reducing the overall use of mercury-containing products.
This rule also revises the ignitability characteristic by defining the term aqueous in the regulatory exclusion for aqueous liquids
containing alcohols and updating cross references to U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations and making certain other conforming amendments. In addition, this rule is adding mercury thermometer alternatives in the air sampling and stack emissions test methods
in Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste: Physical/Chemical Methods (SW-846);
specifically, Methods 0010, 0011, 0020, 0023A, and 0051.
