Hazardous Waste and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

Since its enactment in 1986, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) has been maligned as one of the most confusing environmental regulatory programs.  As a result of the ambiguity inherent in the regulations, agencies implementing them rely on innumerable guidance documents for interpretation.  Stites & Harbison’s familiarity with those documents and other interpretive sources helps the firm advance client positions toward favorable settlements with agencies or, even better, withdrawal of enforcement actions.  Stites has been successful in convincing state agencies to reverse course on several occasions in light of published guidance by USEPA.

Stites has assisted clients in compliance with hazardous waste generator and transporter requirements, avoidance of more extensive requirements applicable to treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs), and obtaining Part B permits if TSDF status is unavoidable.   Stites has overseen RCRA corrective action and helped achieve approved TSDF closures. We have also assisted clients promoting innovative technologies for recycling  hazardous waste. 

Some representative matters include:

  • Demonstrating that notices of noncompliance were inappropriate because the wrong waste characterization methodology was used by the state.
  • Initiating a citizen suit on behalf of an industry client affected by an adjacent industry’s contamination of its property, which migrated onto Stites’ client’s land.  The suit led to acceptable settlement terms.
  • Overseeing RCRA Facility Investigation for an airport, a cement kiln, a chemical company, and a trustee in bankruptcy for a chemical company.
  • Advising paint company in investigation of accidental release of chemicals into soil and groundwater.  Defending the company in enforcement actions by state and federal government and federal citizen suit.
  • Defending enforcement actions and respond to information requests by state and federal agencies regarding RCRA compliance negotiate compliance agreements with state and federal agencies.
  • Assist in licensing commercial hazardous waste facility.

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