Coal Ash Rule Update: EPA's Proposed Federal Permit Program

Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act was designed to be self-implementing. Unlike Subtitle C, which subjects hazardous waste to extensive federal oversight and permitting requirements, Subtitle D applies to non-hazardous waste and envisions that the states will be primarily responsible for regulating landfills. As long as a facility poses "no reasonable probability of adverse effects on human health or the environment," it is defined as a "sanitary landfill" and is not subject to federal enforcement or stringent oversight under Subtitle D. 

All that may be changing, at least with respect to surface impoundments containing Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR). Using a little-noticed provision in a 2016 law on infrastructure improvements, EPA has proposed a new federal permit program for CCR surface impoundments. While the first phase of the new federal permit program will only apply to certain high hazard sites, it is designed to eventually cover all