Award Date

12-1997

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Environmental Science

Advisor 1

E. Paul Richitt Jr., J.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Studies, University of Nevada Las Vegas

Number of Pages

36

Abstract

In 1976, Congress adopted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to govern hazardous waste. The Act was amended in 1984 with the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments in order to further define the requirements of RCRA. RCRA is meant to protect human health and the environment from the effects of hazardous waste, promote waste minimization, and encourage material recycling and recovery. For this purpose, regulations are implemented that cover every aspect of the hazardous waste problem, including generation, transport, treatment, storage, and disposal.

Generators of waste are the most important part of this chain. As defined in RCRA, a generator is "any person, by site, whose act or process produces hazardous waste identified or listed in Part 261... or whose act first causes a hazardous waste to become subject to regulation". It is the generator's responsibility to ensure its waste is stored properly once it is generated (40 CFR §262.34), to determine if the waste is hazardous (40 CFR §262.11), to notify the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if it is (40 CFR §262.12), and to identify proper waste treatment or disposal options (40 CFR §262.20). Failure by the generator to perform this "cradle-to-grave" tracking of its waste can expose the generator to significant fines and penalties of up to $25,000 per day, per violation (40 CFR §262.10). Therefore, it is incumbent upon the generator to identify its waste products prior to the waste's generation.

Keywords

Hazardous wastes; Nevada Test Site (Nev.); United States. Defense Special Weapons Agency

Disciplines

Environmental Health and Protection | Environmental Sciences

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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