Washington "State-Only" Dangerous Waste Cheri Grasso Health and Environmental Investigator Local Hazardous Waste Management Program

Federal vs. State n n Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates hazardous waste at federal level -- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act or RCRA n n EPA allows states to develop hazardous waste management programs n n Washington State Dangerous Waste Regulations - more stringent

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) n Ignitable n Corrosive n Reactive n Toxic –U List –P List –List of 40 chemicals and metals

Washington State Dangerous Waste n RCRA + additional toxic criteria n Book designation or fish bioassay n Persistence

Book Designation n Need toxicity data -concentration where half of animals were killed –Registry of Toxic Effects Chemical Substances (RTECS) –Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) n Find toxic category and then plug into a formula

Example: Aspirin n Salicylic Acid, 325 mg n RTECS data - LD50 oral rat is 200 mg/kg n Calculate percentage of salicylic acid in tablet n MSDS available but lacking essential information

Bioassay n Used when toxicity data not available n Add specified concentration of waste to holding tank with rainbow trout; if 50 percent or more die in a 96-hour period then it is toxic

Persistence n n Halogenated organic compounds (hoc’s) toxic if more than 0.1% –Brompheniramine (Dimetapp) OTC –Chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton) OTC –Chloramphenicol (antibiotic) n Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pah) if more than 1.0%

State-Only Wastes More Examples n Insufficient data: –Prozac (fluoxetine hydrochloride), –Viagra (sildenafil citrate), –Aleve (naproxen sodium) –Pepto-Bismol (bismuth subsalicylate) n Toxic C category –Methylphenidate (Ritalin)

Toxic D Category –Tetracycline, –Ephedrine, –Pseudoephedrine, –Ibuprofen, –Dimenhydrinate (Dramamine)

Chemotherapy Drugs n 47 evaluated, –18 insufficient data; –29 state-only dangerous waste

Disposal Practices n Solid Waste or Sanitary Sewer n Transfer Storage and Disposal facilities n Spokane’s Waste to Energy facility (combustion) n Citizen questioned legality. Ecology agreed. Spokane WTE then refused it.

Exclusion Requested n n IRAC Pharmaceutical Workgroup requested Ecology to exclude pharmaceutical waste from “state-only” portion of the dangerous waste regulations