[Fwd: EPA Mixed Waste Proposed Ruling Notice]

[William V Lipton <liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM>]

I'm forwarding this message from Dr. Alan Waltar, President of the Eagle

Alliance,with his permission.  



Bill Lipton

liptonw@dteenergy.com



Dear Colleagues:



I just became aware that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

is considering an innovative approach to nuclear matters.  Although

their new proposal is narrowly targeted to one facility, this proposal

has the potential to be generically applied, and will have a very large

impact in the pharmaceutical industry.  Their approach is now out for

public comment, with responses due by August 23.  Hence, your letter of

support could be significant in facilitating the final rulemaking.



Specifically, the proposal is contained in the Federal Register/Vol. 66,

No. 142/Tuesday, July 24, 2001/pp. 38396-38405 "Project XL Site-specific

Rulemaking for the Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc. facility in Spring

House, Pennsylvania.



In the rulemaking, the EPA is proposing site-specific regulatory relief

from RCRA so that small volumes of mixed waste (LLMW) may be treated

using thermal treatment, and the residues disposed as LLRW.



"In this specific XL pilot project, EPA is testing its belief that, in

certain scenarios (e.g., small volumes of pharmaceutical R&D-generated

LLMW being treated by a bench-scale high temperature catalytic oxidation

unit in a NRC-licensed laboratory), NRC regulatory oversight provides

sufficient safeguards to ensure protection of human health and the

environment without additional RCRA Subtitle C oversight."



If this project is a success, EPA will move to adopt this site-specific

exclusion as a nationwide generic exclusion.



To help facilitate your action, Dr. Philip G. Williams of the National

Tritium Labeling Facility in Berkeley, CA has a sample letter that you

can easily modify as you deem necessary.  Information on the proposed

rule and the sample letter is available for download at:

http://home.pacbell.net/pgwillia/ortho/index.html.



Even though this is a relatively narrow issue, success here could lead

to a much larger gain.  Hence, I feel the Eagle Alliance membership

would like to be informed and involved.



Thanks for your support,



Alan E. Waltar, EA President



Beth Earl '00

Outreach Coordinator

Department of Nuclear Engineering,

Office Manager,

Eagle Alliance

Texas A&M University

129 Zachry Engineering Center

3133 TAMU

College Station, TX  77843-3133

Ph: 979-458-1061

Fax: 979-458-1031

Email:  bethearl@trinity.tamu.edu

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