§6949a Adequacy of certain guidelines and criteria

Summary

The Administrator must study how well the rules for most solid waste facilities (like landfills and surface impoundments) protect people and groundwater. The study must look closely at the monitoring, prevention, and cleanup rules in sections 6907(a) and 6944 and say whether they are enough. The Administrator must also recommend any extra enforcement powers needed, after talking with the Attorney General. Within 36 months after November 8, 1984, the Administrator must send a report with the study results and recommendations to Congress. By March 31, 1988, the Administrator must update the rules for facilities that may take hazardous household waste or small-quantity-generator hazardous waste under section 6921(d). The new rules must protect health and the environment and at least require groundwater monitoring to detect contamination, set where facilities can be located, and require cleanup when needed. Groundwater monitoring rules do not apply to landfill units that take less than 20 tons per day (annual average) if there is no evidence of groundwater contamination and the landfill serves a community with either at least 3 consecutive months per year of interrupted surface transportation or no practicable alternative and annual precipitation of 25 inches or less. A State can still require monitoring, allow methods other than wells, and must require cleanup if a release is found. An approved State Director may suspend monitoring if an operator proves there is no migration risk to the uppermost aquifer during the life of the unit and post-closure; that proof must be certified by a qualified groundwater scientist and approved by the Director. The Administrator must issue guidance within 6 months after March 26, 1996 to help small communities use the no-migration option. The Governor of Alaska may let the State exempt certain Native village or small remote Alaska village landfills that take less than 20 tons per day if applying the rules would be infeasible, not cost-effective, or inappropriate because of remoteness. Finally, within two years after March 26, 1996, the Administrator must revise guidelines to give more flexibility for landfills that take 20 tons or less per day on cover practices, methane monitoring, final cover layers, and ways to show financial assurance, while still protecting health and the environment and considering climate and geology.