§6949a Adequacy of Certain Guidelines and Criteria

Summary

Requires the EPA Administrator to study whether the rules for solid waste sites, like landfills and surface impoundments, do enough to keep groundwater safe. The study must check monitoring, prevention, and cleanup rules and say if the EPA needs more enforcement power. The EPA must send Congress a report with the study results within 36 months after November 8, 1984. The EPA also had to update certain rules by March 31, 1988 for facilities that might get hazardous household waste or small-quantity hazardous waste. Those updates must, at minimum, require groundwater checks to detect contamination, set where sites can be located, and require cleanup when needed. Small municipal landfills that take under 20 tons per day (annual average) can be exempt from the groundwater monitoring rule if there is no evidence of contamination and they serve isolated or transportation-disrupted communities or places with no practical alternatives and 25 inches or less of annual rain. A State may still require monitoring to protect groundwater, and may allow methods other than wells. If a release is found, the State must require cleanup. A State director can suspend monitoring if a qualified groundwater scientist certifies there is no risk of contaminants reaching the top aquifer during use and post-closure, and the State approves it. By March 26, 1996 plus 6 months, the EPA had to issue guidance on using that no-migration option, and within 2 years after March 26, 1996 the EPA must give approved States more flexibility for small landfills (20 tons or less) on cover, methane checks, final cover layers, and financial assurance, while still protecting health and the environment.