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Education

Changing The Rules For Academic Labs

Universities would get a break from current requirements aimed at industry

by Cheryl Hogue
May 29, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 22

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Credit: Photo by Amanda Yarnell
Credit: Photo by Amanda Yarnell

A new proposal from EPA would allow colleges and universities to follow their own unique plans for handling hazardous wastes generated in academic labs.

Currently, institutions of higher learning must comply with prescriptive hazardous waste rules that were written for industrial settings. Universities and colleges, large and small, have struggled to comply with these complex rules. Many have faced enforcement action (C&EN, Nov. 22, 2004, page 43). These institutions have been asking EPA to tailor hazardous waste rules to academic situations.

"It's something we've been looking for for 20 years," says Anne Gross, vice president for regulatory affairs at the National Association of College & University Business Officers, one of several groups seeking the regulatory changes. EPA is proposing a number of modifications requested by academic institutions to hazardous waste requirements, Gross tells C&EN.

The May 23 proposal from EPA would allow colleges and universities to draw up and follow a laboratory management plan for handling waste chemicals left over from teaching or research. Through these plans, institutions must meet the goals of current hazardous waste rules without necessarily following those regulations to the letter. For example, a college's plan might describe in detail how it will maintain hazardous waste containers in good condition by using a system different from that spelled out in EPA rules.

These so-called performance-based standards, the agency says, would allow academic institutions to determine the most appropriate and effective methods for handling laboratory hazardous waste on campus.

The proposal would cover waste generated at on-campus academic laboratories and art studios. It would exclude hazardous wastes from other parts of a college or university, including labs in medical facilities associated with the institution.

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