EPA Proposes New Air Limits for Hazardous-waste Burners

Some chemical plants would have to reduce emissions of hazardous air pollutants, also known as air toxics, under a rule proposed by EPA on April 20. The proposal would apply to chemical companies that burn hazardous waste in on-site incinerators used as process heaters or to produce hydrochloric acid from chlorine-containing wastes. EPA has been working for years to set limits on air toxics from facilities that burn hazardous waste. The agency initially issued a rule in 1999, but after a legal challenge by industry and environmentalists over various parts of the regulation, a federal court directed EPA to rewrite the standard. The proposal, which responds to the court's directive, would curb emissions of arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chlorine, chromium, dioxins and furans, hydrogen chloride, lead, manganese, and mercury.