NESHAP: Emergency Extension of the Compliance Date for Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Hazardous Waste Combustors

EPA is taking final action to extend for one year the compliance date for regulations for incinerators, cement kilns, and lightweight aggregate kilns that burn hazardous waste, promulgated on September 30, 1999 (NESHAP: Final Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Hazardous Waste Combustors). We are taking this action in response to the Court's opinion in Cement Kiln Recycling Coalition v. EPA, 255 F.3d 855, 872 (D.C. Cir. 2001) issued on July 24, 2001, where the Court vacated the emission standards known as the hazardous waste combustor "floors" and remanded for further proceedings. 255 F.3d at 871. The rules are still in effect, however, because the Court has issued an order (at the request of the parties to the proceeding) which stays issuance of the mandate and vacature does not occur until the Courts issue a mandate. These existing regulations require sources to take actions based on the current compliance date, September 30, 2002. Deadlines for some of these actions are imminent. Given that some delay in compliance will be necessitated as a result of the uncertainty created by the Court's opinion, and that action is needed now because of imminent deadlines which are keyed to the compliance date, it is not appropriate to require sources to comply with the current regulatory schedule. Consequently, EPA is extending the compliance date for one year.