Many communities in America are faced with a garbage disposal problem. In 1994, we generated over 209 million tons of municipal solid waste, and the annual volume is expected to be more than 220 million tons by 2000. Although many landfills are reaching capacity, few new landfills are being created, partly because people do not want to 1ive near a landfill.

While new approaches to managing municipal solid waste, such as encouraging source reduction and increasing incentives for recycling, have reduced the burden on existing landfills, there will always be a need for land disposal. Therefore, EPA has established minimum standards for assuring the safe and effective management of municipal solid waste landfills (MSWLFs).

The MSWLF standards, found in Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), greatly reduce the possibility that landfills will become sources of pollution by, for example, describing measures that must be taken to guard against groundwater contamination and identifying areas where landfills may and may not be built. States and local governments are responsible for implementing and enforcing the Subtitle D standards.

In developing the RCRA Subtitle D MSWLF standards, EPA gave a great deal of consideration to the impacts on local governments. Wherever possible, EPA made the regulations flexible in order to provide small communities with relief from some of the more costly technical requirements.

Do These Regulations Apply to Your Community?

If your government owns or operates a MSWLF that has accepted waste any time after October 9, 1991, these regulations apply. Landfills that received wastes on or after October 9, 1993, are subject to full MSWLF regulation. Landfills that stopped accepting waste between October 9, 1991, and October 9,1993, need only comply with the final cover requirements (see section on "Closure and Post Closure Care" that follows).

Remember that MSWLFs are landfills that accept only household waste, including garbage, trash and sanitary waste in septic tanks. "Household wastes" are wastes from single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds and day?use recreation areas. Surface impoundments, landfills that accept industrial hazardous waste, waste piles, land application units and units accepting only industrial non?hazardous waste (for example, construction or demolition landfills) are not considered to be MSWLFs.

Certain small landfills have been exempted from some of the MSWLF requirements. For more information, please refer to the "Exemptions for Small Landfills" section on page 56.

Actions Your Community Should be Taking

The following is a brief explanation of the minimum federal regulations applicable to MSWLFs. Keep in mind that these requirements may vary in states with approved permit programs. For more details regarding the requirements that are applicable to your facility, contact your state agency responsible for permitting MSWLFs. Also keep in mind that citizens have the right to sue landfill owners and operators who are not in compliance with the federal regulations in federal court, so it is critical to ensure full compliance by your facility.

Location Standards

The place where a landfill is sited will have a tremendous bearing on the impact that landfill has on the surrounding environment. To minimize any detrimental impacts, location standards dictate where a landfill may and may not be placed. For example, landfills cannot be located in areas that are prone to flooding unless the owner and operator can prove the landfill is designed to withstand flooding and prevent waste from washing out. Landfills are also prohibited from being located in fault areas, seismic zones, or other unstable areas, and cannot be sited too near wetlands or airports.

Operating Criteria

The MSWLF regulations also stipulate operating criteria, in order to ensure that all necessary steps are taken to ensure a landfill's integrity and safety. For example, MSWLFs are prohibited from accepting certain types of wastes such as hazardous wastes and liquids. To meet these requirements, MSWLFs must develop programs to keep regulated wastes out of their units. EPA's Universal Waste Rule, for instance, establishes program requirements that impact the manner in which waste batteries, pesticides, and thermostats are to be managed in your MSWLF.

Landfills must control storm water run-off and ensure that the landfill is covered at the end of each day, to protect against insects and vermin. Most landfills, unless they qualify for an exemption, must install monitoring systems to detect groundwater contamination, and must correct any contamination that is discovered.

MSWLFs must also comply with EPA requirements regarding emissions of methane and non-methane organic gases. EPA recently issued a rule that regulates such emissions, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), and odorous compounds, from certain MSWLFs. New landfills, constructed after May 30, 1991, must install and start up gas collection control systems within 30 months of becoming covered by this rule.

Design Criteria

The federal regulations also require that new and expanding landfills be designed to protect surrounding groundwater from contamination above the federal limits for safe drinking water. To ensure this, EPA stipulates specific requirements for liners and collection systems to capture and treat any liquids leaching from the landfill. In states with EPA-approved permitting programs, landfill owners and operators may have greater flexibility to design their landfill units to suit local circumstances, providing the state program director approves the design.

Closure And Post-Closure Care

When a landfill stops accepting waste, it cannot be simply abandoned. The owner or operator must continue to maintain the final cover, continue to monitor the groundwater, and perform other maintenance activities for a full 30 years after the MSWLF stops accepting waste. These requirements have been established to ensure that the landfill poses no threats to the environment.

Financial Assurance

To ensure that funds are available to correct any possible environmental problems that arise, landfill owners and operators are required to show that they have the financial means to cover expenses for site closure, post-closure maintenance, and potential cleanups. The regulations spell out ways to meet this requirement, including (but not limited to) surety bonds, insurance and letters of credit.

In December of 1993, EPA proposed two new financial assurance mechanisms available exclusively to local governments: a local government financial test and a local government guarantee. Having these new mechanisms available will give local government even more flexibility in meeting their financial assurance requirements.

Special Exemption for Small Landfills

In the Land Disposal Program Flexibility Act of 1996 (the Act), Congress called on the EPA Administrator to revise many of the MWSLF regulations as they apply to small landfills (those that receive 20 tons of less of waste per day, averaged yearly). The Act created an specific exemption for small landfills that show no evidence of ground water contamination and serve a community that either has no ready access to other disposal sites for extended periods of time (at least three months of surface transportation interruption) or that is located in a dry area having no practicable waste management alternative. States may still require groundwater monitoring at these landfills if it is determined to be necessary to protect groundwater resources. The Act requires that the Administrator ease the burden on small landfills even further, however, by giving states the flexibility to approve alternatives to requirements such as cover applications, methane gas monitoring, and financial assurance demonstrations for small landfills. These revisions are to be promulgated by EPA within two years of the enactment of the Act (i.e., by 1998).

Timetable

Any municipal solid waste landfill unit that accepts waste after October 9, 1993, must comply with the MSWLF regulations (unless it is covered by an exemption). The current compliance schedule is as follows:

• Location restrictions, operating criteria, design criteria (new and lateral expansion units only) and closure/post-closure care requirements took effect on October 9, 1993.
• Groundwater monitoring and corrective action requirements will take effect for your facility some time from October 9, 1994 to October 9, 1996, depending on the unit's proximity to a drinking water intake, or in accordance with an approved state schedule.
• Financial assurance requirements for all municipal solid waste landfills are effective April 9, 1997.
• New landfills must comply with the air emissions standards 30 months after they become regulated under the rule. Existing landfills must comply 30 months after the applicable state emission standard under which they will be regulated takes effect.

Additional Information

The MSWLF regulations are published in Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations, Parts 260-392. The Universal Waste Rule was published at 60 Federal Register 25492 on April 11, 1995.

For more information about specific requirements for solid waste landfills in your area, contact your state official, or contact one of the sources listed below.

The RCRA Hotline provides information about RCRA regulations and policies and takes documents requests.
Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. EST, Monday-Friday.
Telephone: 1/800/424-9346
TDD (hearing impaired): 1/800/553-7672
Washington metro area: 703/920-9810
TDD: 703/486-3323

The RCRA Information Center (Docket) maintains and tracks policy and guidance documents, provides non-technical assistance and written reference services, and develops and disseminates public information materials.

Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST, Monday-Friday
Telephone: 202/260-9327

The Solid Waste Assistance Program (SWAP) collects and distributes information on all aspects of municipal solid waste management. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST, Monday-Friday
Telephone: 1/800/677-9424

(See Resource Section for solid waste contacts)