The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery recently released two documents to support the beneficial use of industrial non-hazardous secondary materials-a methodology for evaluating beneficial use and a compendium of resources. These documents are part of an ongoing EPA effort to provide resources on evaluating beneficial use following the issuance of its rule on the disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCR), including fly ash (see related , Jan. 2015).
While EPA’s CCR rule allows for several beneficial uses of these materials that follow prescribed criteria, it requires the evaluation of potential impacts of uses such as large-scale, “unencapsulated” applications. The new methodology and compendium relate to both encapsulated and unencapsulated beneficial uses of industrial non-hazardous secondary materials. According to EPA, these resources will “help address one of the primary barriers to increasing beneficial use of secondary materials: a lack of risk information and tools to help decision-makers evaluate the potential for adverse impacts to human health and the environment.”
- (BU Methodology): The BU Methodology presents EPA's approach for evaluating a wide range of industrial non-hazardous secondary materials (secondary materials) and their associated beneficial uses.
- (BU Compendium): The BU Compendium is a companion document to the BU Methodology. It provides a more detailed discussion of specific considerations that may arise in particular evaluations, as well as a list of existing tools and resources (e.g. fate and transport models, human or ecological screening benchmarks, etc.) that can assist with these evaluations.
In addition to these new resources, EPA has previously released a for the beneficial use of fly ash as a replacement for Portland cement in concrete, flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum used as a replacement for mined gypsum in wallboard, and silica-based foundry sands used in soil-related applications (see related , Feb. 2014). As outlined in the CCR disposal rule, an important criteria for unencapsulated uses, such as fill, is to evaluate potential contamination to ground water. In 2015, EPA updated its to help evaluate potential impacts to ground water in structural fill and roadway applications.
For more information, contact Melinda Tomaino at tomainom@agc.org or (703) 837-5415.