The EPA has six minor-ish changes to its haz rules for college and university labs. In the Monday, Dec. 20, 2010, Federal Register, the EPA issued a notice that it is taking direct final action for six technical corrections to an alternative set of hazardous waste generator requirements known as the "Academic Laboratories rule" or "Subpart K." The rule is applicable to laboratories owned by eligible academic entities. These changes correct errors published in the Academic Laboratories Final rule, including omissions and redundancies, as well as remove an obsolete reference to the Performance Track program, which has been terminated.

Several of the corrections are not worth mention. The relative ones:

• Correction to the definition of "central accumulation area" to make sure facilities remember that large quantity generators are also subject to Sec. 262.34(b), if they accumulate hazardous waste for more than 90 days.
• Eligible academic entities that choose to opt into Subpart K are required to have a written LMP with two parts, and a total of nine elements. The two parts are the only parts (as opposed to seven "mystery" parts).
• In-line containers were added to the container management standards, allowing venting of a container when it is necessary for the proper operation of laboratory equipment, such as with in-line collection of unwanted materials from high performance liquid chromatographs.

The rule is effective on March 7, 2011.

SOURCE: Federal Register