California and EPA Hazardous Waste Regulations

A description of the California criteria for classifying hazardous waste is compared witti the federal program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency. While the federal regulations have been fully adopted, California is administering its program under draft criteria that have not been subject to either hearings or adopted. The Federal program is modeled after the California program; and California is the only state to prepare its own in‐dependent, specific procedures for evaluating hazardous waste characteristics. One of the major differences between the California and federal programs is the definition and procedure for defining the toxic characteristics of a waste. Another significant difference of the two programs is that California has no small quantity exclusions for waste output from a waste generator. California does promote the recycling and resource recovery of hazardous waste by exclusion of certain recycled wastes.