Risk-Based Waste Classification in California

Risk-Based Waste Classification in California
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 1999-08-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309065445

The Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) of the State of California Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of complying with the Regulatory Structure Update. The Regulatory Structure Update is a comprehensive review and refocusing of California's system for identifying and regulating management of hazardous wastes. As part of this effort, the DTSC proposes to change its current waste classification system that categorizes wastes as hazardous or nonhazardous based on their toxicity. Under the proposed system there would be two risk-based thresholds rather than the single toxicity threshold currently used to distinguish between the wastes. Wastes that contain specific chemicals at concentrations that exceed the upper threshold will be designated as hazardous; those below the lower threshold will be nonhazardous; and those with chemical concentrations between the two thresholds will be "special" wastes and subject to variances for management and disposal. The proposed DTSC system combines toxicity information with short or long-term exposure information to determine the risks associated with the chemicals. Under section 57004 of the California Health and Safety Code, the scientific basis of the proposed waste classification system is subject to external scientific peer review by the National Academy of Sciences, the University of California, or other similar institution of higher learning or group of scientists. This report addresses that regulatory requirement.

GAO Documents

GAO Documents
Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
Total Pages: 504
Release: 1988
Genre: Finance, Public
ISBN:

EcoPopulism

EcoPopulism
Author: Andrew Szasz
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 238
Release:
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781452902722

In the popular politics of hazardous waste, Andrew Szasz finds an answer, a scenario for taking the most pressing environmental issues out of the academy and the boardroom and turning them into everyone's business. This work reconstructs the growth of a powerful movement around the question of toxic waste. Szasz follows the issue as it moves from the world of "official" policy-making, onto television and into popular consciousness, and then into neighbourhoods, spurring on the formation of thousands of local, community-based groups. He shows how, in less than a decade, a rich infrastructure of more permanent social organizations emerged from this movement, expanding its focus to include issues like municipal waste, military toxics, and pesticides. Szasz identifies the force that pushed environmental policy away from the traditional approach - pollution removal - toward the superior logic of pollution prevention. He discusses the conflicting official responses to the movement's evolution, revealing that, despite initial resistance, law-makers eventually sought to appease popular discontent by strengthening toxic waste laws. In its success, Szasz suggests, this movement may even prove to be the vehicle for reinvigorating progressive politics.

Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications

Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications
Author: United States. Superintendent of Documents
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1250
Release: 1979
Genre: Government publications
ISBN:

February issue includes Appendix entitled Directory of United States Government periodicals and subscription publications; September issue includes List of depository libraries; June and December issues include semiannual index