Compliance Data and Information Websites Required by the Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Rule

On this page:

• Background
• Compliance Assistance Efforts
• Finalized Initial Open Dump Inventory

Background

The Disposal of CCR from Electric Utilities final rule was published on April 17, 2015 and was effective on October 19, 2015. The rule includes a number of technical requirements that have various compliance deadlines. Among these are a requirement for regulated entities to develop a publicly available website and post compliance information to that website. EPA included Internet posting requirements so that compliance information would be readily available to the public. Read more about publicly available Internet sites.

EPA is required to publish an open dump inventory to assist the states in complying with the directive in section 4003(a)(3) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) that state solid waste management plans shall provide for closure and upgrading of open dumps (e.g., facilities which do not comply with the revised federal criteria). Open dumps, in this context, refer to facilities which are not in compliance with the federal CCR rule.

Under the final CCR rule, compliance dates for specific technical and reporting requirements will continue to arise, so a facility which is not now an open dump could become one at some point in the future. Also, a facility on the inventory could come into compliance with the regulatory requirements and then would no longer be considered an open dump. For this reason, EPA anticipates periodically updating the initial inventory of open dumps.

Compliance Assistance Efforts

As part of the EPA's compliance assistance efforts under the Disposal of CCR from Electric Utilities final rule, in May 2019, EPA sent letters to owners and operators of CCR disposal units covered by the rule. The correspondence notes that EPA is examining the rule’s required elements on the publicly accessible internet sites that facilities are supposed to establish and maintain to comply with the CCR rule. The notification requests that owners and operators verify that their CCR website has all the required information and if needed, update it with the required information. The correspondence also includes tables of the minimum posting requirements and corresponding compliance dates as of April 30, 2019, to assist owners and operators in complying with the rule's requirements.

• View the notification letter to facilities

Facilities that are missing any of the required elements may be included on a future Open Dump Inventory developed by EPA and published on this web page. As noted above, under Subtitle D of RCRA, a facility is defined as an “open dump” if it fails to comply with the applicable regulations, in this case, the CCR regulations under title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 257.

Finalized Initial Open Dump Inventory

EPA has finalized its initial CCR Open Dump Inventory. The facilities that were identified on our draft inventory have either come into compliance with the rule requirements or based on further analysis have been determined not to be subject to the CCR rule. Thus, there are no facilities on this initial open dump inventory.  

The list below provides the disposition of those facilities that were included in the initial draft inventory of open dumps. To develop this list, EPA started with the list of facilities that was used in the Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) for the CCR Rule and facilities that were identified in the structural stability assessments. Then, EPA conducted a review of information available on the web for these facilities and shared this information with the states. Specifically, EPA looked to determine whether these facilities were in compliance with two specific requirements in the CCR rule:

• Did the facility have a website with CCR rule compliance information? and
• Was the required fugitive dust control plan posted on that website?

If a facility had not complied with either of the two requirements listed above, EPA considered the facility an open dump and placed it on the initial draft inventory which EPA posted on August 1, 2016 for comment. EPA shared this initial information with our State partners to ensure that our initial information was correct. Based on comments received, further discussions with the facilities, and review of pertinent materials submitted, EPA has determined that each of the facilities are either not subject to the CCR rule or have complied with the initial requirements of posting their CCR compliance website and their fugitive dust plan.

It is important to note that this initial open dump inventory and analysis covered only two of the many requirements of the CCR rule; the fact that a facility does not appear on the open dump list should not be interpreted to mean that the facility it is in full compliance with all the requirements of the rule. All facilities remain responsible for ensuring their compliance with all of the requirements of the CCR rule, and those that fail to do so will be put on a future version of the open dump inventory.

Finalized Initial Open Dump Inventory as of January 12, 2017