Fourteen AGs Filed Comments Supporting EPA’s Updated Definition of Hazardous Waste in RCRA

MARCH 26, 2024

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez led a coalition of 14 attorneys general in filing comments supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rule to clarify the definition of “hazardous waste” in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action Program. The AGs explained that this clarification would allow EPA and states to “exercise Corrective Action authority for releases of substances meeting the statutory definition of hazardous waste, even if such substances are not ‘regulatory’ (i.e., not listed or ‘characteristic’ as understood under RCRA) hazardous wastes. The AGs argued that this rule is “consistent with EPA’s longstanding, well supported reading of the statute.”