On May 11, 2017, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) initiated rulemaking to amend Regulation No. 23: Hazardous Waste Management to incorporate rule changes finalized by US EPA. The public notice, public hearing, and public comment period of the regulatory amendments were been completed.
On July 7, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals issued an opinion concerning petitions for review of a related final regulation promulgated by EPA. This opinion vacated Factor 4 of the Legitimacy Test, vacated most of the Verified Recycler Exclusion, and reinstated the Transfer Based Exclusion. In the future the Court will consider the parties’ motions before issuing a mandate, and there is no specific timeline for the issuance of the mandate. After the Court issues the mandate, EPA will issue a Final Rule to make the revisions mandated by the Court.
Due to pending litigation and to avoid Regulation 23 from being interpreted as being more stringent than federal regulation, ADEQ has determined that the pending regulatory amendments to Regulation 23 should be withdrawn.