Treatment Alternatives for Contaminated Soil

Contaminated soil is designated by the EPA as a unique type of treatable waste. Hazardous waste sites often produce contaminated soil, which must be handled as contaminated waste. Because the treatments designated for wastewater and non-wastewater hazardous materials cannot be easily applied to contaminated soil, the EPA developed a special set of rules to ensure that this type of hazardous material was properly treated.

Soil that is contaminated with hazardous materials cannot be disposed of using land disposal until it has been treated to meet LDR program standards. The soil may be treated to meet the requirements of either the waste-specific treatment standards set out by the LDR program, or to meet the soil-specific standards found in 40 CFR 268.49.

The soil standards require reduction of any hazardous elements present in the soil by 90 percent, or 10 times the Universal Treatment Standards (UTS), whichever is achieved first. The UTS table provides numerical targets for both wastewater and non-wastewater situations that handlers can use in determining whether the presence of a hazardous material has been sufficiently reduced. This table is provided at 40 CFR 268.48.

To learn more about RCRA visit our RCRA Hazardous Waste Safety Online Training web page.