Waste Discharges to Land

Overview

  • Overview of Land Disposal (Title 27) Program

    The Land Disposal Program regulates the discharge to land of certain solid and liquid wastes. These wastes include municipal solid waste (MSW), hazardous wastes, designated wastes, and nonhazardous and inert solid wastes. In general, these wastes cannot be discharged directly to the ground surface without impacting groundwater or surface water, and therefore must be contained to isolate them from the environment. The regulations applicable to these discharges are found in Title 27, for nonhazardous wastes, or Chapter 15 of Title 23, for hazardous wastes, of the California Code of Regulations. These regulations have both prescriptive and performance standards for waste containment, monitoring, and closure. The requirements are implemented through the adoption of Waste Discharge Requirements for the disposal facilities.

  • Overview of Waste Discharge Requirements (Non-Chapter 15) Program

    The Waste Discharge Requirements (WDR) Program regulates all point source discharges of waste to land that do not require full containment (which falls under the Land Discharge Program), do not involve confined animal facilities, and involve no discharge of a pollutant to a surface water of the United States (which falls under the NPDES Program), but does include discharges to surface waters not subject to the NPDES Program. Each point of potential release of waste constituents, whether a feature for waste storage, treatment, disposal, or recycling, must be evaluated separately to determine under what program it must be regulated. Waste discharge requirements adopted under the WDR Program protect surface water by either proscribing discharge of a pollutant to waters of the U.S. or prescribing requirements for discharge to surface waters not waters of the U.S., and they protect groundwater by prescribing waste containment, treatment, and control requirements. Over 1200 discharges in this Region are regulated by orders adopted under the WDR Program.

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