U.S. Ecology Nevada, Inc. High Mercury Subcategory Wastes Land Disposal Restrictions Variance

What it does

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is granting, with conditions, U.S. Ecology Nevada Inc.'s (USE) petition for a site- specific treatability variance (SSTV) from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) treatment standards. USE's petition is for a variance from the existing treatment and disposal standard for elemental mercury waste generated from retorting high mercury waste as prescribed by the LDR technology-based standard of RMERC. The petition demonstrated that the LDR standard for placing elemental mercury waste generated from RMERC back into commerce for reuse is inappropriate and the alternative treatment variance proposed by USE is sufficient to minimize threats to human health and the environment posed by land disposal of the waste. Under the approved SSTV, the existing LDR treatment standard of RMERC will continue to apply to high mercury hazardous wastes, but the elemental mercury generated from this process will be treated and land disposed subject to specified conditions at both Bethlehem Apparatus's facility in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and USE's Beatty, Nevada, subtitle C treatment, storage, and disposal (TSD) facility where the treated mercury wastes will be disposed in a designated RCRA subtitle C compliant monofill.

The Environmental Protection Agency's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

1 part of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

40 CFR 268

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The Environmental Protection Agency has published 243 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 263 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

1 earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 2050-AH21 since Jan. 1, 2025.

• Feb. 6, 2026 Proposed rule. US Ecology Nevada, Inc. High Mercury Subcategory Wastes Land Disposal Restrictions Variance

What happens next and when

This final rule is effective July 27, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket EPA-HQ-OLEM-2025-2038 on Regulations.gov
• Title 40 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register