Legal Dumps

Waste disposal in landfills is part of an integrated waste management system. EPA encourages communities to consider the waste management hierarchy when designing waste management systems and to promote source reduction to reduce both the volume and toxicity of waste and increase the useful life of manufactured products. Subtitle D focuses on state and local governments as the primary planning, regulatory, and implementing bodies for the management of non-hazardous solid wastes such as household waste and non-hazardous industrial solid waste. Subtitle D landfills include: Subtitle C establishes a federal program for the disposal of hazardous waste from cradle to grave. The objective of the Subtitle C program is to ensure that hazardous waste is treated in a manner that protects human health and the environment. To that end, subtitle C contains provisions on the generation, transport and treatment, storage or disposal of hazardous waste. Landfills with subtitle C, including the following: Landfills are regulated under subdivisions D (solid waste) and C (hazardous waste) of the CJRA or under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Modern landfills are well-developed and managed solid waste disposal facilities. Landfills are located, designed, operated and monitored to ensure compliance with federal regulations. They are also designed to protect the environment from contaminants that may be present in the waste stream. Landfills cannot be built in environmentally sensitive areas, and they are placed on-site using environmental monitoring systems.

These monitoring systems check for signs of groundwater and landfill gas contamination and provide additional safeguards. Today`s landfills must meet stringent design, operation and closure requirements set out in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).