TCLP as a Measure of Treatment Effectiveness

Abstract

The 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA require that EPA either ban the disposal of hazardous wastes to the land or ascertain that such wastes are acceptable for land disposal. The soil and debris associated with the clean up of Superfund sites also fall under these statutes and must be addressed. A significant part of the regulatory strategy adopted by EPA Involved the determination of best demonstrated available technology for contaminated soils and debris. A series of soil treatment technologies that were considered as candidates for Superfund sites (physical, chemical, thermal solidification) were tested on a laboratory prepared feed sample and the waste product streams generated were processed by the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP).The TCLP chemicals and mechanism have been compared to some of the most severe leaching conditions experienced in the land disposal of hazardous wastes, and therefore the results of these tests should simulate the worst case situations.