Resources for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

OSHA Issues Standard Interpretation on 'Sludge Exempt' Regulations

www.ohsonline.com

If sludge has a characteristic of hazardous waste but is not a solid waste when reclaimed, is it not hazardous waste, after all? Which OSHA standards apply to workers handling such material, and what are the associated employer obligations for employee hazard communication? Finally, if it's true that under EPA's Federal Sludge Exemption the material is not hazardous waste, is the sludge exempt from OSHA's HazCom and HAZWOPER standards? In answer to these questions, OSHA posted a Letter of Interpretation (LOI) on its Web site yesterday, saying, in a nutshell, that no matter how EPA might classify the material, if it poses a physical or health hazard then, for compliance, the HazCom and HAZWOPER standards will apply.

"It should be understood that just because a material is not classified by the EPA as a hazardous waste doesn't mean that it is not hazardous from the standpoint of OSHA compliance," says the LOI, written by the Directorate of Enforcement Programs Director Richard E. Fairfax. "[T]he HCS provides no exemption for materials that do not meet the EPA definition of a hazardous waste.

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