Page 107 - Pipeline Pigging Technology

Pipeline Pigging Technology

conduct personnel training; and prepare a contingency plan to be followed
in the event of an emergency. Table 2 presents generator requirements
applicable to the pipeline industry.
Members of the pipeline industry that historically disposed of waste
products on property currently occupied by an operating facility may come
under RCRA authority. Because these facilities are not abandoned, they do not
come under the authority of CERCLA, but rather under RCRA. In many
instances, pipeline facilities that disposed of waste products on-site have
been forced by RCRA regulations to initiate expensive remedial activities.
Facilities such as on-site pits that received hydrocarbons as a result of pigging
activities have been targeted by the regulatory agencies for close inspection
of their applicability to RCRA regulation.

TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL ACT (TSCA)

Synopsis: While RCRA has had the most lasting effects on the pipeline
industry, TSCA has had the most acute impact. Passed in 1976, TSCA was the
culmination of five years of intensive effort by Congress to provide a
regulatory framework for comprehensively dealing with risks posed by the
manufacture and use of chemical substances. The force behind the passage
of TSCA was repeated incidents involving environmental damage and adverse
heath effects resulting from the widespread use of substances such as PCBs,
kepone, vinyl chloride, polybrominated biphenyls, and asbestos. TSCA was
designed to regulate the manufacture and distribution of existing and new
chemical substances, and therefore applies primarily to on-going chemical
manufacturing operations and their products.
As in the case of RCRA, TSCA was an indirect development of the passage
of CWA and CAA. These acts heightened the nation's general awareness of the
apparent widespread contamination of toxic compounds. However CAA,
CWA, and RCRA had authority to deal with toxics only after they had entered
the environment as wastes. Federal and state authority to regulate toxics
before they became waste products was limited. TSCA was designed to deal
with toxics in the manufacturing and distribution stage, before human or
environmental exposure.
TSCA regulates the safety of raw materials. TSCA's two main regulatory
goals include obtaining data from industry regarding the production, use, and
health effects of chemical substances and mixtures; and regulating the
manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce, as well as use and
disposal of a chemical substance or mixture. These goals are achieved

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