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Regulatory Development 53
generated to the moment it is disposed. Congress passed House Bill 3515, the Medical Waste
Tracking Act in November 1988, which directed the EPA to develop protocols for dealing with
infectious waste disposal. The EPA was required to publish an interim final rule for a 2-year
demonstration of the medical waste management and tracking program. RCRA was amended by
adding a Subtitle J.
The medical waste tracking program ended in June 1991 and no federal EPA tracking require-
ments are currently in effect; however, some states have instituted their own medical waste require-
ments.

3.2.7.5 The Federal Facility Compliance Act

The Federal Facility Compliance Act of 1992 handled the legal dispute as to whether federal facil-
ities are subject to enforcement actions under RCRA. The Act waived governmental immunity from
prosecution with regard to the improper management of hazardous wastes. As a result, the EPA, the
Department of Justice, and the states can enforce the provisions of RCRA against federal facilities,
and federal departments and agencies can be subjected to injunctions, administrative orders, and
penalties for noncompliance. Additionally, federal employees may be subject to both fines and
imprisonment under any federal or state solid or hazardous waste law. The Act also contains provi-
sions applicable to mixtures of radioactive and hazardous waste at Department of Energy facilities
and to munitions, military ships, and military sewage treatment facilities handling hazardous
wastes.

3.2.7.6 The 1996 Amendments
The Land Disposal Program Flexibility Act (P.L. 104–119), passed by the 104th Congress,
exempts hazardous waste from RCRA regulation if the waste is treated to a point where it no
longer exhibits the characteristics that made it hazardous, and is disposed in a facility regulated
under the Clean Water Act or in a Class I deep injection well regulated under the Safe Drinking
Water Act (see Chapter 17). A second provision exempted small landfills sited in arid or remote
areas from groundwater monitoring requirements, provided there was no prior evidence of ground-
water contamination.
The chronology of the Solid Waste Disposal Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and
major amendments are given in Table 3.2.

TABLE 3.2
Solid Waste Disposal Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act and Major Amendments
Year Act Public Law Number
1965 Solid Waste Disposal Act P.L. 89–272, Title II
1970 Resource Recovery Act of 1970 P.L. 91–512
1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 P.L. 94–580
1980 Used Oil Recycling Act of 1980 P.L. 96–463
1980 Solid Waste Disposal Act Amendments of 1980 P.L. 96–482
1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 P.L. 98–616
1988 Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988 P.L. 100–582
1992 Federal Facility Compliance Act of 1992 P.L. 102–386
1996 Land Disposal Program Flexibility Act of 1996 P.L. 104–119