Michael Hampton CSP, ARM

University of Utah, RMCOEH

Understanding Hazwoper29 CFR 1910.12029 CFR 1926.65

HAZWOPApplies to

hazardous waste operations in various settings

• Hazwoper is not a sandwich at Burger King

• “But I don’t deal with hazardous waste”

• What does Hazwoper mean?

Are you perplexed by Hazwoper?

/ERAlso applies to emergency responders at any industrial setting.

• History of the standard

• Who is covered

• What is covered

• Training requirements

What We’ll Cover

• Regulatory History• 1976 – RCRA passed into law to regulate

the handling of hazardous waste• 1980 – CERCLA (Superfund)• 1986 – SARA - OSHA given responsibility

for governing hazardous waste workers safety

• 1987 – OSHA issued NPR• 1990 – Final Hazwoper rule goes into

effect. “To prevent accidents involving hazardous materials”.

Where Did This Come From Anyway?

• “…those employees engaged in emergency response operations for releases or substantial threats of releases of hazardous substances, and post-emergency response operations to such releases at all workplaces.”

Scope in Preamble

• December 1984 – Bhopal India catastrophe

• August 1985 – Institute WV release

• 6,928 chemical accidents occurred in the United States within a five-year period

What Drove This?

• Who’s minding the store?• 5 distinct groups of workers are

covered• Can be grouped into 3 “task” groups:• Workers involved in waste clean up• Employees working at a TSDF• Employees engaged in emergency

response operations for release of, or substantial threats of release of, hazardous substances.

Are my employees covered?

You are working for an environmental consulting company and your client tells you that the property they own is on EPA's NPL, the state has issued them a Notice of Violation, and they want you to tell them what's on the property and what's going to have to be done to clean it up. This action is covered under sections (i) & (ii) if under RCRA.

"You want to be a good neighbor, and the regulators are telling you that your site is an uncontrolled hazardous waste site, but they haven't given you a Notice of Violation or a Compliance order -– that's covered by section (iii). If they give you the NOV, then you would be covered by either section (i) or (ii), depending on how the Notice was written.

Section (iv) covers only those locations that have been permitted as TSDFs.

"Everyone else who has a spill, release, or cleanup not covered by any of the above is covered by section (v). This also includes manufacturing plants that have teams to handle their spills or releases."

Application in the “real world”…

“Hazardous Materials” - Physical

“Hazardous Materials” - Chemical•Sensitizers• Irritants•Corrosives•Toxic & Highly Toxic agents•Carcinogens

•Combustible•Flammable•Explosives•Oxidizers•Compressed Gases•Organic Peroxides

What Materials Are Covered?29 CFR 1910.1000 Toxic & Hazardous Substances , Table Z-1

• DOT Hazardous Material Table, 49 CFR 172.101• Roughly 2800 line items

• EPA – Discarded material that meets TRCI criteria

• Site Control Plan• Standard operating procedures• Organizational structure

• Site Safety & Health Plan• Hazard/Risk Identification• PPE• Safety and health training program• Medical surveillance program• Monitoring• Spill Control• Decontamination procedures

• Emergency Response Plan

Standard’s Requirements

• Job function & Exposure Potential

• Exposure Based – Waste Sites • General Site Worker – work with hazardous

substances with potential exposure >PEL• Occasional Site Worker – periodic , unlikely

exposure >PEL• Management & Supervision

• Task• Waste Treatment Operations based• Emergency Response based• Defensive or Offensive?• Onsite vs. Offsite personnel

Employee Training

• General Site Worker – 40 hours of classroom instruction plus three days supervised field experience

• Occasional Site Worker – 24 hours of classroom instruction plus one day supervised field experience

• Management and Supervisor – Trained to the level of the employees being supervised plus an additional 8-hours of specialized training

• Refresher training – Eight hours of annual refresher training. As discussed above, the annual refresher should be tailored to the specific duties and not a “one size fits all”.

Training Requirements – Waste Site Workers

• Operations at TSDF• Provide for the safe conduct of work

around hazardous waste/materials • 24 hours and 8 hour annual refresher

• Emergency Responders• First Responder Awareness level• First Responder Operations level• HazMat Technician/HazMat Specialist• Incident Commander

Training Requirements – Task based

• FR – Awareness

• Sees a spill and reports it, no time requirement

• FR - Operations• All the above and attempts to contain spread but not

to stop the leak, 8 hours minimum

• Technician/Specialist• Offensive action to stop the leak, 24 hours at FRO level +

standards requirements

• Incident Commander• Overall control and charge of the situation, 24 hours at

FRO level + standards requirements

• Refresher training for above must be annual and sufficient to maintain and demonstrate competency

Emergency Response

• Understanding Hazwoper can be confusing

• Hazwoper applies to most of us

• Determine what the employee is doing• Hazardous Waste Site Worker – 1910.120(e)• TSDF Worker – 1910.120(p)• Emergency Responder – 1910.120(q)

• Train according to the requirements

• Ensure that your documented program meets the standards criteria

Summary

Training Level Regulation Time Requirement

     

General Site Worker  1910.120(e)(3)(i)  40 Hours + 3 days on-site 

Occasional Site Worker  1910.120(e)(3)(ii)  24 Hours + one day on-site 

Supervisor  1910.120(e)(4)  Additional 8 hours 

Occasional to General Crossover 1910.120(e)(3)(iv)  16 Hours + 2 days additional on-site

Site Worker Refresher  1910.120(e)(8)  8 Hours 

TSDF Worker  1910.120(p)(7)(i)  24 Hours 

TSDF Worker Refresher  1910.120(p)(7)(i)  8 Hours 

First Responder Awareness  1910.120(q)(6)(i)  Non specified 

First Responder Operations  1910.120(q)(6)(ii)  8 Hours 

Hazardous Material Technician 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)  24 Hours 

Hazardous Materials Specialist 1910.120(q)(6)(iv)  24 Hours 

On Scene Incident Commander 1910.120(q)(6)(v)  24 Hours 

Emergency Response Refresher 1910.120(q)(8)(i)  Non specified 

Training Summary

• OSHA/EPA/USCG/NIOSH manual entitled, "Occupational Safety and Health Guidance Manual for Hazardous Waste Site Activities“

• USDOL, OSHA 3114 – Publication on HAZWOPER

• Single Source Pages, Hazardous Waste - https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/hazardouswaste/

• Multiple training resources are available• HWWT program at RMCOEH

• Questions?• Michael Hampton• 801-866-2045• Michael.hampton@hsc.utah.edu

THANK YOU!

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