Today I am pleased to sign into law H.R. 2036, the "Land Disposal Program Flexibility Act of 1996," which brings needed reforms to the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA).
This Act would eliminate a statutory mandate that requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate stringent and costly treatment requirements for certain low-risk wastes that already are regulated under the Clean Water Act or Safe Drinking Water Act. The EPA considers these wastes to present little or no risk, due to existing regulation under State and Federal law.
The Act requires EPA to conduct a study to determine whether, following elimination of this mandate, there will be any risks that might not be addressed by State or other Federal laws. It also preserves EPA's authority to impose any additional controls that are needed to protect public health and the environment. In addition, H.R. 2036 reforms certain municipal landfill ground water monitoring requirements under current law, thereby easing burdens on local governments.
The Administration's support for H.R. 2036 originated in its initiative for Reinventing Environmental Regulation, as announced on March 16, 1995. As part of that initiative, I made a commitment to support commonsense reforms to the SWDA—if those reforms could be developed through a bipartisan process. This Act addresses one of the most important issues that the Administration identified in our initiative. Once implemented by EPA, it will eliminate an unnecessary and duplicative layer of costly regulation, yielding tens of millions of dollars in savings to private industry.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
The White House, March 26, 1996.
NOTE: H.R. 2036, approved March 26, was assigned Public Law No. 104-119. This statement was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on March 27.
William J. Clinton, Statement on Signing the Land Disposal Program Flexibility Act of 1996 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/222805