Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) law prohibits the land disposal of untreated hazardous waste. The LDR program identifies treatment standards for hazardous wastes and specifies requirements that generators, transporters, ad owners or operators of treatment, storage, and disposal facilities that manage restricted wastes destined for land disposal must meet.

A generator of hazardous waste must determine if the waste has to be treated before it can be land disposed. This is done by determining if the hazardous waste meets the treatment standards in 268.4, 268.45, or 268.49. This determination can be made in either of two ways: testing the waste or using knowledge of the waste. If the generator tests the waste, testing would normally determine the total concentration of hazardous constituents, or the concentration of hazardous constituents in an extract of the waste obtained using test method 1311 in "Test Methods of Evaluating Solid Waste, Physical/Chemical Methods," EPA Publication, depending on whether the treatment standard for the waste is expressed as a total concentration or concentrations of hazardous constituents in the waste extract. The treatment standards are found in Part 268.4 and are described in detail in 268.42, Table 1.

UNIVERSAL TREATMENT STANDARDS

Antimony, Arsenic, Barium, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chromium, Lead, Mercury, Nickel, Selenium, Silver, Thallium, Vanadium, Zinc