Pennsylvania
Residual Waste Program
Pennsylvania Residual Waste Program
Residual waste is Pennsylvania's name for nonhazardous industrial waste. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) defines it as waste material, solid, liquid or gas, produced by industrial, mining and agricultural operations, leaving out certain coal mining wastes and wastes from normal farming activities. DEP's residual waste program regulates its generation, storage, transportation, processing, beneficial use, composting and disposal.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name residual waste records among its standard record sources. Its standard source for disposal sites is the state landfill and solid waste list, described on the landfills and solid waste page, and DEP's landfill list has a table of residual waste landfills. See Municipal Waste Landfills and Resource Recovery Facilities.
Four details make this program worth a look at an industrial property.
- Most of it stays on site. DEP says most residual waste is processed or disposed of on the site where it is generated, and that these company-owned facilities must have permits just as commercial facilities do. At a present or former industrial property, check whether the owner held a residual waste permit for a landfill, impoundment or other unit on the property.
- It is not hazardous waste, but it is not harmless. DEP says residual waste does not include materials defined by law as hazardous. It does include what DEP calls near hazardous wastes that the hazardous waste regulations do not cover. DEP's examples of residual waste include contaminated soil, wastes that contain asbestos, oil and PCBs, foundry sands, slags, and sludges from electroplating and other processes.
- There are many kinds of permitted facility. DEP's FAQ counts over 900 facilities with permits to process, beneficially use or dispose of residual waste, among them residual waste landfills, processing facilities, incinerators, impoundments and land application facilities. The FAQ gives no date for those counts.
- Fill has its own paperwork. The program page links DEP's Management of Fill Policy, an electronic Certification of Clean Fill form (FP-001) and a general permit for regulated fill. Where a property received fill, ask whether a clean fill certification was made.
DEP names the largest residual waste generators as electric utilities, paper mills, foundries, printing and ink operations, and the iron and steel industry, and says the residual waste stream is predominantly ash from coal-burning plants and residual waste incinerators.
Among the statutes DEP lists for its waste programs is the Solid Waste Management Act, Act 97 of 1980. DEP lists the residual waste regulations as Article IX.
Where to look a site up
- DEP says generator, transporter and permitted facility information is available in eFACTS.
- The Residual Waste Landfills table is on DEP's Municipal Waste Landfills and Resource Recovery Facilities page.
- DEP's Residual Waste Program page links residual waste biennial report data, and a list of sites authorized for beneficial use of drill cuttings from Marcellus Shale gas wells.
- The Division of Municipal and Residual Waste is at ra-epmuniresidwaste@pa.gov. DEP says that mailbox is not for formal Right-to-Know requests.
Getting the file
DEP's waste management program is in all of its regional offices. DEP recommends an Informal File Review, requested on an electronic form and scheduled with the regional office, before a request under the Right-to-Know Law. Both routes are on the Informal File Review and Right-to-Know requests page.
Sources
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 1, 2026, no modified date shown: