This document is the Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations section regarding contamination caused by hazardous wastes. In many cases, a factual determination will be required as to when hazardous wastes were land disposed in order to determine whether they were prohibited at that time and whether, therefore, the prohibition continues to apply to contaminated soil. However, if information is not available it is generally reasonable to assume that contaminated soils do not contain untreated hazardous wastes placed after the effective dates of applicable land disposal prohibitions. This is because placement of untreated hazardous waste after applicable LDR effective dates would be a violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, subject to significant fines and penalties including criminal sanctions.

• Determination of When Contamination is Caused by a Listed Hazardous Waste (PDF)(9 pp, 675 K)
  Discusses the management of hazardous contaminated wastes and provides a discussion on determination of when a waste is a "listed waste" under RCRA