(a) The owner or operator of waste pile units subject to Sec. 265.254 must submit a proposed action leakage rate to the Regional Administrator when submitting the notice required under Sec. 265.254. Within 60 days of receipt of the notification, the Regional Administrator will: Establish an action leakage rate, either as proposed by the owner or operator or modified using the criteria in this section; or extend the review period for up to 30 days. If no action is taken by the Regional Administrator before the original 60 or extended 90 day review periods, the action leakage rate will be approved as proposed by the owner or operator.
(b) The Regional Administrator shall approve an action leakage rate for waste pile units subject to Sec. 265.254. The action leakage rate is the maximum design flow rate that the leak detection system (LDS) can remove without the fluid head on the bottom liner exceeding 1 foot. The action leakage rate must include an adequate safety margin to allow for uncertainties in the design (e.g., slope, hydraulic conductivity, thickness of drainage material), construction, operation, and location of the LDS, waste and leachate characteristics, likelihood and amounts of other sources of liquids in the LDS, and proposed response actions (e.g., the action leakage rate must consider decreases in the flow capacity of the system over time resulting from siltation and clogging, rib layover and creep of synthetic components of the system, overburden pressures, etc.).
(c) To determine if the action leakage rate has been exceeded, the owner or operator must convert the weekly flow rate from the monitoring data obtained under Sec. 265.260, to an average daily flow rate (gallons per acre per day) for each sump. Unless the Regional Administrator approves a different calculation, the average daily flow rate for each sump must be calculated weekly during the active life and closure period. [57 FR 3493, Jan. 29, 1992, as amended at 71 FR 40275, July 14, 2006]