Maryland Hazardous Waste Regulations: Generators, Storage, and Penalties

Maryland hazardous waste regulations require any business that generates, transports, treats, stores, or disposes of hazardous waste to classify the waste, register with the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), meet storage and shipping standards that scale with how much waste the site produces, and keep records to prove it. The rules live in the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) Title 26, Subtitle 13, and closely track the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Civil penalties reach $25,000 per day per violation, and knowing violations are felonies under state law.¹

Start With Your Generator Category

Almost every other compliance obligation flows from where your site sits in the three federal generator tiers, which Maryland adopts under COMAR 26.13.03.01-1. The determination runs per site, not per company, and it’s based on how much hazardous waste the site produces in a calendar month.

Very small quantity generator (VSQG): 100 kilograms (220 pounds) or less of non-acute hazardous waste per month, no more than 1 kilogram of acute hazardous waste, and no more than 100 kilograms of acute spill cleanup debris.
Small quantity generator (SQG): more than 100 kilograms but less than 1,000 kilograms of non-acute hazardous waste per month, with the same acute waste ceilings as a VSQG.
Large quantity generator (LQG): 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) or more of non-acute hazardous waste, more than 1 kilogram of acute hazardous waste, or more than 100 kilograms of acute spill cleanup debris per month.

Recheck the classification any time your volumes shift. Misclassifying yourself as a VSQG when your actual output puts you in the SQG or LQG tier is a common enforcement trap.²

Deciding Whether Your Waste Is Hazardous

Before any of the storage, manifest, or reporting rules kick in, you have to determine whether the waste you produce is actually hazardous. Maryland’s classification system in COMAR 26.13.02 tracks the federal approach and splits hazardous waste into listed wastes and characteristic wastes.

Listed Wastes

Listed wastes appear on regulatory tables organized into four groups. F-list wastes come from common industrial processes such as solvent degreasing or electroplating. K-list wastes are tied to specific industries like wood preservation or petroleum refining. P-list and U-list wastes are discarded commercial chemical products, with the P-list covering acutely hazardous chemicals and the U-list covering other toxic chemicals. The tables sit at COMAR 26.13.02.16 through 26.13.02.19.³

Characteristic Wastes

A waste that doesn’t appear on any list is still hazardous if it exhibits one of four characteristics. Ignitable waste has a flash point below 60 degrees Celsius, or causes fire through friction, moisture absorption, or spontaneous chemical change. Corrosive waste has a pH of 2 or below, or 12.5 or above. Reactive waste is unstable, reacts violently with water, or is capable of detonation. Toxic waste is identified through the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP), which tests whether contaminants can leach out at levels harmful to groundwater.⁴

Generators make these determinations themselves under COMAR 26.13.03.02 through 26.13.03.02-2, following the required procedures and keeping records to document each call. Any change in raw materials, manufacturing process, or waste composition triggers a fresh evaluation.

Getting an EPA Identification Number

No facility may legally generate, transport, treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste in Maryland without an EPA Identification Number. You obtain one by submitting EPA Form 8700-12, the RCRA Subtitle C Site Identification Form, to MDE. The form asks for the facility name and address, contact information, and a description of hazardous waste activities at the site. MDE assigns the number through EPA’s RCRAInfo database.⁵

Federal rules require both LQGs and SQGs to obtain the number. VSQGs are not required to under federal law, though Maryland may impose state-specific notification requirements.⁶

How You Have to Store the Waste

COMAR 26.13.05 governs handling and storage, and the requirements scale with generator category and storage type.

Containers and Secondary Containment

Containers must be compatible with their contents, properly labeled, and kept in good condition to prevent leaks. Owners and operators must follow a written inspection schedule covering monitoring equipment, safety devices, and structural features like dikes and sump pumps under COMAR 26.13.05.02. Inspection records must be kept at least three years and must include the date, inspector’s name, observations, and any corrective actions.⁷

Container storage areas need secondary containment sized to hold at least 10 percent of the total container volume or 100 percent of the largest container, whichever is greater.⁸

How Long You Can Keep Waste On-Site

Accumulation time before shipping to a permitted treatment, storage, or disposal facility depends on your tier:

LQGs: 90 days maximum.
SQGs: 180 days, or 270 days if the nearest off-site facility is more than 200 miles away.
VSQGs: no federal time limit, but total on-site quantity may not exceed 1,000 kilograms.

Blowing past these limits without a permit effectively turns the site into an unpermitted storage operation, one of the more common and costly failures MDE encounters.⁹

Satellite Accumulation

Federal rules incorporated by Maryland allow generators to accumulate up to 55 gallons of hazardous waste (or one quart of acutely hazardous waste) in containers at or near the point where the waste is first generated, without triggering full storage requirements. The container must stay under the control of the operator running the process that generates the waste. Once you cross 55 gallons, you have three days to move the excess into a properly managed central accumulation area, and the standard accumulation clock starts running.

Contingency Plan

Every hazardous waste facility must maintain a contingency plan under COMAR 26.13.05.04. The plan describes what personnel will do in response to fires, explosions, or any unplanned release of hazardous waste to air, soil, or water, and it must be activated immediately when such an event threatens human health or the environment. Required elements include emergency coordinators (primary and alternates in order of succession), an inventory of fire, spill, alarm, communication, and decontamination equipment, arrangements with local police, fire, hospitals, and emergency response teams, and evacuation signals and routes.¹⁰

If the facility already has a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures (SPCC) plan or other emergency plan, it can amend that document rather than start from scratch.

Manifests for Off-Site Shipments

Any generator shipping hazardous waste off-site prepares a hazardous waste manifest on EPA Form 8700-22 (with Form 8700-22A for additional space). Maryland also allows electronic manifests when the generator complies with COMAR 26.13.03.04 and EPA’s electronic reporting requirements at 40 CFR 3.10.¹¹

The manifest must designate at least one facility permitted to handle the waste, and may name one alternate for emergencies. The generator signs, obtains the initial transporter’s signature and acceptance date, keeps one copy, and gives the rest to the transporter. If the signed manifest doesn’t come back from the designated facility within 45 days, the generator must notify MDE and the relevant agencies where the facility is located or where the shipment may have gone.

Permits for Treatment, Storage, and Disposal

Facilities that treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste, as opposed to generators who only accumulate it temporarily, need a permit from MDE under COMAR 26.13.07. Applications require detailed descriptions of waste management practices and environmental impact assessments, and processing takes time. No facility may begin operations until the permit is issued.¹²

Permit conditions typically include ongoing monitoring, regular reporting to MDE, and specific operational standards. MDE conducts announced and unannounced inspections. Any deviation from permit conditions must be reported promptly and corrected. Wastes with heightened risks, including those containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or asbestos, are subject to additional handling and documentation requirements.

Reporting and Recordkeeping

Maryland requires generators and treatment, storage, and disposal facilities to file a Biennial Hazardous Waste Report. The report covering 2025 activities is due to MDE by March 1, 2026. You must file if, at any point during 2025, your site generated 220 pounds or more of hazardous waste in a calendar month, generated more than 2.2 pounds of acute hazardous waste, or accumulated those quantities on-site. Filing is required even if MDE doesn’t send you a notification form.¹³

Beyond the biennial report, generators must keep waste determinations, manifest copies, inspection logs, and any exception reports filed when manifests aren’t returned on time. Inspection records must be kept at least three years. Missing or incomplete documentation is one of the fastest paths to a violation notice.⁷

Universal Waste: The Streamlined Track

Not every hazardous waste requires full cradle-to-grave treatment. Under 40 CFR Part 273, which Maryland incorporates, certain common hazardous wastes can be managed as “universal waste”: batteries, pesticides, mercury-containing equipment, lamps such as fluorescent bulbs, and aerosol cans.¹⁴

Handlers must label containers, train employees, and respond to releases, but they do not need manifests for shipments or hazardous waste permits for storage. Transporters may hold universal waste at a transfer facility for no more than 10 days; going past that turns the transporter into a universal waste handler subject to the full handler requirements.¹⁵

What Violations Cost

Civil Penalties

Under federal RCRA, any person who violates hazardous waste requirements faces civil penalties of up to $25,000 per day per violation, and each day of continued noncompliance counts as a separate violation. Maryland’s penalty structure under the Environment Article, Title 7, Subtitle 2, Part VIII aligns with the federal framework. MDE can also seek injunctive relief to force a facility to stop operations or take immediate corrective action.¹

Criminal Penalties

Knowing violations carry heavier consequences. Under Maryland Environment Article Section 7-265, specific hazardous waste offenses are felonies punishable by fines up to $100,000 and imprisonment. Federal RCRA adds another layer: knowing violations carry fines up to $50,000 per day and up to five years in prison, and a second conviction doubles both the maximum fine and prison term. Knowing endangerment, where hazardous waste is handled in a way that places another person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury, raises the ceiling to $250,000 and 15 years for an individual and $1,000,000 for a corporate defendant.¹

Administrative Actions

Short of lawsuits or criminal referrals, MDE can suspend or revoke permits, require corrective actions such as environmental remediation, and mandate compliance audits. Facilities ordered to take corrective action often find the cleanup costs exceed the fines themselves.

Defenses and Narrow Exceptions

The “Act of God” defense applies when an unforeseeable natural event beyond the facility’s control prevents compliance. A hurricane that destroys containment may qualify, but the defense fails if the facility could have taken reasonable precautions and didn’t. The “upset” defense covers non-compliance caused by an unintentional, temporary equipment failure, provided the facility can show it took all reasonable steps to prevent and minimize the incident. Neither works as a general excuse for poor maintenance or deferred repairs.

Maryland’s framework also includes built-in exceptions. Facilities recycling hazardous waste may qualify for reduced requirements under COMAR 26.13.10 when the recycled materials meet specific conditions, such as undergoing a chemical reaction that makes them inseparable from the final product and meeting applicable treatment standards.¹⁶

VSQGs operate under significantly reduced requirements, including no federal accumulation time limit and no federal obligation to obtain an EPA ID number. Reduced does not mean exempt. VSQGs still must identify their waste correctly, keep on-site accumulation below 1,000 kilograms, and send waste to a permitted or authorized facility.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 6928 – Federal Enforcement
2
Code of Maryland Regulations. COMAR 26.13.03.01-1 – Federally-Defined Hazardous Waste Generator Categories
3
Legal Information Institute. COMAR 26.13.02.16 – Hazardous Waste from Nonspecific Sources
4
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Defining Hazardous Waste – Listed, Characteristic and Mixed Radiological Wastes
5
Maryland OneStop. Hazardous Waste – EPA Identification Number
6
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Instructions and Form for Hazardous Waste Generators, Transporters and Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities to Obtain an EPA Identification Number
7
Legal Information Institute. COMAR 26.13.05.02 – General Facility Standards
8
Legal Information Institute. COMAR 26.13.05.09 – Use and Management of Containers
9
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Hazardous Waste Generator Regulatory Summary
10
Legal Information Institute. COMAR 26.13.05.04 – Contingency Plan and Emergency Procedures
11
Legal Information Institute. COMAR 26.13.03.04 – The Manifest
12
Legal Information Institute. COMAR 26.13.07 – Permits for CHS Facilities
13
Maryland Department of the Environment. Biennial Hazardous Waste Reports
14
eCFR. 40 CFR Part 273 – Standards for Universal Waste Management
15
Legal Information Institute. COMAR 26.13.10.22 – Standards for Universal Waste Transporters
16
Legal Information Institute. COMAR 26.13.10.01 – Recyclable Materials Used in a Manner Constituting Disposal