How to Fill Out an LDR Form: Land Disposal Restriction Notification

To fill out a Land Disposal Restriction (LDR) form, prepare a written notification — your own document or a template from the receiving facility — that carries every item required by 40 CFR 268.7(a): the EPA hazardous waste codes, the manifest number, the wastewater or nonwastewater designation, the constituents of concern or underlying hazardous constituents, and the applicable treatment standards. Send it with the first shipment of each waste stream to each treatment, storage, or disposal facility (TSDF), and keep a copy for at least three years. There is no EPA-issued LDR form; the content is fixed by regulation, but the format is yours to choose.¹

Information to Gather Before You Start

You cannot complete the notification cold. Three pieces of information about the waste have to be settled first, and each one determines what goes in a different field on the form.

EPA Waste Codes

Every hazardous waste carries at least one code from 40 CFR Part 261. Listed wastes get F, K, P, or U codes tied to the process or discarded chemical that created them. Characteristic wastes get D codes (D001 through D043) based on ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity.² A single stream can carry more than one; a spent solvent that is both an F001 listed waste and ignitable also carries D001. Every applicable code goes on the notification.

Wastewater or Nonwastewater

The treatment standards in 40 CFR 268.40 differ by physical form, so the notification has to say which category applies. Wastewaters contain less than 1% by weight total organic carbon and less than 1% by weight total suspended solids. Cross either threshold and the waste is a nonwastewater.³ Getting this wrong puts the wrong treatment standard on the notification and turns a shipment that looks compliant into a violation.

Underlying Hazardous Constituents (Characteristic Waste Only)

If your waste carries a D code, treating it until it no longer exhibits the characteristic is not enough. You also have to identify the underlying hazardous constituents (UHCs) — any constituent from the universal treatment standards table that can reasonably be expected to be present at the point of generation above its treatment standard level — and confirm they meet the standards in 40 CFR 268.48.⁴ Under 40 CFR 268.9, those UHCs go on the notification, unless the waste will be treated and monitored for every constituent in the table.⁵ Fluoride, selenium, sulfides, vanadium, and zinc are excluded from the UHC definition and do not have to be listed.

What Goes on the Notification

The regulation splits notifications into two situations: waste that still needs treatment before land disposal, and waste that already meets the standards when it leaves your site. The core content is the same; the second version adds a certification.

For waste that does not yet meet treatment standards (or where you have not made that determination), the notification under 40 CFR 268.7(a)(2) has to include:

Every EPA hazardous waste code applicable to the shipment.
The manifest number from the Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest (EPA Form 8700-22) accompanying the first shipment.
The wastewater or nonwastewater designation, including any waste-code-specific subdivisions such as reactive cyanide for D003.
Waste analysis data when available — lab results or the process knowledge you relied on.
Constituents of concern for F001–F005 and F039 wastes, and underlying hazardous constituents for characteristic wastes.
The applicable treatment standards — the concentration limits or specified technologies from 40 CFR 268.40 or 268.45.

If you would rather not decide whether the waste is subject to LDR treatment, you can put this statement on the notice instead of the treatment-standard information: “This hazardous waste may or may not be subject to the LDR treatment standards. The treatment facility must make the determination.”¹ That shifts the analytical work to the TSDF but does not remove your duty to send a notification.

For waste that already meets treatment standards at the point of generation, the notification under 40 CFR 268.7(a)(3) uses the same content plus the signed certification below.

The Certification Statement

When the waste already meets applicable treatment standards before it leaves your site, an authorized representative has to sign this exact language:

“I certify under penalty of law that I personally have examined and am familiar with the waste through analysis and testing or through knowledge of the waste to support this certification that the waste complies with the treatment standards specified in 40 CFR part 268 subpart D. I believe that the information I submitted is true, accurate, and complete. I am aware that there are significant penalties for submitting a false certification, including the possibility of a fine and imprisonment.”¹

The authorized representative is typically a plant manager, an environmental compliance officer, or another person with both the technical knowledge and the organizational authority to make the statement. A false certification carries criminal exposure, so the signer should have personally reviewed the analytical data or worked directly with the production process that generates the waste.

Sending the Notification

You hand the LDR notification to the transporter with the Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest at pickup. The transporter carries both to the receiving TSDF. Keep a copy on-site. EPA’s e-Manifest system handles the manifest electronically, but the LDR notification is a separate document — most generators attach it in paper form or transmit it to the TSDF directly.⁶

The One-Time Rule

The notification goes with the first shipment of each waste stream to each facility. As long as the waste stream and the receiving facility stay the same, that single notification covers every future shipment. A new notification is required when the waste changes — different chemistry, a new waste code, or a change in the production process — or when you start using a different facility.¹ If EPA revises the treatment standards for a code you ship, your existing notification no longer reflects the correct requirements and has to be updated.

Records to Keep

Copies of every LDR notification, certification, waste analysis, and supporting document stay on-site for at least three years. The clock starts on the date of the last shipment covered by that documentation, so a stream shipped monthly under one notification does not begin the three-year count until the final shipment goes out.⁷ The period extends automatically during an unresolved enforcement action or on EPA request. During an inspection, missing paperwork is treated the same as a violation of the underlying rule.

When You Don’t Need to Send One

A handful of wastes are outside LDR entirely under 40 CFR 268.1: household hazardous waste, waste from very small quantity generators (formerly conditionally exempt small quantity generators), hazardous waste sent to Clean Water Act treatment systems including publicly owned treatment works through pretreatment programs, and pesticide or container residues a farmer disposes of on their own land.⁸ It’s also worth checking the broader exclusions in 40 CFR 261.4, which can take a material out of hazardous waste regulation altogether.

Two Things That Will Void Your Notification

Diluting the waste to meet treatment standards is prohibited under 40 CFR 268.3. No generator, transporter, or facility operator may add water or clean material to a restricted waste to bring concentrations under the limits in 40 CFR 268.40 as a substitute for treatment.⁹ Legitimate treatment that happens to involve mixing is allowed; the test is whether the process actually destroys, removes, or permanently immobilizes the hazardous constituents.⁸ A certification based on diluted results is a false certification.

Failing to send a notification, sending an incomplete one, or filing a false certification exposes the generator to civil penalties of up to $93,058 per day per violation under the inflation-adjusted figures effective January 2025, with each day counted as a separate violation.¹⁰ Knowing violations, including knowingly submitting a false certification, can reach $50,000 per day and up to two years of imprisonment under 42 U.S.C. 6928, doubling for repeat offenders.¹¹

1
eCFR. 40 CFR 268.7 – Testing, Tracking, and Recordkeeping Requirements
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US EPA. Defining Hazardous Waste: Listed, Characteristic and Mixed Radiological Wastes
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eCFR. 40 CFR 268.2 – Definitions Applicable in This Part
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US EPA. Treatment Standards for Hazardous Wastes Subject to Land Disposal Restrictions
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eCFR. 40 CFR 268.9 – Special Rules for Characteristic Wastes
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US EPA. The Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest (e-Manifest) System
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eCFR. 40 CFR Part 268 – Land Disposal Restrictions
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US EPA. Land Disposal Restrictions for Hazardous Waste
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eCFR. 40 CFR 268.3 – Dilution Prohibited as a Substitute for Treatment
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eCFR. 40 CFR Part 19 – Adjustment of Civil Monetary Penalties for Inflation
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 6928 – Federal Enforcement