CEGR 4234 5234 Hazardous Waste Management

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CEGR 4234 / 5234Hazardous Waste Management

• 8/22/06

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Hazardous Waste

• Management of Currently Generated Waste
• Manufacturing operations
• Petroleum Refineries
• Remediation of Sites Contaminated by Past
  Practices
• Unlined facilities, end dumping
• Abandoned sites

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FIGURE 1-3 Site contaminated by past practices.
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Definition

• Hazardous came into being around 1970
• Anything posing a threat to human health and the
  environment
• Toxic
• Ignitable
• Reactive
• Explosive
• Corrosive
• Irritating
• Bioaccumulative
• Radioactive
• Infectious

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Historical Roots

• Roman Empire Lead poisoning
• A little more recentlyindustrial revolution
• Industrial Production of Goods
• Resource Extraction (mining)
• Intensive Agricultural Operations
• Focus was on production, not management of waste
• Problems emerged
• Lead and mercury
• Synthetic organic chemicals

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Time for problems to manifest

• Environmental and human health effects developed
  over decades
• Many are exposed to a broad array of chemicals
• Accelerated by advances in several fields
• Epidemiology
• Toxicology
• Analytical Chemistry
• Hydrogeology/Geoenvironmental Engineering

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Landmark Cases

• DDT
• Mercury
• PCB / PBB
• Love Canal

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DDT

• Pesticide
• Rachel Carsons Silent Spring
• DDT in antarctic penguins, deep sea squid and
  human fatty tissues
• DDT associated with aquatic bird infertility
• In humans, DDT associated with cancer

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Mercury

• Liquid metal used to be ingested
• Mercury salts used in Dutch hats
• Methyl mercury
• Chemical plant in Japan effluent bioaccumulated
  in shellfishhundreds of cases of paralysis and
  sensory loss
• Dartmouth Professor in laboratorylatex gloves

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PCB / PBB

• 100 million pounds per year in 60s, 70s
• Used in transformer coolant, plasticizer and
  other manufacturing processes
• Miscarriages and birth defects in Japan and
  Taiwan
• Michigan cattle feed - PBB

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Love Canal

• Unused canal sealed on both ends and used by
  Hooker Chemical Company
• Filled, covered and sold to Niagara School
  District
• Elementary school built, subdivisions followed
• Resident illnesses
• Eventually led to Superfund Legislation

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FIGURE 1-2 Boarded homes adjacent to Love Canal.
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Times Beach, MO

• Dioxin in wastes from chemical plants in St.
  Louis sprayed on dirt roads
• Horse farms.animal deaths
• Permanent evacuation required

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Woburn, MA

• Recall A civil action ?
• Wells G and H installed in 1964 and 1967
• Shut down in 1979 confirmed TCE and PCE
• Clusters of leukemia and cardiac arrhythmia
• Civil Lawsuits
• Unifirst settled for 1 million
• Beatrice cleared, W.R. Grace settled for 8
  million
• U.S. EPA studies, negotiated ? 70 million
  settlement in 1990
• Consulting reports still being issued in 2000

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Precautionary Principle

• Originally, citizens had to prove potential or
  existing threats
• Now, the burden of proof lays with proponents of
  a given activity

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Regulatory Initiatives

• Currently Generated Waste
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976
  (RCRA)
• Subtitle C, cradle to grave tracking of waste
• Classifications/definitions established

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Regulatory Initiatives

• Contaminated Sites
• RCRA did not provide a mechanism to address
  previous problems
• Comprehensive Environmental Response,
  Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA,
  Superfund)
• Identify and prioritize sites, implement remedial
  strategies

Stopped here 8/22/06
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Perception of Risk

• Debate regarding the magnitude of certain risks
• See Table1-1

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Classification

• U.S. Regulations
• Laboratory Testing
• EPA procedures to determine if a waste is
• Corrosive
• Ignitable
• Reactive
• Toxic
• Lists often based on risk analysis, may apply
  even if above laboratory testing yield
  non-hazardous

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Classification

• Basis for official listing (e.g., p. 14 of text)
• Previous lab testing
• It is a toxic waste because it contains a
  constituent that studies show has had toxic,
  carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic effects on
  humans or other life forms, and the waste is
  capable of impacting receptors if mismanaged.
• It contains constituents that are acutely
  hazardous according to studies showing it can be
  fatal to humans or animals in low doses even if
  properly managed

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Risk Assessment Scenarios

• Fate and transport setting
• Proximity of sensitive receptors
• Nature of waste, co-disposal concerns
• Toxicity
• Bioaccumulation potential
• Background concentrations

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List Types (p. 15)

• F List Chemicals that have been used for a
  specific purpose and have become waste
• Solvents used for degreasing, cleaning,
  extraction, etc.
• K List Waste from a group of 17 industries
• Manufacturing process-specific
• P List Discarded unused commercial chemicals
  that are acutely toxic
• U List Same as P List, except one or more of
  four hazardous waste characteristics apply
• For P and U Listing, must be technical grade ?
  100

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Waste Characterization Data

• Process knowledge
• Raw materials, unit processes, likely
  characterization
• Analytical testing
• MSDS Sheets

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Engineering Classification of Waste

• Table 1-2, p. 19
• Inorganic aqueous waste
• Organic aqueous waste
• Organic liquids
• Oils
• Inorganic sludges/solids
• Organic sludges/solids

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FIGURE 1-4 Generation of hazardous waste in the
United States in 1987 and 1995 (by weight).
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Waste Generation

• Large quantity generators (gt1000 kg/month)
  biennial reporting
• 1987 238 Million Tons
• 1995 214 Million Tons
• 2001 ?40 Million Tons
• Sources of Waste
• Table 1-3, 1-4 (p. 23-24)
• See National Analysis for 2001 Data
• http//www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/data/brs01/na
  tional.pdfsearch22national20analysis20Biennia
  l20RCRA20Hazardous20Waste20Report20based20on
  20200120data22

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Small Quantity Generators

• Conditionally exempt
• lt 100 kg/month
• Regular
• Generate between 100 and 1000 kg/month
• Examples
• Dry cleaners
• Auto maintenance shops
• Film processors
• Analytical laboratories
• Academic laboratories
• See Table 1-5, p. 26

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FIGURE 1-5 Comparison of sources
of hazardous waste in Missouri.
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Household Waste

• Pesticides
• Paint products
• Household cleaners
• Automotive products
• Federally exempt from regulation
• Mecklenburg County
• See attached

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Medical Waste

• RCRA includes medical waste
• EPA defined as any waste or reusable material
  that contains an infectious substance and is
  generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or
  immunization of humans or other animals
• Soiled/blood-soaked bandages, used surgical
  gloves, instruments, needles, etc.

FIGURE 1-6 Biohazard symbol to be displayed on
all medical waste.
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Contaminated Sites

• Sites prior to current regulation or those more
  recent that have violated regulations
• CERCLA
• Government required to identify contaminated
  sites and maintain a list of those most
  threatening (NPL)
• See attached Excel List CERCLIS
  (suspected/potential/lessened threat)
• Mecklenburg County 27 sites
• NPL Sites
• North Carolina 29 sites
• http//www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/locate/index.ht
  m

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National Priority List - NC

• Map Key Proposed 0 Final 29 Deleted 1

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NPL Sites in Mecklenburg

• Martin-Marietta, Sodyeco, Inc.
• EPA ID NCD001810365Location Charlotte,
  Mecklenberg County, NCCongressional District
  09NPL Status Proposed 12/30/82 Final 09/08/83

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NPL Sites in Mecklenburg

• RAM Leather CareEPA ID NCD982096653Location
  Charlotte, Mecklenberg County, NCCongressional
  District 01

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NPL Sites in Cabarrus

• Bypass 601 Groundwater Contamination SiteEPA ID
  NCD044440303Location Concord, Cabarrus County,
  NCCongressional District 08NPL Status
  Proposed 10/15/84 Final 06/10/86

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Other Site Contamination Programs

• Individual State programs
• RCRA facilities that may be active
• U.S. DOE
• Idaho National Lab
• Hanford
• Savannah River Site
• U.S. DOD
• Munitions, ordnance
• Property transfer initiated remediation (bank
  or state requirement)
• LUSTs

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Brownfields Program

• U.S. EPA initiative began in 1995
• Definition
• A brownfield is a property, the expansion,
  redevelopment, or reuse of which may be
  complicated by the presence or potential presence
  of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or
  contaminant
• It is estimated that there are more than 450,000
  brownfields in the U.S. (may / may not appear on
  CERCLIS)
• Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties
  increases local tax bases, facilitates job
  growth, utilizes existing infrastructure, takes
  development pressures off of undeveloped, open
  land, and both improves and protects the
  environment.

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Brownfields Legislation

• In 2002, Public Law 107-118 (H.R. 2869) - "Small
  Business Liability Relief and Brownfields
  Revitalization Act"
• It combined two bills (S. 350 and H.R. 1831)
  amending the Comprehensive Environmental
  Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA
  or Superfund)
• Title I codified and expanded EPA's current
  brownfields program by authorizing funding for
  assessment and cleanup of brownfields properties.
  
• Title II exempted from Superfund liability
  contiguous property owners, prospective
  purchasers, and clarified appropriate inquiry for
  innocent landowners.
• Title III authorized funding for State response
  programs and limited EPA's Superfund enforcement
  authority at sites cleaned up under a State
  response program.

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Brownfields Legislation

• Exempts persons from Superfund response cost
  liability at National Priorities List sites as
  generators and transporters if the person can
  demonstrate that
• the total amount of the material containing
  hazardous substances they contributed was less
  than 110 gallons of liquid materials or 200
  pounds of solid materials and
• all or part of disposal, treatment, or transport
  occurred before April 1, 2001
• Exceptions
• materials contributed or could contribute
  significantly, either individually or in the
  aggregate, to the cost of the response action or
  natural resource restoration
• the person fails to comply with an information
  request
• the person impedes or impeded, through action or
  inaction, a response action or natural resource
  restoration at the facility
• the person has been convicted of a criminal
  violation for conduct to which the exemption
  would apply

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Ethics

• Act vs. Consequence of Act Theories
• Utilitarianism
• Risk assessments that predict potential increases
  in cases of cancer, balanced against economic
  value or other accepted risks
• Primary obligation of engineers is to protect
  safety, health, property and welfare of public

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FIGURE 1-1 Hazardous waste share of the
environmental (a) consulting and (b) remediation
markets.
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FIGURE 1-7
A new direction for corporations.