Chemicals Management

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Chemicals Management
Wastewater Management Workshop Jamaica Conference
Centre, Kingston, Jamaica 23 -24 November 2015

• Specific focus on pharmaceuticals and chemicals
  in sewage
• Maurice Jones
• Fluid Systems Engineering Ltd.

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Chemicals Management
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Chemicals Management
Major Laws of Environmental Protection
(Jamaica) National Solid Waste Management
Act Natural Resources Conservation Authority Act
Natural Resources Conservation (Reg Air
Quality) Natural Resources Conservation (Reg
Permit and Licences) Natural Resources (Reg
Hazardous Waste - Transboundary) Natural
Resources Conservation (Reg Wastewater and
Sludge) Water Resources Authority Act
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Chemicals Management
Major Laws of Environmental Protection (Jamaica)
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Chemicals Management
Major Laws of Environmental Protection
(Jamaica) Part VIII Offences and
Penalties Section 24 Offence of dumping hazardous
waste
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Chemicals Management

• First Schedule (Regulation 2)
• Categories of Waste to be Controlled
• Clinical waste from medical care in hospitals,
  medical centres and clinics
• Waste from the production and preparation of
  pharmaceutical products
• Waste pharmaceuticals, drugs and medicines
• Waste from the production, formulation and use of
  biocides etc.
• Waste from the manufacture, formulation and use
  of wood preserving
• Chemicals
• Waste from the product ion, formulation and use
  of organic solvents
• Waste from heat treatment and tempering
  operations containing cyanides

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Chemicals Management
Fourth Schedule (Regulation 2) Disposal
Operations - Part A Operations Which Do not Lead
to the Possibitlity of Resource Recovery
Recycling, Reclamation, Direct Re- use or
Alternative Uses
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Chemicals Management
Possible pathways that pharmaceuticals could take
to end up in our drinking water (Heberer, 2002).
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Chemicals Management
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(Quick, 2005). The issue of pharmaceuticals in
the water first became public knowledge in the
1980s when researchers from Seattle to Berlin
started reporting the presence of antibiotics and
hormones in the environment. Only in the 1990s,
however, did the implications of aspirin,
nicotine and caffeine leaching into the water
supply reach the public.
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Chemicals Management
(Smith, 2005). In this situation, the
pharmaceuticals go through standard wastewater
processes, which filter the water for nitrates,
phosphates and carbons but neglect to filter any
antibiotics, anti-cholesterol, psychoactives,
hormones or other potentially harmful drugs
(Smith, 2005).
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Chemicals Management
(Smith, 2005). Effluents from municipal sewage
treatment plants are thus the main source of
contamination of rivers, streams and various
other water sources (Heberer, 2002).
(Schwarzenbach et al., 2006). Not
surprisingly, the compounds that come out of
waste water treatment plants do not biodegrade in
the environment . To the contrary, these
chemicals often bioaccumulate in soils, plants,
animals and other aquatic life forms.