SOLID WASTE

medical waste management

* red bag- bio hazard * needles and sharps in sharps container - need to protect sanitastion workers from infectious agents more of an issue after medical waste floated unto beaches in summers of 1987 and 1988

SARA

*established EPCRA -EMERGENCY PLANNING AND COMMUNITY RIGHT TO KNOW ACT- the 'people right to know '

1980 CERCLA slide 20 "Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act" (CERCLA)

= Superfund site "Gave the EPA- the authority to clean up old hazardous waste sites with potential to endanger people and environment" -For poorly managed or abandoned waste sites (Love Canal, Valley of Drums) Nicknamed "superfund" For abandoned or uncontrolled waste sites National Priorities List (NPL) Locates hazardous waste sites Based on health hazard ranking system 1,600 NPL sites in country Government or responsible party(s) must clean up Tough law Retroactive—all past and current owners liable Strict—liable regardless of whether all laws of the day Joint and several—one small waste generator can be liable for all were followed

Solid waste pg 562

= industrial any discarded solid material Solid waste Any discarded material from industrial, commercial, government, mining, and agriculture, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material

left over non combustible parts

Ash/slag

Exclusions to RCRA waste

Domestic waste-not governed under RCRA Fossil fuels- not governed under RCRA Mining wastes Oil and gas refining waste Hydrofracking

RCRA law

Double walled tanks are now regulated

EPCRA -

EMERGENCY PLANNING AND COMMUNITY RIGHT TO KNOW ACT

RCRA a result of SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL ACT

EPA given regulatotory and enforcing control in 1976

RCRA Hazardous waste further defined as Listed

Listed- listed as chemical of interest *Nonspecific sources—Toluene, MEK, etc. *Specific sources—sludge from steel-making plant

RCRA

Manages industrial waste created today

CERCLA mandates

Tough law Retroactive—all past and current owners liable Strict—liable regardless of whether all laws of the day Joint and several—one small waste generator can be liable for all.

NPL sites.

generally near major ports where shipping and trade are very active

1930-1950s

hooker chemical Dumps 21000 tons of toxic waste 1953 land sold to city for $1 1978- waste issue from ground- public panics 1978- declared a disaster 1980 CERLCA updated; polluter pays even if it followed rules

RCRA mandates

1.waste be tracked from origin to final destination 2. landfills be designed and constructed to meet min standards- need a liner to prevent water movement 3. NON hazardous wastes

CERCLA came into being

1980 for poorly managed or abandoned waste sites *locates waste sites * assess on the basis of national health hazard ranking system

The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act Inspired by Bhopal, India 9.5 Slide 3

1984 December 3, 1984 Union Carbide pesticide plant (now owned by Dow Chemical) "Worst industrial accident" in history 42 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) reacts with water, overpressurizes tank—released into Bhopal (which sits n a valley) India 3,000 died immediately Thousands more die in weeks after accident 20,000+ with long-term health effects Today, 90 tons of toxic chemicals are abandoned at the Union Carbide plant now owned by Dow Chemical The soil/groundwater are contaminated and implicated in continuing health threats

SARA came into being

1986

what do we do with coal ash

34% => landfills 22% surface impoundments 37% beneficial use- add to concrete or gypsum wall 8% mine fills

Landfill diagram slide 2 9.3

Compacted clay layers: slow the movement of water and chemicals. Leachate collection system: any liquid that gets to the liners is pumped back up to the top of the landfill. Groundwater monitoring well: these are used to test the groundwater to ensure that no hazardous materials have escaped and contaminated the groundwater. Rainwater retention ponds: when it rains, runoff is channeled into retention ponds instead of through the landfill.

CERCLA

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act

1980 CERCLA

For poorly managed or abandoned waste sites (Love Canal, Valley of Drums) established superfund, Compensate Environmental Response Compensation and Liberty Act

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)

Garbage, trash, items we throw away every day We toss about 4.5 lb/day/person Roughly doubled since 1970 ~ one third is packaging material Products (71%) 20-30% recycyked incineration- able to make electricity- downsides formation of chlorine compounds; heavy metals and sulfur oxides

1976 RCRA

How we regulate industrial waste today Resource Conservation and Recovery Act mandates that "waste be tracked" from point or origin to final destination/disposal Also- all future solid waste landfills be designed and constructed to meet minimum standards- to include having liners to prevent water movement through the waste and into underlying aquifers

Additional RCRA Hazardous Waste Information

If one drop of hazardous waste contaminates, it's all hazardous waste You have 90 days of on-site storage at approved storage site (from when last drop is added) Handling waste requires training, spill kit, secondary containment, etc. You cannot "treat" the waste

Leaking Underground Storage Tanks—Regulation

In 1984, there were one million underground storage tanks, mostly at gas stations, and about one third of them were leaking. By 1988, the EPA required all gas stations to have: -Spill and overflow protection Corrosion protection on any underground tanks Double-walled tanks with leak detection between the walls This regulation excluded tanks used for home heating oil on farms and for residential use.

Cell phones

In 2006, world's cellphone subscribers reached 2.5 billion, from 2 billion in 2005 1.5 billion cellphone increase in one year 72% of Americans own a cellphone Average user replaces his or her cellphone every 1.5 years minerals are about 2/3 of those on periodic chart

1986 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)

Inspired by Bhopal Created Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) Citizens right to know about chemicals in their community Requires emergency planning for spills and releases Established the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) - Must report all chemical releases, storage, usage, disposal (above certain reportable thresholds) - Publicly available, powerful incentive to reduce emissions Governed HOW people reported

Valley of the Drums

Near Louisville, KY 17,000 openly dumped drums were removed from 13 acres

Coal Ash

Not considered an RCRA hazardous waste 500 coal plants in the United States Coal contains 10% ash (minerals that won't burn) Typical coal plant 4,000 tons coal/day 400 tons coal ash/day- unbirnable aspects *Is a biproduct of burning fuel, highly toxic, stored in ponds, transpiring into streams/ground water, 2009 EPA wanted to classify coal ash as hazardous* added to concrete and gypsium walls

1990 Pollution Prevention Act

Reduce waste at the source

RCRA acronyms

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Times Beach, Missouri (1970s)

Russell Bliss hired to spray oil onto dusty roads Some of waste oil was identified as having contained dioxin EPA declares health emergency Town evacuated 265,000 tons of soil burned

RCRA—Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Subtitle C Hazardous waste; "cradle to grave" tracking Subtitle D Nonhazardous wastes (municipal landfills, etc.) should we regulate as subtitle B or C Subtitle F Fed responsibilities (waived sovereign immunity) you do not get an out if you are a federal

SARA=

Superfund Amendments and reauthorization act

RCRA waste tracking

WASTE GENERATOR=>WASTE TRANSPORTER=>TREATMENT SRORAGE AND DISPOSAL FACILITY=> manifests return to waste generator as the GENERATOR OWNS WASTE FOREVER

Municipal solid waste

Waste produced by households and businesses Waste- something that no longer has value Americans generated ~ 4.6 punds perday in 2006

surface impoundment

a pond that has a sealed bottom which stores waste, creation of shallow pools that evaporate hazardous liquids

RCRA Hazardous waste characteristic

defined by its Characteristics Toxicity Reactive Ignitable Corrosive (2 > pH > 12)

hazardous wastes per RCRA

defined by toxix

RCRA landfills

double lined with welded liners with several clay layers between which slows the movement of water that could carry pollutants into the groundwater.

TOXIC RELEASE INVENTORY

established by SARA - Must report all chemical releases, storage, usage, disposal (above certain reportable thresholds) - Publicly available, powerful incentive to reduce emissions Governed HOW people reported-must report

municipal landfill - capturing methane slide 3

municipal landfill there is a lack of oxygen so rotting food, cardboard, and debris all decay into methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas (even more potent than CO2) methane collection systems to capture the methane. The methane can then be burned to create electricity that can then operate the landfill and even produce a surplus to sell. So not only do you offset electricity generation but this also helps to turn a more potent GHG (methane) to a less potent one (CO2).

Targets NPL sites

one in a million (10-6) cancer risk and below the reference dose (RfD) for noncarcinogens Goal less tha 10-4 liability of the cleanup is much more expensive than putting your efforts into pollution prevention.

Trichlorethylene (TCE) is an .

organic solvent used in many industrial processes to clean grime and grease off of engines and electronic parts once thought to be safe—, it was used as an anesthetic in medicine and to decaffeinate coffee. A few Air Forces bases have plumes of TCE in the soil and groundwater beneath, which made them NPL sites.

Describe the historical events leading to RCRA, SARA, and CERCLA

prior to 1965- no laws to govern management and disposal of solid and hazardous waste. the solid waste disposal act of 1965 brought about a national focus on management to be used consistently between all states in 1976 congress amended the Solid waste disposal act and granted the EPA "regulatory and enforcement authority". Act was called "RCRA-Resource Conservation and Recovery Act"

waste to energy

recycyling preferred trash incinerated for electricity

When a site needs attention,

the EPA will pay for the cleanup then * take legal action against the potentially responsible parties. Unfortunately, Superfund (CERCLA) cost recovery has been declining as companies going out of business. The burden thus shifts to the taxpayer or slows the cleanup process.

Pollution Prevention Act

this 1990 law was the first US environmental law to focus on the reduced generation of pollutants at their point of origin. SOURCE REDUCTON- (if it cannot be done)->recycling->WASTE TREATMENT (EPA QUALIFIED Facility)

Hazardous Waste- pg 568

waste with properties that make it capable of harming human health or the environment