Chapter 19 Environmental Regulations: Hazardous Substances and Wastes

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIRFA)

A 1947 U.S. statute that required the registration of pesticides and required applicators of restricted use pesticides to be certified.

Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)

A 1970 U.S. statute that addresses workplace safety in general and specifically regulates worker exposure to toxic and hazardous materials

Clean Water Act (CWA)

A 1970 U.S. statute that introduced permit systems for point sources of pollutants which has greatly improved water quality since its enactment.

Clean Air Act (CAA)

A 1970 U.S. statute that paid specific attention to toxic air pollutants and ozone destroying chemicals and reducing air pollutants in general which has greatly improved air quality since its enactment.

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

A 1974 U.S. statute that set maximum contaminant levels for microbes and about 100 other chemicals which has greatly improved drinking water quality.

Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA)

A 1975 U.S. statute that requires that hazardous materials be identified and labeled and that containers and materials must have placards that identify the kinds of hazards contained in the shipment.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

A 1976 U.S. statute that regulates hazardous waste from production through transportation to final disposal.

Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA)

A 1976 U.S. statute that requires importers and manufacturers to notify EPA if they intend to import or manufacture a new substance and they must also provide data on the toxicity of any new materials.

Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)

A 1980 U.S. statute that aims to clean up abandoned contaminated sites and provided funding to clean up sites where Superfund sites were identified and categorized.

Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)

A 1986 U.S. statute that primarily provided additional funding to clean up Superfund sites and established the Innocent Landowner Defense.

Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act (SBLRBRA)

A 2002 U.S. statute that encouraged redevelopment of old contaminated industrial sites by limiting liability of those doing the redevelopment and providing funding.

National Priorities List

A listing of hazardous waste dump sites requiring urgent attention as identified by Superfund legislation.

Toxicity

A measure of how toxic a material is that may release toxicants in sufficient quantities to pose a substantial hazard to human health or the environment.

Toxic materials

A narrow group of substances that are poisonous and cause death or serious injury to humans and other organisms by interfering with normal body physiology.

Waste minimization

A process that involves changes that industries could make in the way they manufacture products that would reduce the waste produced.

Acute toxicity

A serious effect, such as a burn, illness, or death that occurs shortly after exposure to a hazardous substance.

Chronic toxicity

A serious effect, such as an illness or death, that occurs after prolonged exposure to small doses of a toxic substance.

ASTM International Phase I Environmental Site Assessment standard E-1527

A voluntary standard which involves prior environmental assessment before beginning a project.

Pollution prevention (P2)

Action to prevent either entirely or partially the pollution that would otherwise result from some production or consumption activity.

They determine the threshold level for a hazardous or toxic material.

After observing the results of animal exposure toxicology studies, what do regulatory agencies do?

Regulations

Aim to control and/or stop pollution and environmental degradation.

High levels of carbon dioxide in the air and any household waste chemicals

Almost everything that is hazardous is toxic in high enough quantities. What are two examples of toxic wastes?

Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)

An act that required certain industries in the U.S. to report the release of toxic chemicals into the environment. (Also known as SARA title III.)

International Organization for Standardization

An organization that sets standards for environmental management systems like the ISO 14000.

Nonpersistent pollutant

Are those that do not remain in the environment for very long periods.

Persistent pollutant

Are those that remain in the environment for many years in an unchanged condition and are usually human-made materials.

Neutralization

By reacting acids and bases with one another can convert hazardous substances to materials that are not hazardous.

Hazardous wastes

By-products of industrial, business, or household activities for which there is no immediate use that could danger life if released into the environment.

Ignitability

Characteristics of materials that result in their ability to combust and pose a fire hazard during routine management.

1 compound + 1 compound = 4 (risk level)

Describe an equation that best relates to the concept of synergism.

They have reduced from about 435 million metric tons in 2003 to about 32 million metric tons in 2011 - about a 93% reduction.

Describe how RCRA regulations have significantly changed the amount of hazardous waste generated.

Hazardous substances or materials

Describes all dangerous material that can cause harm to humans or the environment.

Some nuclear material can be diverted to fuel use in nuclear reactors, and some reactors can be modified to accept enriched uranium or plutonium.

How are nations of the world supposed to dispose of their nuclear weapons?

They can be incorporated into concrete or other building materials so that they do not require disposal.

How can ash or other solid hazardous wastes be recycled?

Land disposal

Involves deep-well injection, discharge into sewers, rivers, and streams, placement of liquid wastes in surface pits, ponds, or lagoons, or storage in specially designed landfills.

The nuclear fuel cycle

Involves mining uranium, processing it, using it as fuel for nuclear reactors, and reprocessing or disposing of spent fuel.

Gases

Materials that are flammable, non flammable, or toxic..

Explosives

Materials that cause a rapid release of gas and heat

Corrosives

Materials that cause damage to human skin.

Radioactive material

Materials that give off ionizing radiation.

Biodegradation

Microorganisms can convert hazardous chemicals to innocuous substances. Sewage treatment plants perform their function to eliminate this from happening by what process?

Pollution-prevention hierarchy (P2)

Regulatory controls promoted by the EPA that emphasize reducing the amount of hazardous waste produced.

Air stripping

Sometimes used to remove volatile chemicals from water. Volatile chemicals, which have a tendency to vaporize easily, can be forced out of liquid when air passes through it.

Poisonous (toxic) materials and infectious substances

Substances that may include organisms or their products that can cause disease.

Oxidizing substances and organic peroxides

Substances that release oxygen that enables or enhances the burning of materials.

Treatment, storage, and disposal facilities

TSDF

Carbon absorption

Tanks contain specifically activated particles of carbon to treat hazardous chemicals in gaseous and liquid waste. The carbon chemically combines with the waste or catches hazardous particles just as a fine wire mesh catches grains of sand. Contaminated carbon must then be disposed of or cleaned and reused.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

The 1976 U.S. law that specifically addressed the issue of hazardous waste.

Corrosiveness

The ability of a chemical to degrade standard materials.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

The amount of hazardous waste generation has declined significantly, and all participants in the hazardous waste chain must now sign documents of their role, from the "cradle-to-grave" as a result of what?

Superfund

The common name given to the U.S. 1980 CERCLA, which was designed to address hazardous waste sites.

LD50 (LD50 = lethal dose 50 percent)

The dosage of a substance that will kill (lethal dose) 50 percent of a test population

Whether the exposure is acute or chronic.

The health effects of exposure to toxic materials differ depending on what?

Synergism

The interaction of materials or energy that increases the potential for harm.

Threshold level

The minimal amount of something required to cause measurable effects.

Threshold dosage

The minimum harmful dosages of toxins.

Reactivity

The property of materials that indicates the degree to which the material is likely to react vigorously to water or air, or to become unstable or explode.

Underground storage tanks

USTs

Steam stripping

Uses heated air to raise the temperature of the liquid and force out volatile chemicals that ordinary air would not. The volatile compounds can be captured and reused or disposed of, and the water is no longer considered a waste.

Hazardous waste recycling

Using waste oils as a fuel for a power plant is a form of what?

Unused pesticides, fluorescent light bulbs, paint thinner, car batteries, and automobile waste oil.

What are five common forms of household hazardous waste?

DDT, PCBs, arsenic, mercury, and lead.

What are five examples of a persistent pollutant?

Used solvents, discarded aerosol cans of paint, oil-based paint, or solvent soaked rags.

What are four examples of ignitable wastes?

Burying them, pumping them into the ground, storing them in ponds, or releasing them into rivers.

What are four ways that many of the research and production facilities in early history deal with hazardous chemicals and minor radioactive wastes?

Explosives, gases that may be flammable, nonflammable, or toxic, flammable liquids, flammable solids, oxidizing substances and organic peroxides, poisonous materials and infectious substances, radioactive material, corrosives, and miscellaneous dangerous goods.

What are nine examples of hazardous materials listed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)?

Changing a process so that a hazardous solvent is replaced with a nonhazardous solevent, using waste produced in a process in another aspect to the process, using a still to clean solvents so that they can be used repeatedly, and allowing water to evaporate from waste.

What are some examples of source reduction and waste minimization of hazardous waste?

Transuranic nuclear waste, uranium mining and milling waste, high-level radioactive waste, and low-level radioactive waste.

What are the four general categories of nuclear waste?

To set priorities for cleaning up the worst existing hazardous waste sites, to make those who created the hazardous waste site pay for cleanups whenever possible, to set up a $1.6 billion Hazardous Waste Trust Fund to support the identification and cleanup of abandoned hazardous waste sites, and to advance scientific and technological capabilities in all aspects of hazardous waste management, treatment, and disposal.

What are the four key objectives of CERCLA?

Mining, power generation, chemical, and metal manufacturing industries.

What are the four primary industries involved in toxic releases to the environment?

Reduce the amount of pollution at the source, recycle wastes wherever possible, treat wastes to reduce their hazard or volume, and dispose of wastes on land or incinerate them as a last resort.

What are the four strategy steps of the pollution-prevention hierarchy?

Research and development, manufacturing and importing, storage, transportation, use, and disposal.

What are the six steps in the life cycle of a hazardous or toxic substance?

Skin, lungs, and mouth.

What are the three primary routes of entry of toxic materials into the human body?

Incineration and land disposal

What are the two most common methods for disposing of hazardous waste?

By identifying general characteristics of hazardous waste and by listing specific wastes as hazardous.

What are the two ways that hazardous or toxic waste is identified?

Insecticides and organophosphates

What are two examples of a nonpersistent pollutant?

Strong acids and bases

What are two examples of corrosive materials?

Bleach solutions and cyanide-containing plating solutions

What are two examples of reactive wastes?

Many remediated Superfund sites were returned to a useful function, and most purchasers of commercial real estate must perform an ASTM Phase I Environmental Site Assessment before purchasing the land.

What are two examples of the impact that the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act (SBLRBRA) had?

The International Organization for Standardization ISO 14000 and the ASTM International Phase I Environmental Site Assessment standard E-1527

What are two examples of voluntary industry standards?

Certain industries in the U.S. had to begin reporting the release of toxic chemicals into the environment, and industrial emissions of toxic chemicals have been reduced by about 45% from 2000 to 2012.

What are two impacts of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)?

The National Priorities List was established and about 1,100 sites have been cleaned up.

What are two major impacts of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)?

Developers who wish to use former Superfund sites and persons who bought land without knowing it was contaminated.

What are two parties that are exempt under Superfund?

Made generators responsible for proper handling of hazardous waste and established a "cradle-to-grave" paper trail assuring hazardous waste was treated and disposed of properly.

What are two requirements of the RCRA?

Evaporation, fugitive emissions, spills or leaks, purposeful releases, dumping or storing on land, and improper labeling and record keeping.

What are ways that hazardous wastes can enter the environment?

The waste associated with cleaning up contaminated sites resulting from research and weapons development.

What does the DOE have major responsibility of?

Managing spent fuel from nuclear power plants, waste associated with the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, and low-level waste from a variety of sources.

What is the NRC primarily responsible for?

To control and/or stop pollution and environmental degradation.

What is the purpose/goal of all environmental regulations?

10%

What percent of hazardous waste is disposed of by being released into aquatic environments?

4%

What percent of hazardous waste is disposed of by being stored in landfills, ponds, and other surface sites?

60%

What percent of hazardous waste is disposed of by deep-well injection?

40%

What percent of the toxic waste materials in the U.S. were released by mining industries in 2012?

Electric, mining, and chemical.

What three industries are the leaders in toxic releases into the environment in the U.S.?

Hazardous waste was essentially unregulated prior to 1976 and the passage of the RCRA, there was less industrial concern for the environment and/or potential health risks from the dumping of hazardous waste, and industrial areas were selected for convenience and not evaluated for environmental sensitivity.

What three reasons led to the development of hazardous waste dump sites prior to 1976?

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Energy (DOE)

What two agencies have primary responsibility for dealing with nuclear waste?

To minimize the generation of hazardous wastes and to control and reduce their transboundary movements to protect human health and the environment.

What were the objectives of the 1992 Basel Convention?

Restoring the water to its original state is seldom physically or economically feasible.

What will happen if an aquifer is contaminated with organic chemicals?

They are "temporarily" being stored at nuclear power plants.

Where are spent fuel rods currently being stored?

Because the effect may not be seen for years.

Why is chronic toxicity much more difficult to determine when compared to acute toxicity?

Because there are so many places in their cycles of use where they may be released.

Why is controlling the release of hazardous and toxic materials difficult?

Industries are driven to find better and often cheaper materials, and if less is produced, then less needs to be disposed of.

Why is source reduction of hazardous waste important?