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CE 510 Hazardous Waste Engineering . Department of Civil Engineering Southern Illinois University Carbondale Instructor: Jemil Yesuf Dr. L.R. Chevalier. Lecture Series 1: Environmenta l Legislations and Regulations . Course Goals.
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CE 510Hazardous Waste Engineering Department of Civil Engineering Southern Illinois University Carbondale Instructor: Jemil Yesuf Dr. L.R. Chevalier Lecture Series 1: Environmental Legislations and Regulations
Course Goals • Review the history and impact of environmental laws in the United States • Understand the terminology, nomenclature, and significance of properties of hazardous wastes and hazardous materials • Develop strategies to find information of nomenclature, transport and behavior, and toxicity for hazardous compounds • Elucidate procedures for describing, assessing, and sampling hazardous wastes at industrial facilities and contaminated sites • Predict the behavior of hazardous chemicals in surface impoundments, soils, groundwater and treatment systems • Assess the toxicity and risk associated with exposure to hazardous chemicals • Apply scientific principles and process designs of hazardous wastes management, remediation and treatment
Introduction to Approach Sources Pathways Receptors • Industrial processes that generate hazardous waste • Types of contamination that results from their disposal
Introduction to Approach Sources Pathways Receptors MAIN EMPHASIS OF COURSE • Storage systems, soil, groundwater, air, water treatment systems • Quantitative problem solving • Provides the conceptual basis for understanding hazardous chemicals
Introduction to Approach Sources Pathways Receptors MAIN EMPHASIS OF COURSE • Partitioning • Volatilization • Abiotic and biotic transformation
Introduction to Approach Sources Pathways Receptors • Humans and wildlife • Fundamentals of toxicology • Risk Assessment
Generation of HWHigh Standard of Living Waste that may be persistent, toxic, flammable corrosive or explosive COMPUTER halogenated solvents AIRCRAFT petroleum solvents heavy metals PLASTICS organic solvents
Estimates of Amounts in US • 30-60 million tons per year subject to federal regulations • Additional 230-260 million tons per year regulated by state • These are conservative estimates – other sources predict 750 million tons per year • Even conservative estimates put the annual rate generated as 1 ton per year per person in the US
Definition of Hazardous Waste • Long or short-term toxicity to humans • Eco-toxicity • Flammability • Explosivity • Corrosivity
Pre-Regulatory Disposal Practices (prior to 1970’s) • Pesticide Rinse and Formulation Areas • Underground Storage Tanks • Pits, Ponds and Lagoons • Sanitary Landfills • Drum Storage Areas • Unlined Hazardous Waste Landfills • Midnight Dumping • Uncontrolled Incinerations Students are responsible for reviewing
EPA Estimates of the Magnitude of Problem Prior to Landmark Legislation 50,000 Sites 60 million tons
48% of US population receives drinking water from groundwater
Landmark Legislations • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 1976 • Hazard and Solid Waste Amendment (HSWA), 1984 • Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, Superfund), 1980 • Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986: from $1.8 in 1980 to $8.5 billion fund.
RCRA, 1976 • Legislation that requires total documentation • Where waste is generated • Where waste is disposed • Has provisions for citizen actions • Significant funding cuts to EPA • Agency criticized by Congress for not carrying out mandates • Congress passed Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendment 1984 to strengthen the act
Primary Goals of RCRA & HSWA • Protect public health and the environment from hazardous and other solid waste through: • Hazardous waste management • Solid waste management • UST regulation • To preserve natural resources through resource recovery and conservation • Large portion of RCRA is definition of hazardous waste • Management goal of RCRA is to control HW from “cradle to grave”: Generators, transporters and TSD facilities.
Definition of a RCRA HW • HWs are considered a subset of solid waste • Once a waste is defined as solid waste-next step is to determine if it is HW. “a solid waste or combination of solid wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics, may: 1) cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible illness, or 2) pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise managed.”
Exempted Waste • Household waste • Agricultural waste returned to the ground • Mining overburden returned to the mine site • Utility wastes from coal combustion • Oil and gas exploration drilling waste • Wastes from the extraction and processing of ores and minerals • Cement kiln wastes • Arsenic-treated wood wastes generated by end users of such wood • Certain chromium bearing waste
Classification of HWs • If waste material is a solid waste and not exempt, list must be examined to assess if it is hazardous. • F list • Hazardous Waste from nonspecific sources • 20 F classifications from F001-F029 • Primarily from industrial processes • K List • Hazardous Waste from a specific source • 87 K classifications • Primarily from industrial processes • P + U List • Primarily commercial products • Also includes hazardous residues and spills • P list is acutely hazardous • U list is toxic
Class Exercise Determine the classification (Industry and EPA Hazardous Waste Number and Hazard Code) for the following: Waste Treatment sludge from the chemical conversion coating of aluminum Acetone Silver cyanide (See Appendix A)
Class Exercise Waste Treatment sludge from the chemical conversion coating of aluminum – F019 (T) Acetone – U002 (I) Silver cyanide – P104 NOTE: use of Hazardous Codes C, E, H, I, R, and T in tables
Additional Codes-Hazardous Waste Characteristics (Table 1.4) • Ignitability – D001 • Corrosivity – D002 • Reactivity – D003 • Toxicity – D004-D043 • Extraction Procedure – EP • Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure – TCLP • Prevents industry from simply diluting waste
Critical Path for determining if a waste is hazardous under RCRA Solid Waste Yes Exempt? No Yes F List No Hazardous Waste Characteristics Yes K List No No No P + U List Yes Yes Yes Delisted Hazardous Waste Non-hazardous Waste No
Cradle-to-Grave Management • Generators • Generates over 1000 kg of HW per month • EPA form 8700-12 • Obtain an EPA identification number • Documents the generation of the waste • EPA form 8700-22a • Mechanism for tracking the waste until it is disposed of • Form must accompany waste, and must be kept by all parties
CERCLA, 1980 • A.k.a Superfund • Trust funded by taxes on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided to federal authority • funds and regulates cleanup of hazardous waste sites
Additional Aspects of CERCLA and SARA • Moves beyond cradle-to-grave management • Focused on past disposal sites • Broadened the definition of Hazardous Waste established by RCRA • Any chemical regulated under • Clean Air Act • Clean Water Act • Toxic Substance Control Act • RCRA • National Contingency Plan developed as blueprint for prioritized clean-up
Additional Legislature • Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (1986) • Clean Water Act (1972) • Toxic Substance Control Act (1976) • Safe Drinking Water Act (1974) • Clean Air Act (1970) • More information about major environmental laws and regulations can be accessed at: : http://www.epa.gov/epahome/laws.htm
Definitions based on regulations, the most common working definitions of hazardous chemicals in the practice of hazardous waste management are Hazardous waste – chemicals disposed of under RCRA Hazardous substance – chemicals regulated under CERCLA Hazardous materials – chemicals transported by truck, rail, air or pipeline under USDOT regulations
Summary of important points and concepts • Hazardous waste have been generated from essentially all industrial activities. Prior to the passage and promulgation of federal legislation in the late 1970s, hazardous waste were often disposed of improperly in pits, ponds, and lagoons, on surface soils and in landfills. • RCRA, passed in 1976, provides cradle-to-grave management of hazardous wastes, and was amended as HSWA in 1984. Hazardous waste generators, transporters, and treatment/storage/disposal facility operators have responsibilities to provide safeguards against improper hazardous waste disposal
Summary of important points and concepts • CERCLA, also know as Superfund, was passed in 1980 to provide a mechanism for the mitigation of chronic environmental damage, particularly the cleanup of contaminated sites. Amended in 1986, SARA • Definitions of hazardous chemicals are based on regulatory and administrative criteria. Hazardous waste are defined by RCRA, hazardous substances by CERCLA and hazardous materials by DOT regulations • The current estimate of hazardous waste generation is approximately 750 million tons per year in the US. Most of the waste is classified as corrosive, and can be treated by neutralization.
Summary of important points and concepts • The hazardous waste field is multidisciplinary and requires the expertise of environmental engineers, environmental chemists, microbiologists, soil scientists, toxicologists, hydrogeologists. • Hazardous waste professionals have a number of responsibilities, including site assessment, risk assessment, soil and groundwater remediation, RCRA TSD permitting, hazardous waste management, and hazardous waste treatment • Hazardous waste problems can be approached using the conceptual theme of sources, pathways and receptors.