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Conrad (Dan) Volz, DrPH, MPH

Air and Solid Waste Public Health and Environmental Impacts – Tires to Energy Project, Allegheny College, Meadville. Conrad (Dan) Volz, DrPH, MPH

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Conrad (Dan) Volz, DrPH, MPH

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  1. Air and Solid Waste Public Health and Environmental Impacts – Tires to Energy Project, Allegheny College, Meadville Conrad (Dan) Volz, DrPH, MPH Assistant ProfessorDirector & Principal Investigator, Center for Healthy Environments and CommunitiesDirector, Environmental Health Risk Assessment Certificate Program BridgesidePoint, 100 Technology Drive Room 334, BRIDG Pittsburgh, PA, 15219-3130 Email: cdv5@pitt.edu

  2. Existing Sources – Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis

  3. State of the Air in 4 State Area – Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis

  4. State of the Air in 4 State Area – Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis

  5. Mean SO2 From Plant

  6. Peak SO 2 From Plant

  7. State of the Air in 4 State Area – Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis

  8. Existing Sources – Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis

  9. State of the Air in 4 State Area – Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis

  10. Mean PM 2.5 From Plant

  11. Peak PM 2.5 From Plant

  12. State of the Air in 4 State Area – Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threat Analysis—690 Tons per year from Tire Burning Plant

  13. Putting it all together—Tons of Pollutants from Point Sources-What Kind of Dot??? It will be a medium size green dot!

  14. Things you should know about air pollution and risk and the proposed plant! • Risks from air pollution are projected to be fairly low and I agree in principal with the risk assessment carried out by the companies consultants. • But there will be risks. • There is no consensus amongst environmental health researchers that there is a risk free level of exposure to particulates, and most other criteria pollutants. • There is no safe level of exposure to carcinogens such as chromium. Any increase in these contaminants will statistically produce higher rates of CA in the population. The risks are low but they are there.

  15. Other Issues of Environmental and Environmental Health Importance • Project documentation shows that ash will be stored on site and removed to an approved landfill site or used for beneficial use. • Waste disposal and community exposure to ash is critical problem ---- The Law of Conservation of Mass/ Leeching into groundwater and surface water aquifers. • Waste from this will be necessarily high in dioxins and furans and other biologically persistent pyrolysis products of tires—and it can buildup in aquatic food chains-such in the fat of fish. • Wastes will be enriched with heavy metals that can also bioaccumulate in fish.

  16. Other Issues of Environmental and Environmental Health Importance • This ash might be used for some purposes but not as a soil amendment—it should not be spread out on reclaimed land or used to neutralize acid mine drainage or put into abandoned mines. • The ash should be kept in a clay and impervious lined landfill with monitoring wells around it and it should be covered from the weather and wind. • It is a high risk to store this ash material near swamps, and areas of high water purification value.

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