Rachel’s News #15, March 9, 1987
Ten years ago the U.S. Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which was intended to provide “cradle to grave” regulation and oversight of hazardous wastes from U.S. industry. On the 10th anniversary of RCRA, the Congressional Research Service (an arm of the Congress) has issued a report on the generation, transportation and management of hazardous waste in the U.S. Entitled HAZARDOUS WASTE FACT BOOK, the report concludes “there are no current data concerning most facets of hazardous waste generation and disposal.” The report says that EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) has made several efforts to collect such data but “most remain unpublished because of problems in methodology that raise significant questions about data quality.”
Based on existing data, the authors conclude that “more waste with hazardous characteristics is excluded from regulation under RCRA than is regulated” and they conclude that “most waste is disposed of on the site where it is generated.”
The report says that 770 land disposal facilities (about half of all such disposal facilities in the U.S.) were in “significant non-compliance” with RCRA regulations at the beginning of fiscal year 1987 and the number of facilities in non-compliance seems to be growing rather than shrinking, despite EPA’s enforcement efforts.
Editorial comment: This report offers evidence that government isn’t controlling the hazardous waste problem in America. It is apparent that the government has not measured the size of the problem accurately, that congress’s response to the problem (RCRA) is not working, and that the EPA’s enforcement program is ineffective. The report gives us renewed conviction that this problem will never be solved until enough angry citizens demand action–action by government and action by industry. Citizen involvement is the key.
For a copy of the report (No. 87-56 ENR), contact James McCarthy, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540. –Peter Montague
EPA LOOKS AT ALTERNATIVES FOR CLEANING UP CONTAMINATED TOWN
EPA has proposed seven possible alternatives for dealing with dioxin-contaminated soil at Times Beach, MO. The town of Times Beach was contaminated by dioxin in 1972-73 when the Bliss Oil Co. sprayed contaminated oil onto local roads to suppress dust (and to get rid of the unwanted dioxin). EPA discovered high levels of dioxin contamination in the town in 1982 and in early 1983 EPA began buying the town and moving the residents out. All the residents have now been moved and EPA is considering what to do with the contaminated property it owns. Times Beach has about 150,000 cubic yards of soil containing more than one part per billion (ppb) of dioxin, the level at which EPA becomes concerned about health.
The seven alternatives include (1) do nothing; (2) fence the contaminated area to keep people out and begin monitoring to check whether dioxin is migrating off the site; (3) put one foot of topsoil over the contaminated area and seed it; then monitor to see if dioxin is migrating off the site; (4) dig up the soil and move it to an on-site covered, concrete-reinforced cell underlain by an impermeable lining to contain the wastes; (5) dig up the soil and truck it to a landfill somewhere else; (6) build two rotary kiln incinerators on the site and burn the soil to destroy the dioxin, and (7) build the incinerators and burn the soil, plus burn an additional 39,000 cubic yards of soil from three other dioxin-contaminated sites in Missouri.
Costs of these proposals range from $8.8 million for No. 2 to $203 million for No. 7. Reportedly, EPA is leaning toward No. 6. The state of Missouri has approved the use of a portable incinerator for detoxifying dioxin-contaminated soils at other sites in the state; by early 1987, two million pounds of soil had been decontaminated by incineration in Missouri. For further information about Times Beach: Steve Wurtz, EPA Region VII, 726 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, MO 66101; phone (913) 236-2803. –Peter Montague
BOOK GIVES OVERVIEW OF NEW WAYS TO DESTROY HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS
There are three standard ways to clean up Superfund hazardous waste sites: (1) build a wall around the site, which doesn’t solve the problem but passes it on to our grandchildren when the wall begins to leak; (2) dig up the material and truck it to a landfill somewhere else, which doesn’t solve the problem but passes it into someone else’s back yard; or (3) dig up the wastes and process them to reduce their toxicity, which offers a real solution to the problem.
Many new technologies have been developed for detoxifying hazardous wastes. There’s a new book on the subject by Harry Freeman: INNOVATIVE THERMAL PROCESSES FOR TREATING HAZARDOUS WASTE, which describes wet oxidation pyrolysis, the plasma process, molten salt and molten glass treatment processes, and chemical transformation. It is available for $25 from Technomic Publishing Co., 851 New Holland Avenue, Box 3535, Lancaster, PA 17604; phone (717) 291-5609. Should your town library own a copy? Or can your community college borrow a copy for you through inter-library loan?
Descriptor terms: legislation; us congress; hazardous waste; industry; congressional research service; studies; hazardous waste fact book; epa; regulations; compliance; editorials; rcra; waste production statistics; epa; dioxin; soil contamination; mo; times beach, mo; bliss oil; landfilling; incineration; remedial action; soil contamination; statistics; waste treatment technologies;
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Rachel’s News was published by Environmental Research Foundation (E.R.F.) from 1986 to 2009. All together, 1000 issues appeared. Unless otherwise noted, they were written by Peter Montague.
Over the years the name of the publication changed slightly, starting as “Hazardous Waste News,” then “Rachel’s Hazardous Waste News,” then “Rachel’s Environment & Health News” and finally “Rachel’s Democracy & Health News.” In this archive, we have simply used “Rachel’s News.”
E.R.F. changed its location over the years from Princeton, N.J., to Washington, D.C. to Annapolis, Md. and finally to New Brunswick, N.J.
To contact E.R.F. or Peter Montague, send email to pm8525@gmail.com.
