Hazardous Waste 2011

Hazardous Waste Defined  Hazardous waste is a waste with properties that make it dangerous or potentially harmful to human health or the environment.

Forms of Hazardous Waste  Liquids  Solids  Contained gases  Sludges.  The EPA has a list of more than 500 specific hazardous wastes

Criteria  1. Contains one or more of 39 carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic compounds at levels that exceed established limits;  2.catches fire easily, such as gasoline, paints, and solvents;

Criteria Continued  3. Is reactive or unstable enough to explode or release toxic fumes or  4. is capable of corroding metal containers such as tanks, drums, and barrels

Characteristics  Ignitability – Create fires under certain conditions, are spontaneously combustible, or have a flash point less than 60 °C (140 °F). waste oils and used solvents.  Corrosivity – Acids or bases (pH less than or equal to 2, or greater than or equal to 12.5) capable of corroding metal containers. Battery acid is an example.  Reactivity – Unstable under "normal" conditions, can cause explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when heated, compressed, or mixed with water. lithium- sulfur batteries and explosives.  Toxicity – Harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed, this is the issue with leachate

Hazardous Landfill Construction

Federal Legislation  RCRA (1976)- The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)  CERCLA (1980) –The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act  SARA (1986)- Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act

RCRA  Manages listed and identified wastes.  Hazardous Material Look Up Hazardous Material Look Up EPA RCRA

CERCLA  This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment.  Over five years, $1.6 billion was collected and the tax went to a trust fund for cleaning up abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.

Specifically CERCLA  established prohibitions and requirements concerning closed and abandoned hazardous waste sites;  provided for liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites; and  established a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no responsible party could be identified.

CERCLA Continued  The law authorizes two kinds of response actions:  Short-term removals, where actions may be taken to address releases or threatened releases requiring prompt response.  Long-term remedial response actions, that permanently and significantly reduce the dangers associated with releases or threats of releases of hazardous substances that are serious

SARA  SARA amended CERCLA on October 17, SARA reflected EPA's experience in administering the complex Superfund Program during its first six years and made several important changes and additions to the program.

SARA  stressed the importance of permanent remedies and innovative treatment technologies in cleaning up hazardous waste sites;  provided new enforcement authorities and settlement tools;  increased the focus on human health problems posed by hazardous waste sites;  encouraged greater citizen participation in making decisions on how sites should be cleaned up; and  increased the size of the trust fund to $8.5 billion.

Superfund  Superfund Superfund

Toxic Release Inventory  A publicly available EPA database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities reported annually by certain covered industry groups as well as federal facilities.  This inventory was established under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) and expanded by the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990.

Toxic Release Inventory

Bioremediation  the use of microbes to enhance the elimination of toxic compounds in the environment.

Strategies for bioremediation  Using native (indigenous) microbes  Improving microbes living conditions  Adding selected microbes

Indigenous MicrobesIndigenous Microbes  There are many naturally occurring microbes that occur in the environment that will decompose (eat) small amounts of toxin over long periods of time.  This works at a very, very slow rate

Improving living conditionImproving living condition  People can add water and oxygen to the environment to speed up the growth rate of the microbes. Also by adding additional chemical such as fertilizers.

Adding more and different microbes  Adding additional non-native microbes can help degrade the toxins

What microbes to useWhat microbes to use  Toxins come in 2 categories  Organic  Inorganic  The type of toxin determines how and what microbes can be used

Top 10 contaminantsTop 10 contaminants  Lead  Trichloroethylene  Toulene  Benzene  PCB’s  Chloroform  Phenol  Arsenic  Cadmium  Chromium

Anarerobic tolulene degrader Azoarcus tolulyticus (dividing in photo) Found in a gasoline contaminated aquifer Tolulene is one of the most toxic components of gasoline Important find because it is anaerobic and can work in an underground environment.

Biodegradation  Using living organisms to breakdown organic compounds 2,4-D=Weed B Gone --Herbicides Oil PCB”s —insulator coolants in electric power plant transformers DDT —pesticide Plastic Detergents

2,4-D RoundUp,glyphosphate  Three main microbes  Alclegenes eutrohus  Burkholderia cepia  Halomonas Most widely used herbicide in the US. Between million pounds annually Can be degraded in 2 weeks in agricultural soils

Inorganic WasteInorganic Waste  Inorganic wastes contain no Carbon, include heave metals  Although found in nature humans are responsible for accumulating them into abnormally found amounts Mercury —in batteries Nitrite —fertilizer runoff Selenium, Arsenic Uranium Acid mine drainage

Bacterial communitiesBacterial communities  Communities of bacteria can handle even nuclear waste Highly contaminated waste sites have found bacteria eating the uranium and breaking it down to less water soluble compounds

Acid mine drainageAcid mine drainage  Using microbial communities to clean the heavy metals

Hazardous waste are creating new fields of study  Microbial technology  Limiting factors for critical processes & significant organisms  Identification of key biotic interaction  Structure and function of food webs  Environmental biotechnology  Cleaning effluents of treatment waste  Alternative and ecofriendly processes  Alternative and ecofriendly products