440
FATE CEE AND CLEANUP OF
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANTS
Lecture 1
Professor Charles J. Werth
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2011 University of Illinois Board of Trustees. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL
POLLUTANTS
My teaching goals for Chapter 1 are for you to learn:
1) sources and types of environmental pollutants
2) scope of the hazardous waste sites in the US
3) magnitude of the effort required to clean up polluted sites
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2011 Charles J. Werth, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. All rights reserved.
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1.1 SOURCES OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANTS
1) Legacy environmental pollutants released to the environment at a
point source through mismanagement, i.e., hazardous waste
2) Nonpoint source pollutants released to the environment (small in
quantity locally, but large in quantity regionally or globally)
As Engineers, we are often concerned with the risk associated with and
cleanup of hazardous waste.
We want to also understand the fate of non-point source pollutants and
ways to mitigate their impact.
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1.2 HAZARDOUS WASTE DEFINITION:
Wastes [solids, sludges, liquids, and containerized gases] that pose a
substantial present or potential hazard to humans or other living
organisms because:
1) such wastes are nondegradable or persistent in nature
2) they can be biologically magnified
3) they can be lethal, or
4) they may otherwise cause or tend to cause detrimental cumulative
effects
(from Wagner, T. P., Hazardous Waste Regulations, 2nd ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1991)
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1.3 MOTIVATION FOR HAZARDOUS WASTE REMEDIATION
1.
Perception of Risk
2.
Actual Risk
3.
Perception of Future Risk
4.
Actual Potential for Future Risk
These motivation factors stem from our inability to define risks
with any degree of accuracy. Currently, risk assessment is more
of a methodology than an actual assessment of the risk posed to
humans and ecosystems.
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2011 Charles J. Werth, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. All rights reserved.
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1.4 Landmark Episodes that Motivated Concern for the
Environment and Hazardous Waste Legislation
1.4.1 Silent Spring, 1972
A book by Rachel Carson discussing the real and potential dangers that
hazardous wastes pose to humans. Ms. Carson showed the
interconnectedness of all life by explaining how DDT residues could be
found in deep-sea squid, Antarctic penguins, and the fatty tissues of
people all over the world.
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1.4.2 Love Canal
1890s: Mr. William Love planned a utopian community to be powered
by hydroelectric power. He envisioned a canal which would divert water
around Niagra Falls for power generation. Only a small portion of the
canal was built before money ran out.
1942-1953: Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corp (now Oxychem)
purchased the land and dumped 10,000 metric tons of chemical waste
into the canal. This was not illegal at the time.
1953: The Niagra Falls board of education bought the land and began
development on it. The deed stated what the land was used for and
that there should be no excavation in the area of the canal.
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1.4.2 Love Canal (cont.)
1960s: The board of education resold the land. By now residential
development had eliminated surface evidence of the canal.
1975: Much residential development on and around the former canal.
Very high precipitation caused some of the landfill (canal) to subside.
Ponds created in the area had heavy chemical contamination.
1977-78: Government officials came in, measured contaminant
concentrations, and assessed health effects. Soon thereafter 237 families
were evacuated by the EPA. Initially it was thought that the area could
be capped with a clay liner and the families could move back in.
1980: A study reported evidence of chromosome damage. President
Carter issued an executive order to evacuate 700 more families from the
area. This was the first executive order for hazardous waste! Congress
passed CERCLA partly because the media hype about Love Canal.
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Love Canal, 1951
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Love Canal, 1980
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1.4.3 Times Beach Missouri
1971: A waste oil hauler contracted to spray gravel roads and a horse
arena with oil to keep dust down. The oil was waste oil mixed with
manufacturing wastes containing Dioxin. This was legal at the time.
~1978: Horses began to die. Later six inches of top soil was removed
from many of the roads and landfilled. At the time there was never any
acknowledgment of a problem.
1982: The Meramec River flooded, the town was evacuated. After the
waters subsided dioxin concentrations were found to be as high as 100 ppm
(recommended exposure limit is 1ppb). The EPA refused to let people back
into the town. The Federal Government bought the town and it was fenced
off. Afterwards the site was used for research and was cleaned by
incinerating the soil.
1997-2001: Soil incineration was completed in 1997, and the site was
deleted from the NPL in 2001. The total cost for remediation was $110
million (plus >$30 million to buy out the town)
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1.4.4 Three-Mile Island
March 28, 1979: A reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant
suffered a partial meltdown
Residents in adjacent Middletown, PA, and others in close proximity (up to
25 miles) were evacuated.
No new reactors have
been built in the US since.
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1.4.5. Other landmark episodes
-Exxon Valdez - On March 24, 1989, this tanker hit Prince William Sounds
Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil. This is
one of the largest spills in U.S. history and one of the largest ecological
disasters
-Yucca Mountain Nuclear material storage facility
- Chernobyl In April of 1986 a reactor at Chernobyl Power Station blew up.
Nearly nine tons of radioactive material - 90 times as much as the Hiroshima
bomb - were hurled into the sky. About 600,000 people known as "the
liquidators" worked on clean-up operations inside the 30-km zone.
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1.5 Scope of National Waste Generation (EPA-530R08012, from 2009, 2007 &
2003 data)
-16,220 large quantity generators.
- (>= 1.1 tons/yr. RCRA haz. waste)
- >35 million tons of RCRA haz. waste generated per year.
- >19 million tons produced in Texas alone
-Top 5 generators account for >half of haz. waste generation.
- DSM Chemicals North America (Augusta, GA), Solutia, Inc. (Alvin, TX), BP
Products North America (Texas City, TX), Diamond Shamrock Refining (Sunray,
TX), E.I. DuPont (Pass Christian, MS)
->38 million tons of hazardous waste are managed at 1,254 treatment, storage, and
disposal facilities.
- Of all U.S. hazardous waste, 51% disposed of in deep well underground injection, 14%
by aqueous organic treatment, 5.2% in landfills, 3.7% by energy recover, 3.2% energy
recovery, 3.2% by aqueous inorganic treatment, 2.3% by incineration, with the
remainder managed by a variety of methods
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1.6 Waste Management Practices that Contributed to Contamination
- Aboveground and underground storage tank Industrial/
municipal landfill disposal
- Discharge to sewer/surface water/ocean
- Disposal pit/lagoons/injection wells
- Dumping unauthorized
- Incineration residuals handling
- Manufacturing process
- Open burns/open detonation area
- Petroleum line
- Recycling
- Road oiling
- Spill
- Storage of drums/containers
- Waste pile
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1.6.1 Sources of Hazardous Waste in Solid Waste (Tchobanoglous):
Source
R e s id e n tia l
C o m m e rc ia l
In s titu tio n a l
C o n s tru c tio n
and
d e m o litio n
M u n ic ip a l
s e rv i c e s
I n d u s t ri a l
A g ric u ltu ra l
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T y p ica l f a cilit ies ,
a ct iv it ies , o r lo ca t io n
w h ere w as tes are
gen erated
S in g le f am ily an d
m u ltif am ily d etach ed
d w ellin g s , ap ar tm en ts ,
etc.
S to r , es r es tau r an ts ,
m ar k ets , o f f ic e
b u ild in g s , h o tels ,
m o tels , p r in t s h o p s ,
s er v ice s tatio n s , au to
r ep air s h o p s
S ch o o ls , h o s p itals ,
p r is o n s , g o v e r n m en t
cen ter s
N ew co n s tr u ctio n s ites ,
r o ad r ep air /r en o v atio n
s ites , r az in g o f
b u ild in g s
S tr eet clean in g ,
lan d s cap in g , catch
b as in clean in g , p a r k s
and bea ches
C o n s tr u ctio n ,
f ab r ic atio n , lig h t an d
h eav y m an u f actu r in g ,
r ef in er ies , ch em ic als
p lan ts , p o w er p lan ts ,
d em o litio n
F ield an d r o w cr o p s ,
o r ch ar d s , v in e y a r d s ,
d air ies , f e ed lo ts , f ar m s
T y p es o f s o lid w a s t es
T yp es of h azard ou s
w a s t e p res en t in
m u n icip a l s o lid w a s t e
F o o d w as tes , p ap er ,
car d b o a r d , p la s tics ,
tex tiles , leath er , y a r d
w as tes , w o o d , g las s , tin
can s , alu m in u m , m is c.
m etals , as h es , h o u s eh o ld
h az ar d o u s w as te, etc.
P aper, ca rdboard,
p las tics , w o o d , f o o d
w as te, g las s , h az ar d o u s
w as tes , etc.
h o u s eh o ld clean e r s ,
au to m o tiv e p r o d u cts ,
p ain t p r o d u cts , g ar d en
p r o d u cts
W o o d , s teel, co n cr ete,
as p h alt, d ir t, h az ar d
ous
w as te, etc.
m etals ( lead ) f r o m o ld
b u ild in g s
R u b b is h , s tr eet
s w eep in g s ,
lan d s cap e/tr ee tr im m in g s ,
h az ar d o u s w as te, etc.
I n d u s tr ial p r o ces s w as tes ,
s cr ap m ate r ials , f o o d
w as tes , r u b b is h , as h es ,
d em o litio n an d
co n s tr u ctio n w as tes ,
h az ar d o u s w as tes
f o o d w as tes , r u b b is h ,
h az ar d o u s w as tes
clean in g s u p p lies , o ils
f r o m s tr eets
s o lv en ts f r o m d r y
clean in g an d au to s h o p s ,
in k s f r o m p r in t s h o p s ,
m etals f r o m electr o n ics
s h o p s , p ain ts an d
th in n er s
s o lv en ts , d r u g s , o ils ,
clean in g s u p p lies
all w as tes d es c r ib ed
above
ch em ical f er tiliz er s ,
p es ticid e w as tes , o ils
an d g as o lin e, cle an in g
s u p p lies
2011 Charles J. Werth, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. All rights reserved.
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1.6.2 Hazardous Waste Component of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
-0.01 to 1 % (by weight) of MSW is hazardous waste, typically ~0.1%.
-75 to 85% of hazardous waste in MSW comes from residential sources.
1.6.3 Hazardous waste in MSW is significance because:
1)
It occurs in all solid waste management facilities and it is
persistence when discharged to the environment
2)
Trace amounts of metal and organic hazardous wastes in compost
from MSW render this material unusable.
3)
Trace amounts of metal and organic hazardous wastes are in off-gas
from MSW that is incinerated (dioxin).
4)
Trace amounts of metal and organic hazardous wastes are often in
landfill leachate, resulting in leachate treatment systems that
significantly impact the cost of running the MSW landfill.
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1.7 Magnitude of Subsurface Contamination not Yet Remediated
From USEPA (2008) Illinois EPA (2008)
-
Existing or Final NPL Sites: 1088 Non-Federal / 157 Federal
Proposed NPL Sites: 61 Non-Federal / 5 Federal
Deleted NPL Sites: 35 Non-Federal / 13 Federal
Deleted NPL Sites: 309 Non-Federal / 15 Federal
NPL Construction Completions: 972 Non-Federal / 59 Federal
- Active Sites in Illinois Site Remediation Database: 1452
- This doesnt include leaking underground storage tank or brownfield
sites.
-The Chicago Brownfields redevelopment initiative manages about 26
sites; there are more than 100 more currently under consideration.
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1.8 Notorious Hazardous Waste Site
1.8.1 Hanford Washington site
- projected clean-up costs $36 billion
- 55 million gallons of highly radioactive waste stored in 177 underground storage tanks
-
content of waste unknown (mixture of organic, metals, and radionuclides )
1.8.2 Others with similar amounts of contamination
Rocky Mountain Flats, CO
Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho
Savannah River Site, South Carolina
Oak Ridge Reservation, Tennessee;
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55 million gallons of highly radioactive
waste in 177 underground tanks; 67 of the
older, single-shell tanks have leaked up to
a million gallons into the surrounding soil
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1.9 Local Hazardous Waste Sites
Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, IL
Size: 2,125 acres (2,125 acres excess)
Mission: Inactive; served as technical training center
Contaminants: Petroleum/oil/lubricants, VOCs, and metals
Media Affected: Groundwater and soil
Funding to Date: unknown (>$30 million)
CleanUp Background
Air Training Command Technical Training Centers providing specialized training
for officers, airmen, and civilians of the Air Force, and for other DoD agencies.
December 1988, installation recommended for closure.
September 30, 1993, base closed and partially transferred over the Village of
Rantoul, IL.
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Environmental studies conducted between FY82 and FY92 identified
33 CERCLA and 34 RCRA sites:
Four landfills covering a total of approximately 80 acres
A fire training area over 9 acres
Several Oil-water separators
Petroleum sludge disposal pit
Chlorinated solvent spills
Underground Storage Tanks (UST) leaks
Primary contaminants: petroleum hydrocarbons, chlorinated solvents, heavy
metals, in both groundwater and soil.
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NonPoint Source Pollutants of Special Concern
ORGANICS
Brominated Flame Retardants
Polytetrafluoroethylene
Perfluorooctanesulfonic acids
Pesticides and Herbicides
INORGANICS
Nitrate
Sulfate
Mercury
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1.8 What Chemical Characteristics Cause Greatest Concern
toxic
mobile in the subsurface
persistent (t1/2>>1 yr)
accumulate in fatty tissues (by a factor of 1000 or more)
Here we consider toxicity in the broadest sense, including carcogenicity,
mutagenicity, and teratogenicity, as well as chronic toxicity.
1.8.1 Chemical classes that match these characteristics:
Synthetic organic chemicals
Trace elements (primarily metals)
Focus of Haz. Waste Mngmnt. is Synthetic Organic Chemicals. However, metals
and radionuclides will also be examined.
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1.9 Hazardous Waste Definitions Per USEPA:
- corrosive
(highly acidic or alkaline)
- 2 > pH > 12
- corrodes steel >6.35 mm/yr
-ignitability
-(easily ignited)
- flash point < 60C
-reactivity
-(waste capable sudden reactions such
as explosions)
- unstable at STP
- reacts violently with water
- contains listed carcinogen at
>0.001% by wt.
- acutely toxic
- "best professional judgment"
-toxicity
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1.10 ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANT CONTAMINANT GROUPS
Organic Compounds
1) Volatiles-halogenated
- chlorinated solvents (trichloroethylene)
- halogenated pesticides (methyl bromide)
2) Volatiles-nonhalogenated
-
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BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylenes)
TPH (total petroleum hydrocarbons)
ketones
styrene
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1.10 ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANT CONTAMINANT
GROUPS, CONTD
3) Semivolatiles-halogenated
-
dioxins/furans
PCBs (poly chlorinated biphenyls)
organic corrosives
organic cyanides
organic pesticides/herbicides *(lindane = benzene hexachloride)
4) Semivolatiles-nonhalogenated
- Phthalates
- PAHs (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons)
-organic pesticides/herbicides
-Pharmaceuticals (ibuprofen, salicylic acid)
-Personal care products (triclosan)
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1.10 ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANT GROUPS, CONTD
Inorganic Compounds
1) Asbestos
2) Heavy metals (Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, Ni, Se, Zn)
3) Inorganic cyanides
4) Inorganic corrosives
5) Nonmetallic elements (e.g., As)
6) Radioactive elements (e.g. Ce, Rb, Sr, U)
7) Radionuclides (e.g. tritium)
Radon
Explosives/Propellents
Organometallic Compounds
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