1. Environmental Sciences: Towards a Sustainable Future Chapter 19
Hazardous Chemicals: Pollution and Prevention

2. Chapter Introduction

3. Lake LeBarge
Fish, birds, and mammals all over the arctic are showing signs of POP Persistent Organic Pollutant) burden.
DDT, toxaphene, chlordane, PCBs, dioxins.
Being passed along the food chain to the Inuit People.
Biomagnification/bioac-cumulation. Potential for long-range transport.

4. Where are the POPs coming from?
The arctic climate of Lake Lebarge is a remote, pristine environment that is receiving the burden of POPs from other areas of the world.
The unique climate promotes the process of “cold condensation” as the pollutants attempt to pass over the area.

5. Health Effects: Regulations:
The toxins are stored in the fat of the fish and mammals eaten by the Inuit people.
Immune system disorders
Disruption of hormones
Over time, cancer.
Regulations:
Over a 30 year period, regulations surrounding the production, transport, use, and disposal of chemicals “mushroomed”.

6. Toxicology and Chemical Hazards
Lesson 19.1
Toxicology and Chemical Hazards

7. Acute: short term, high level. Chronic: long lasting.
Toxicology
The study of the harmful effects of chemicals on human health and the environment.
Acute: short term, high level.
May occur upon ingestion or contact
Chronic: long lasting.
Carcinogenic: cancer causing.

8. Toxicology regulatory organizations:
Regulated by:
EPA
FDA
Information provided by:
The NTP (1978): National Toxicology Program.

9. NIEHS/NTP/IRIS National institute of Environmental Health Sciences:
Provides an annual report listing all carcinogenic agents.
National Toxicology Program:
Also provides data to health professionals on chemicals.
Integrated Risk Management System:
Toxic chemicals data made available through the EPA
Information located on the Internet

10. Environmental Defense
Non-profit organization.
Links science, economics and law to combat environmental problems.
Produces a “scorecard” of an exhaustive web based profile of over 11,200 chemicals including information on uses and their manufacturer.

11. Dose and Response
Dose: level of exposure multiplied by the length of time for exposure.
Response: some acute or chronic effect or the development of tumors.
Exposure: via home, workplace, food, water, or surrounding environment.
LD50: A test that determines the dose at which 50% of the test organisms die.

12. The level below which no ill effects are observed.
Threshold Level
The level below which no ill effects are observed.

13. Carcinogens
The EPA basically takes a no tolerance approach to carcinogens.
Zero-dose, zero-response
No discrete threshold level is acceptable.

14. A chemical that presents a certain hazard or risk
HAZMAT’s
A chemical that presents a certain hazard or risk
EPA categorizes based upon the following properties.
Ignitability- easily catches fire.
Corrosivity: corrode storage tanks
Reactivity: chemical instability.
Toxicity: injurious to health when ingested or inhaled

15. How are HAZMATS transported and stored?
Storage containers and vehicles that transfer HAZMATs must be properly labeled.

16. HAZMAT’s
Radioactive materials which are probably most hazardous, are treated as an entirely separate category from the four on the previous slide.

17. Total Product Life Cycle
All the products we use throughout the day are products of chemical technology.
TPLC=all the steps from obtaining the raw materials to final disposal of the products we use.
Many products are directly introduced to the environment (pesticides, fertilizers, road salts, etc.)

18. More than 80,000 chemicals are registered for commercial use within the US.

19. Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
Emergency planning and community right-to-know act (EPCRA) 1986; Also known as SARA title III (superfund amendments and reauthorization act).
Pollution Prevention Act (1990)
Industries must report locations and quantities of toxic chemicals stored on site and releases of toxic chemicals.
Does not cover small business like dry cleaners, gas stations or HHW (household hazardous wastes).
Releases its information via the Internet

20. Pollution Prevention Act-1990
Mandates collection of data on toxic chemicals that are treated on site, recycled, or combusted FOR ENERGY.

21. TRI
Although it is the disasters that get the news attention, the amount of toxics entering the system via homes and businesses is far greater and presents much more health risk.

22. Toxics Release Inventory
In 1998 (text edition 8):
628,000 tons of toxic chemicals released to the air
112,000 tons of toxic chemicals released to the water
1,247,000 tons of hazardous wastes resulting from production of goods

23. Toxics Release Inventory
In 2004 (text edition 10):
1,549 million pounds (774,500 tons) of toxic chemicals released to the air.
1 ton (short)=2000 lbs.
241 million pounds (120,500 tons) of toxic chemicals released to the water
26.1 billion pounds (1.3 million tons) of hazardous wastes resulting from production of goods

24. The “good” news
Over the 18 years since the TRI has been in effect, the quantities of virtually all categories of toxic waste have kept going down.
Declined by 68%

25. Threat from toxic chemicals
Large portion of the chemicals introduced to the environment are broken down by natural processes.
Diluted enough, they pose no threat.
Two major classes do not degrade easily: 1. heavy metals and their compounds 2. synthetic organics, both tend to bioaccumulate and magnify.

26. Lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, tin, chromium, zinc, copper.
Heavy Metals
Lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, tin, chromium, zinc, copper.
Used in metal-working, paint, and pesticides, among other products

27. Soluble in water and readily absorbed by body.
Heavy Metals
Soluble in water and readily absorbed by body.
Interfere with enzyme function.
Example: mental retardation from lead poisoning.

28. Synthetic Organics
Chemical basis for plastics, synthetic fibers and rubber, solvents, and pesticides.
Resistant to biodegradation.
Major health effects: carcinogenic and mutagenic.

29. Synthetic Organics
Halogenated hydrocarbons are a particularly troublesome class.
At least one of the hydrogen atoms is replaced with a halogen atom (group 17).
Chlorine (most common)
Chlorinated hydrocarbon.
Bromine
Fluorine
Iodine
Widely used in plastics, pesticides, solvents, electrical insulation.

30. Halogenated Hydrocarbons

31. The Dirty Dozen (table 19-1 p.490)
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
Aldrin
Hexachlorobenzrene
Chlordane
Mirex
DDT
Toxaphene
Dieldrin
PCBs
Endrin
Dioxins
Heptachlor
Furans

32. Dirty Dozen:
The 12 POPs have been banned or highly restricted as a result of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants signed by 151 countries and entered into force in May 2004.

33. PERC: Perchloroethylene: Halogenated Hydrocarbon Phase out by 2020
Found in dry cleaning solvents, industrial cleaning operations, shoe polish, and other household products.
Health effects: enters ground water easily and causes neurological impairment, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, unconsciousness, liver and kidney damage, human carcinogen…
Phase out by 2020

34. MTBE Methyl tertiary butyl ether
Oxygenate added to gasoline
Suspected carcinogen
Nasty odor
Energy Policy Act of 2005 did not grant money for cleanup efforts therefore it is being withdrawn and substituted with ethanol.

35. Minimata Early 1970’s, Japan, small fishing village.
1950’s cats began showing symptoms of spastic movements.
Thought to be particular to felines.
Same symptoms plus retardation, insanity, and birth defects started to appear in humans.
Acute mercury poisoning.
Local industry was dumping into a nearby river.

36. A History of Mismanagement
Lesson 19.2
A History of Mismanagement

37. This turned industry to land disposal (“loophole”).
Public Outrage
Worsening pollution and increasing recognition of adverse health effects pushed congress to pass the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972.
This turned industry to land disposal (“loophole”).

38. Land Disposal
Three Methods
Deep-well injection
Surface impoundments
Landfills
With safeguards, all have some merit, but without, they inevitably cause ground water pollution.

39. Deep-well Injection figure 19-7 p. 493
Drilling a “well” into dry porous material below groundwater.
Almost impossible to guarantee that wastes will not escape and contaminate groundwater.
Declining rate of use: 685 mill tons in 1988 to 113 mill tons in 1998 to 250 million pounds in 2004 (2000 pounds =ton).

40. Deep-well Injection

41. Surface Impoundments
Excavated depressions (“ponds”) into which liquid wastes are drained and held.
Inadequate seals allow wastes to percolate into groundwater, big storms cause overflows, volatile materials evaporate into the atmosphere.
Today they are strictly temporary storage sites for hazardous materials.

42. Surface Impoundments

43. Secure landfill: one that is properly lined, capped and monitored.
Landfills
Concentrated or solid hazardous wastes are put into drums and buried in landfills.
Secure landfill: one that is properly lined, capped and monitored.
Midnight dumping: illegal dumping in dark hours of hazardous wastes.

44. Landfills: Orphan Sites
Some companies stored wastes on their own land and then went out of business abandoning their land and leaving behind the wastes.
“Valley of the drums” (VOD) in Kentucky Figure p. 495.

45. Landfills

46. RCRA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 1996
EPA conducted a survey of surface impoundments.
Results released in 2001
Surveyed the scope of impoundments, the characteristics of the wastes they managed, and the potential risks posed.

47. BDATS Best-demonstrated available technologies.
Treatment standards for wastes established by the EPA.

48. Love Canal Near Niagara Falls New York
School and homes were build on top of a chemical waste dump.
The surface began to collapse, exposing barrels of chemical wastes.
Fumes and chemicals began seeping into cellars.
People reports serious health problems.

49. Toxic Chemical Waste Problems
Cleaning up old wastes
Managing new wastes
Avoiding future wastes

50. Lesson 19.3
Cleaning up the Mess

51. Safe Drinking Water Act 1974
Cleaning up Old Wastes
Safe Drinking Water Act 1974
Amended in 1986 to allow EPA to set standards for MCL’s (max contam. levels) and jurisdiction over ground water and sets MCL’s for 90 contaminates.
Amended again in 1996 to provide small municipalities greater flexibility in water treatment and monitoring and required the EPA to assess risk, cost, and benefits before proposing regulations (this info not in ed. 10)

52. Cleaning up Old Wastes Continued
Groundwater remediation
Developing and growing technology.
Drilling, pumping out contaminated water, purifying it and pumping it back in.
Cleaning is mandatory, however, if it is not possible because the contamination is extensive, it may be classified unsafe for drinking.

53. Cleaning up Old Wastes Continued
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability act 1980 (CERCLA) or aka (Superfund)
Trust for the identification of chemical waste sites, protection of ground water, remediation, and cleanup of the site.

54. How Super Is The Superfund?
AKA CERCLA: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980
Advanced cleanup technology
Incineration to burn off contaminants in soil
Cleaning soil with detergent
Bioremediation-inject soil with oxygen and organisms.
Phytoremediation- uses plants to stabilize soil from further movement.
Pays for the clean up through a tax on chemical raw materials
Provide a trust for the identification of abandoned chemical waste sites, protection of ground water near the site and remediation of ground water.

55. At what cost
In order to continue CERCLA it is estimated that it would cost between $14 and $16.4 billion to clean up the remaining nonfederal listed sites in the decade.

56. Setting Priorities
Because the task of cleaning up toxic sites is too great to take care of all at once, the following priorities have been set:
Identify the toxic waste sites and test them for ground water contamination.
Isolate wastes if they are present.
Sites with severe threats are listed on the NPL (National Priorities List) and are scheduled for total cleanup.

57. The Cleanup Technology
Contain wastes in drums.
Drums can then be picked up.
The bigger problem is if the wastes get into the soil.
Soil is excavated, cleaned and returned.
VOD: EPA contained the soil, remedial work completed in 1989 and VOD was taken off the NPL in 1996

58. Brownfields-cleanup and return to useful land for development.

59. Managing Current Hazardous Wastes
Lesson 19.4
Managing Current Hazardous Wastes

60. Managing New Wastes
Clean air act 1970 and clean water act 1972 (noted earlier)
NPDES permits for discharge into water sources.
Helps to monitor who is discharging what into the waterways.
Those companies having discharge permits are required to report to TRI all discharges.
Small firms, homes, and farms are exempt from regulation.
Other factors contributing to pollution come from non-point sources.

61. Resource conservation and recovery act (RCRA) 1976
All disposal facilities must have permit
Pretreatment of toxic wastes
Convert to forms that will not leach.
“Cradle to grave” tracking of toxic wastes
Generator of waste to transporter to operators of the waste must sign forms at each step to ensure amounts are transferred accurately. These forms are submitted to the EPA.

62. Underground storage tank legislation
Managing New Wastes
Underground storage tank legislation
Leaks found early.
Department of transportation regulations (DOT)
Specifies the type of containers and methods of packing to be used in transport.
Each container and transport vehicle must have the proper placard labeling.

63. OSHA
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)- “worker’s right to know”.
1970
Requires businesses, industries, and laboratories to make available both information regarding hazardous materials and suitable protective equipment.
MSDS: material safety data sheet.
Must accompany the shipping storage and handling of more than 600 chemicals

64. Emergency Planning and Community Right- to-know Act (EPCRA); also known as Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA title III)-helped to protect citizens from dangers.
Companies that handle in excess of 5 tons of any hazardous material to keep a complete accounting of storage sites, feed hoppers, etc.
Information goes to a local emergency planning committee which is reruired in every governmental jurisdiction and is made up of local fire, police, hospitals and other groups that may be involved in an emergency

65. Managing New Wastes
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) 1976-submission of a pre-manufacturing report to EPA before new chemicals are manufactured in bulk.
Environmental and human health effects assessed.
May lead to product restrictions.

66. REACH From the European Union
Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals.
Screening of chemicals for toxicity (including those not now tested in the US)

67. Lesson 19.5
Broader Issues

68. The Largest hazardous Waste Landfill
Located in the Emelle, Alabama.
90% African-American
Receives wastes from Superfund sites in every state.
Choctaw reservation in Philadelphia, Mississippi was targeted to become a 466-acre haz-waste landfill.
The pattern is to place waste sites in “minority” areas.

69. Environmental Justice
EPA defines it as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
No group should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations.

70. Several recent studies have shown that all across the US, waste sites and other hazardous facilities are more likely than not to be located in towns and neighborhoods where most of the residents are non-white.
This is a matter of political power, and those in power would like to have the sites as far from their backyards as possible.

71. Executive order 12898 Clinton, 1994.
Focused federal attention on the environmental justice issue.
EPA responded by establishing the EJ program in 1998.

72. Basel Convention
International agreement that places a ban on most international toxic- waste trade.
Nations that have signed and ratified, along with nations that have signed but have not ratified the agreement.

73. Pollution Control
Involves adding a filter or some other device at the “end of a pipe” to prevent pollution from entering the environment.

74. Pollution Prevention
Minimization/elimination-changing production process, materials used, or both to avoid.
Substitution-finding nonhazardous substitutes.
Reuse-distill and reuse solvents instead of discarding.
Wet-cleaning: explores the concept of water-based cleaning for dry-cleaning companies.

75. Green products
Products that are more environmentally friendly .

76. 4 Ways to Address Chemical Pollution:
Pollution prevention
Recycling
Treatment
Safe disposal

77. Major Hazardous Waste Laws- fig.19-17 p. 504