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Pollution Prevention Internship Final Report
Project title:
Intern:
Chemical Inventory
Kevin Horgan
6897 Granite Square Station
Durham, NH 03824 e-mail: horgan@hopper.unh.edu
Home phone: (603) 868-3971
Facility: Wheelabrator Concord Company
11 Whitney Rd
Penacook, NH 03033
Contact Person: Ted Clark
Environmental, Health, and Safety Manager

Table of Contents
Goals/objectives
Approach
Accomplishments
Recommendations for future efforts
References
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Executive Summary
Introduction/background

Executive Summary
My Pollution Prevention internship this summer was with the Wheelabrator
Company. I worked chiefly on a chemical inventory of the plant that was submitted to the City’s Fire Department, testing ash, and an Emergency Response Plan. Along with those jobs I accomplished many other task that brought the concepts of pollution prevention to the plant.
Introduction/Background
Wheelabrator Company is a trash to energy facility owned by Waste Management.
There are two facilities located in New Hampshire that I worked at, one in Concord and the other in Claremont. Concord is the larger of the two and is where I spent most of my time.
The Concord Facility receives trash from 27 towns in the area. The trash is incinerated in the two burners. The energy produced in the combustion is used to produce electricity. It is a relatively simple concept, but there are many potential pollution problems in the process.
The end products of the incineration of trash are ash and smoke. The smoke travels up the stack where most is removed by various air pollution technologies. The particulates that are removed from the air are collected and are mixed with the bottom ash. This combined ash is sent off to the landfill. The problem is that the ash now contains numerous heavy metals and other toxins. So, before it is sent the ash must have the TCLP test done on it. The TCLP test uses the measurement of ash pH to determine the mobility of the heavy metals.
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For Wheelabrator to run the trash to energy process as efficiently and environmentally friendly as possible they need to use many chemicals. Due to these large quantities of potentially hazardous materials Wheelabrator wanted to make an inventory of all the chemicals in the facility that would be sent to the City of Concord ’ s
Fire Department and that would be available to their employees.
Wheelabrator Company is one of the major sources of mercury pollution in New
Hampshire. It is difficult for them to keep mercury out of the wastestream that enters the facility. They have tried in earnest to keep truckloads of trash that contain mercury products out of the burner by sending the loads back and writing letters to those towns.
The concern at the Claremont plant this summer was in developing an Emergency
Spill Response Plan. In the case of an accident they want to have a plan of attack that would keep contaminants on the property, where they could be treated without being sent to the wastewater treatment plant. Another reason Wheelabrator wanted to containment on the property was the plant ’ s close proximity to the Connecticut River which makes the chance of polluting much higher.
The Concord plant was likewise looking to develop an emergency response plan.
They did not plan on finishing the plan this summer, but they did wish to get some of the organizational work started. To help them get started I spent some time organizing the blueprints of the building so that in the case of an emergency information could be found quicker.
Due to the heavy load of paperwork that must be done by the Environmental,
Health and Safety Manager there were many jobs and tasks around the facility that had been put off. Wheelabrator was looking for some extra help to accomplish some of these jobs.There was plenty off work that needed to be done so Wheelabrator Company accepted me as a Pollution Prevention Intern for the summer.
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Goals and Objectives
When I started working at Wheelabrator I was very intimidated by the size of the plant. The complexity of the trash to energy process was also overwhelming to me. I made it my first goal to gain a better understanding of how the trash to energy process works. I did this by making several tours around the building and asking many questions about what things were and what was there role. It took about two weeks till I was fairly comfortable with my surroundings. At this point I felt confident put to work some of the concepts we learned about at the Pollution Prevention workshops this winter.
There was not one particular job that I was focused on all summer long but more of tackling jobs as they came along. For that reason I had to remind myself each day, to make sure that the jobs and decisions I made led Wheelabrator Company in the direction of pollution prevention. If I could do that I felt as though I was doing my job.
Accomplishments
When I began working at the end of May the job that needed to be done first was making the Chemical Inventories. They needed to make an inventories to be sent to the
Concord Fire Department and another five to be for the plant.
I spent my first couple of days finding every can, drum, spray, packet, etc. of chemicals in the plant. When every chemical and quantity of that chemical were recorded they were entered into the computer database. At that same time I ordered new material safety data sheets (MSDS) for each chemical. We already had MSDS for most products but the Fire Department had requested that we get all new ones. Once all the
MSDS were received the information off them was entered into the computer. After data collection the MSDS were bound and sent to the Fire Department. I also made five other copies and placed them in various areas around the plant to provide easy access for
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employees. When I had got all the information on the chemicals I went through the plant and labeled each chemical. These labels were large, very easy to read,and provide information on the hazards of the substance.
Upon my arrival at the plant I took up the duty of doing the TCLP test on the ash every two days. The job consisted of making a solution of Acetic acid. The acetic acid was mixed with 100 grams of the ash. This solution was placed on a spinner to ensure mixing of the material. I had to measure the pH of the solution at five minutes and then again at eighteen hours. The preferred range for the pH was between 7 and 11.
Depending on the pH I found lime levels were adjusted.
With the completion of my first job I was sent out to the Claremont plant to work on the Emergency Response Plan. The one objective for the plan we came up with was trying to contain contaminants on the site. The best place to start was by finding a way to block the drainage pipes leading of the property. This involved some rugged labor of digging out pipes that had been filled with sediments and measuring their diameters. At this point we ordered several drainage pipe plugs. I located these plugs in areas that would provide easy access in the case of an emergency.
My next major task was to tackle the mercury issue. I found the role that
Wheelabrator plays in the mercury issue to be very complex. I found it best to deal with this issue on two levels, as the incinerator and as the plant. I did this because I felt that I could do little pollution prevention for mercury when it is being brought in the trash.
Mercury at this point has already reached the end of the pipe point. The only true way to control mercury pollution is by not allowing its use. Considering it has already been used and thrown in the trash by the point it reaches the plant I felt pretty helpless to using pollution prevention. On the other hand I did see some areas for improvement within the plant. The plant had recently switched to the low mercury fluorescent bulbs, which was
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definitely a step in the right direction. However I felt the next step was to set up a mercury device recycling program in the plant. We used the Global Recycling, under the state contract to take the bulbs. A shed was installed and labeled for proper storage under the new Universal Waste Rules. I also provided equipment and training for employees in the case a light breaks. To further my knowledge on the subject I attended two meeting by the DES on the mercury reduction strategy.
Along with the major jobs I have mentioned there were various jobs that I did throughout the summer. These jobs included, conducting sound test around the noisy areas of the plant, organizing blueprints, collecting stormwater samples, hanging signs around the plant, ash data entry, and labeling chemical tanks. At the end of my internship I was attempting to start a recycling program for office paper waste, but my internship ended before I could finish the deal. I was kept busy each day with numerous jobs.
I thought that the summer internship was very successful for both Wheelabrator
Company and myself. I believe that I gained invaluable experience of working in a large company, while in return, Wheelabrator got some direction towards pollution prevention.
I hope that this only the start of the working team of Wheelabrator and the Pollution
Prevention Program. The future will undoubtedly bring new challenges for the company, like dealing with the proposed Low Flow Rules and also there is still much work to be done with the mercury problem. The practices of pollution prevention may help to solve these problems. Although I did not solve all the pollution problems at Wheelabrator I do believe that I have left a pollution prevention base for them to grow upon.
References
Ted Clark
Environmental, Health, Safety Manager
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Wheelabrator Concord Company
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