CE 510
Hazardous Waste Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Instructor: Jemil Yesuf
Dr. L.R. Chevalier
Lecture Series 1:
Environmental Legislations and Regulations
Course Goals
 Review the history and impact of environmental laws in the
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United States
Understand the terminology, nomenclature, and significance
of properties of hazardous wastes and hazardous materials
Develop strategies to find information of nomenclature,
transport and behavior, and toxicity for hazardous
compounds
Elucidate procedures for describing, assessing, and sampling
hazardous wastes at industrial facilities and contaminated
sites
Predict the behavior of hazardous chemicals in surface
impoundments, soils, groundwater and treatment systems
Assess the toxicity and risk associated with exposure to
hazardous chemicals
Apply scientific principles and process designs of hazardous
wastes management, remediation and treatment
Introduction to Approach
Sources
Pathways
Receptors
• Industrial processes that generate hazardous waste
• Types of contamination that results from their disposal
Introduction to Approach
Sources
Pathways
Receptors
MAIN EMPHASIS OF COURSE
• Storage systems, soil, groundwater, air, water
treatment systems
•Quantitative problem solving
•Provides the conceptual basis for understanding
hazardous chemicals
Introduction to Approach
Sources
Pathways
Receptors
MAIN EMPHASIS OF COURSE
• Partitioning
• Volatilization
• Abiotic and biotic transformation
Introduction to Approach
Sources
Pathways
Receptors
• Humans and wildlife
• Fundamentals of toxicology
• Risk Assessment
Generation of HW
High Standard of Living
Waste that may be persistent, toxic,
flammable corrosive or explosive
COMPUTER
halogenated
solvents
AIRCRAFT
PLASTICS
petroleum
solvents
heavy metals
organic
solvents
Estimates of Amounts in US
 30-60 million tons per year subject to
federal regulations
 Additional 230-260 million tons per year
regulated by state
 These are conservative estimates – other
sources predict 750 million tons per year
 Even conservative estimates put the annual
rate generated as 1 ton per year per person
in the US
Definition of Hazardous Waste
 Long or short-term toxicity to humans
 Eco-toxicity
 Flammability
 Explosivity
 Corrosivity
 Pesticide Rinse and Formulation Areas
 Underground Storage Tanks
 Pits, Ponds and Lagoons
 Sanitary Landfills
 Drum Storage Areas
 Unlined Hazardous Waste Landfills
 Midnight Dumping
 Uncontrolled Incinerations
Students are responsible for reviewing
Pre-Regulatory Disposal
Practices (prior to 1970’s)
EPA Estimates of the Magnitude
of Problem Prior to Landmark
Legislation
50,000 Sites
60 million tons
Table 1.1 Potential Number of Hazardous Waste Sites and
Associated Cleanup Costs
No. of
Potential
Sites
Estimated Cost
(billions of dollars)
Superfund sites
60,000
50
Sites of RCRA cleanups
2,400
23
State funded cleanup sites
22,000
45
DOD sites
7,200
11-15
DOE sites
Not reported
66-110
Table 1.2 Pathways of Releases of Hazardous Chemicals
from National Priority List Landfills
Observed Releases from NPL Landfills to
Water and Air
Percent
Groundwater only
37
Groundwater and surface water
23
None observed
15
Surface water only
9
Groundwater, surface water, air
8
Groundwater and air
3
Surface water and air
3
Air only
2
48% of
US population
receives
drinking
water from
groundwater
Landmark Legislations
 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA), 1976
 Hazard and Solid Waste Amendment (HSWA),
1984
 Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA,
Superfund), 1980
 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization
Act (SARA) of 1986: from $1.8 in 1980 to $8.5
billion fund.
RCRA, 1976
 Legislation that requires total
documentation
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Where waste is generated
Where waste is disposed
 Has provisions for citizen actions
 Significant funding cuts to EPA
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Agency criticized by Congress for not carrying out
mandates
 Congress passed Hazardous and Solid Waste
Amendment 1984 to strengthen the act
Primary Goals of RCRA & HSWA
 Protect public health and the environment from
hazardous and other solid waste through:
 Hazardous waste management
 Solid waste management
 UST regulation
 To preserve natural resources through resource
recovery and conservation
 Large portion of RCRA is definition of hazardous
waste
 Management goal of RCRA is to control HW from
“cradle to grave”: Generators, transporters and
TSD facilities.
Definition of a RCRA HW
 HWs are considered a subset of solid waste
 Once a waste is defined as solid waste-next step is
to determine if it is HW.
“a solid waste or combination of solid wastes, which
because of its quantity, concentration, or physical,
chemical, or infectious characteristics, may: 1) cause, or
significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an
increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible
illness, or 2) pose a substantial present or potential hazard
to human health or the environment when improperly
treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise
managed.”
Exempted Waste
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Household waste
Agricultural waste returned to the ground
Mining overburden returned to the mine site
Utility wastes from coal combustion
Oil and gas exploration drilling waste
Wastes from the extraction and processing of ores
and minerals
 Cement kiln wastes
 Arsenic-treated wood wastes generated by end users
of such wood
 Certain chromium bearing waste
Classification of HWs
 If waste material is a solid waste and not exempt,
list must be examined to assess if it is hazardous.
 F list
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Hazardous Waste from nonspecific sources
20 F classifications from F001-F029
Primarily from industrial processes
 K List
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Hazardous Waste from a specific source
87 K classifications
Primarily from industrial processes
 P + U List
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Primarily commercial products
Also includes hazardous residues and spills
P list is acutely hazardous
U list is toxic
Class Exercise
Determine the classification (Industry and EPA
Hazardous Waste Number and Hazard Code) for
the following:
Waste Treatment sludge from the chemical
conversion coating of aluminum
Acetone
Silver cyanide
(See Appendix A)
Class Exercise
Waste Treatment sludge from the chemical
conversion coating of aluminum – F019 (T)
Acetone – U002 (I)
Silver cyanide – P104
NOTE: use of Hazardous Codes C, E, H, I, R, and T in
tables
Additional Codes-Hazardous Waste
Characteristics (Table 1.4)
 Ignitability – D001
 Corrosivity – D002
 Reactivity – D003
 Toxicity – D004-D043
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Extraction Procedure – EP
Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure –
TCLP
Prevents industry from simply diluting waste
Solid Waste
Exempt?
Yes
Critical Path for
determining if a waste is
hazardous under RCRA
No
Yes
F List
No
Yes
Hazardous Waste
Characteristics
K List
No
No
P + U List
Yes
Delisted
No
Yes
No
Yes
Hazardous
Waste
Non-hazardous
Waste
Cradle-to-Grave Management
 Generators
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Generates over 1000 kg of HW per month
EPA form 8700-12
 Obtain an EPA identification number
 Documents the generation of the waste
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EPA form 8700-22a
 Mechanism for tracking the waste until it is disposed of
 Form must accompany waste, and must be kept by all
parties
CERCLA, 1980
 A.k.a Superfund
 Trust funded by taxes on the chemical
and petroleum industries and provided
to federal authority
 funds and regulates cleanup of
hazardous waste sites
Additional Aspects of CERCLA and
SARA
 Moves beyond cradle-to-grave management
 Focused on past disposal sites
 Broadened the definition of Hazardous Waste
established by RCRA
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Any chemical regulated under
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Clean Air Act
Clean Water Act
Toxic Substance Control Act
RCRA
 National Contingency Plan developed as
blueprint for prioritized clean-up
Additional Legislature
 Emergency Planning and Community Right-To
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Know Act (1986)
Clean Water Act (1972)
Toxic Substance Control Act (1976)
Safe Drinking Water Act (1974)
Clean Air Act (1970)
More information about major environmental
laws and regulations can be accessed at: :
http://www.epa.gov/epahome/laws.htm
Definitions
based on regulations, the most common working
definitions of hazardous chemicals in the practice
of hazardous waste management are
Hazardous waste – chemicals disposed of under RCRA
Hazardous substance – chemicals regulated under CERCLA
Hazardous materials – chemicals transported by truck, rail,
air or pipeline under USDOT regulations
Summary of important points
and concepts
 Hazardous waste have been generated from
essentially all industrial activities. Prior to the
passage and promulgation of federal legislation in
the late 1970s, hazardous waste were often
disposed of improperly in pits, ponds, and lagoons,
on surface soils and in landfills.
 RCRA, passed in 1976, provides cradle-to-grave
management of hazardous wastes, and was
amended as HSWA in 1984. Hazardous waste
generators, transporters, and
treatment/storage/disposal facility operators have
responsibilities to provide safeguards against
improper hazardous waste disposal
Summary of important points
and concepts
 CERCLA, also know as Superfund, was passed in 1980
to provide a mechanism for the mitigation of
chronic environmental damage, particularly the
cleanup of contaminated sites. Amended in 1986,
SARA
 Definitions of hazardous chemicals are based on
regulatory and administrative criteria. Hazardous
waste are defined by RCRA, hazardous substances
by CERCLA and hazardous materials by DOT
regulations
 The current estimate of hazardous waste generation
is approximately 750 million tons per year in the US.
Most of the waste is classified as corrosive, and can
be treated by neutralization.
Summary of important points
and concepts
 The hazardous waste field is multidisciplinary and
requires the expertise of environmental engineers,
environmental chemists, microbiologists, soil
scientists, toxicologists, hydrogeologists.
 Hazardous waste professionals have a number of
responsibilities, including site assessment, risk
assessment, soil and groundwater remediation,
RCRA TSD permitting, hazardous waste
management, and hazardous waste treatment
 Hazardous waste problems can be approached using
the conceptual theme of sources, pathways and
receptors.