Abandoned solid waste

Although RCRA creates the framework for the proper management of hazardous and nonhaz-ardous solid waste, it does not address the problems of hazardous waste found at inactive or abandoned sites or those resulting from spills that require emergency response. These problems are addressed by a different act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly called Superfund, which was enacted in 1980. 

The statutory definition points out that whether a material is a solid waste is not based on the physical form of the material (i.e., whether or not it is a solid as opposed to a liquid or gas), but rather that the material is a waste. The regulations further define solid waste as any material that is discarded by being either abandoned, inherently waste-like, a certain military munition, or recycled (Figure 13.1). These terms are defined as follows ... 

Military munitions. Military munitions are all ammunition products and components produced for or used by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) or U.S. Armed Services for national defense and security. Unused or defective munitions are solid wastes when abandoned (i.e., disposed of, burned, incinerated) or treated prior to disposal rendered nonrecyclable or nonuseable through deterioration or declared a waste by an authorized military official. Used (i.e., fired or detonated) munitions may also be solid wastes if collected for storage, recycling, treatment, or disposal. 

Koerner, R.M. and Daniel, D.E., Final Covers for Solid Waste Landfills and Abandoned Dumps, American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE Press, Reston, VA, 1997, p. 256. 

The term solid waste is a very comprehensive term that can be difficult to dehne precisely. The United States Code of Federal Regulations (Chapter 1, Part 261, of Title 40) provides the legal dehnition. That document dehnes solid wastes rather simply as "any discarded material that is not excluded by other provisions of the chapter. Those provisions refer primarily to liquid wastes, such as sludge and domestic wastewater. The U.S. Army provides a somewhat more detailed definition of the term "any garbage, refuse, sludge, or other discarded material resulting from industrial, commercial, institutional, and residential activity. Discarded materials include those that are disposed of, abandoned, recycled, or are inherently waste-like. ... 

The State has listed seven sites in the state for possible Superfund action At one, several thousand drums of waste were stacked above ground, and then abandoned. Another represents a case of good intentions gone bad a commercial waste site that lacked tight regulatory controls to set its operating conditions, and consequently got into trouble. Another started out as a municipal solid waste site, and somehow ended up as an uncontrolled dump for hazardous wastes. Still another was an old waste oil recovery plant that was operated very poorly, in a poor site area. 

The first step of hazardous waste identification is determining whether a material is a solid waste. A solid waste is any material that is discarded. (The modifier solid is not indicative of the physical state of the material. That is, a solid waste may be in the liquid or gaseous phases as well as the solid phase.) A material is considered discarded when it is abandoned, recycled, or inherently waste-like. Abandonment occurs when a material is disposed of burned/ incinerated or accumulated, stored, or treated before, or in lieu of, abandonment. Recycling occurs when a material is used in a manner that resembles disposal (e.g., placed on the ground) burned to recover its energy reclaimed to recover a usable product or accumulated speculatively. In addition, a few specific materials have been designated inherently waste-like (e.g., certain dioxin-containing wastes) and are considered solid wastes when recycled in... 

Unused surplus chemicals at the end of the disposition cycle are commercial chemical products and do not become solid waste (40CFR260) unless they are discarded, abandoned or disposed of... 

These state that generators that transport hazardous waste or offer it for transportation, offsite treatment, storage, or disposal must use a manifest so that the shipment is tracked from generation through to final disposition. The EPA s hazardous wastes are subsets of solid wastes, which include solids, liquids, semisolids, or gaseous materials that are discarded, abandoned, recycled, or inherently waste-like and are not otherwise excluded. 

A "solid waste" under RCRA need not be solid "Solid waste" is defined as "any. .. discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material. .." The term "discarded" includes any material that is abandoned, recycled, or "inherently wastelike." The term "hazardous waste" means any solid waste (as defined above) that ... 

Solid waste—a by-product of modem technology technically defined as a discarded solid, liquid, or containerized gas. This definition includes materials that have been recycled or abandoned through disposal, burning or incineration, accumulation, storage, or treatment. 

EPA s mission is to enforce federal laws to control and abate pollution of air and water, solid waste, noise, radiation, and toxic substances. It is also to administer the Superfund for eleaning up abandoned waste sites, and award grants for local sewage treatment plants. ... 

Svabite (Ca5(As04)3p) and other calcium arsenates have been considered for safe arsenic disposal, in treating industry and mineral processing wastes with lime, and it has been assumed that these solids are extremely insoluble and stable [23, 36, 66-68]. Currently this technique has been abandoned as there is evidence that calcium arsenate compounds slowly decompose either by change of pH of the media or by contact with atmospheric carbon dioxide that under alkaline conditions gives rise to the formation of calcium carbonate with slow release of arsenate ions back into the environment [69]. 

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