Hazardous waste management, concentrate

EPA. 1998a. Standards for the management of specific hazardous wastes and specific types of hazardous waste management facilities. Appendix IV. Reference air concentrations. U.S. 

Standards for the Management of Specific Hazardous Wastes and Specific Types of Hazardous Waste Management Facilities—Reference air concentration aluminum phosphide e CO o 40 CFR 266, App. IV EPA 1991... 

CA. 1993b. California hazardous waste management regulations. 66260.24. Characteristics of Toxicity. Table I. Maximum concentration of contaminants for the toxicity characteristic. Regulatory Level. 

Subtitle C establishes the hazardous-waste management system, which includes defining hazardous. According to RCRA, solid waste is determined to be hazardous because its quantity, concentration, or characteristics (referring to ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity) may ... 

RCRA was passed to manage nonhazardous and hazardous wastes and underground storage tanks, with an emphasis placed on the recovery of reusable materials as an alternative to their disposal. This act introduced the concept of the separate management of hazardous and nonhazardous wastes, and defined procedures to identify whether a waste is hazardous or nonhazardous. A waste exhibits the characteristic of toxicity, classified as a hazardous material, if the concentration of any of 39 selected analytes in the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) extract exceed regulatory action levels. 

The primary objective is to develop an appropriate range of waste management options to be analyzed more fully in the detailed analysis phase of the FS.12 Appropriate waste management ensures the protection of human health and the environment. It may involve, depending on site-specific circumstances, complete elimination or destruction of hazardous substances at the site, significant reduction of concentrations of hazardous substances to acceptable health-based levels, and prevention of exposure to hazardous substances via engineering or institutional controls, or some combination of the above. 

Subtitle C of RCRA is the primary vehicle for managing hazardous waste in the United States. Hazardous waste is defined as any solid waste, or a combination of solid wastes, that because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may ... 

As discussed in Chapter 3, at least trace amounts of arsenic commonly occur in rocks, soils, sediments, sludges and spent sorbents from water treatment systems, coal ashes, industrial wastes, and many other natural and artificial solids. Depending upon whether they are considered regulatory hazards (Appendix E), solid materials may require treatment before disposal (waste management) or remediation if they are located at a contaminated site. For solids, arsenic treatment may involve reducing the arsenic concentrations in the materials so that they are no longer hazardous (for example, soil washing). However, because arsenic cannot be destroyed, eventually the element will require permanent disposal in a manner that does not... 

Waste is any material that has insufficient value to justify further beneficial use, and thus must be managed at a cost. Wastes that contain hazardous substances, either radionuclides or toxic chemicals, are generated by many human activities. Management and disposal of these wastes must be conducted in ways that protect human health. Because hazardous wastes vary widely in their compositions and concentrations of hazardous substances and in their potential impacts on human health, the need to protect human health is met most efficiently by use of a variety of technological approaches to waste management and disposal, rather than a single approach for all wastes. 

There also are two important differences. First, the classification system for radioactive waste from the nuclear fuel cycle includes different classes that are defined based essentially on the source of the waste. In addition, some classes of fuel-cycle waste (e.g., high-level waste) often, but not always, contain higher concentrations of radionuclides than other classes (e.g., low-level waste) and, thus, pose a greater hazard in waste management and disposal. The classification system for hazardous chemical waste does not distinguish between hazardous wastes based on their source, with the exception of the K list of wastes from specific sources. Additionally, hazardous chemical wastes are not further classified based on their relative hazard (i.e., there is only one class of hazardous chemical waste). 

The best example of this is wastes that are classified based solely on the nature of the generating process or facility e.g., high-level radioactive waste, chemical wastes from certain industries), irrespective of the content and concentration of hazardous substances. This results in resources being used unnecessarily on lower-risk situations when they could be better applied to higher-risk situations (hazardous waste disposal or otherwise). For example, billions of dollars have been spent in managing... 

Given the qualitative definitions of the three waste classes, the boundaries of the waste classes would be quantified based on explicit descriptions of how the definitions are related to risk. The boundaries would be expressed in terms of limits on amounts (concentrations) of individual hazardous substances, with specified rules for how to classify waste that contains mixtures of hazardous substances, such as the sum-of-fractions rule for mixtures of substances that induce stochastic effects. Specifically, waste would be classified as exempt if the risk that arises from disposal in a municipal/industrial landfill for nonhazardous waste does not exceed negligible (de minimis) levels. Use of a negligible risk to quantify limits on concentrations of hazardous substances in exempt waste is appropriate because the waste would be managed in all respects as if it were nonhazardous. Nonexempt waste would be classified as low-hazard if the risk that arises from disposal in a dedicated near-surface facility for hazardous wastes does not exceed acceptable (barely tolerable) levels. An essential condition of the definitions of exempt and low-hazard waste is that an acceptable (barely tolerable) risk must be substantially greater than a negligible risk. Waste would be classified as high-hazard if it would pose an unacceptable (de manifestis) risk when placed in a dedicated near-surface facility for hazardous wastes. 

Brines. Brines produced from air pollution control processes at Tooele are currently being shipped off site for disposal by conunerdal waste management facilities. The Army also plans to ship the effluent from SCWO (after concentration by evaporation) at Newport off site for disposal. This material has been delisted as a hazardous waste by the state of Indiana, and the Army has identified 16 commercial facilities that can accept the brine (Wojciechowski, 2000). Off-site managanent of SCWO effluent after evaporation (to recover water) would eliminate the need for a crystallizer and simpUly process integration at Pueblo. 

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