Hazardous wastes, development

When U.S. EPA has a cause to believe for some other reason, the waste typically fits within the statutory definition of hazardous waste developed by Congress. 

The classification system for hazardous wastes developed in this Report is intended to be applied to waste prior to disposal. It is not... 

Issues of dual regulation also arise in management and disposal of waste that contains NAEM and waste classified as hazardous under RCRA. This type of waste is subject to dual regulation essentially because the definition of hazardous waste developed by EPA under RCRA (EPA, 1980b) does not include NARM waste (Section 4.2.1.2). Waste that contains NARM can be regulated under RCRA only if it is specifically included in the definition of hazardous waste, even though the exemption of radioactive materials defined in AEA from regulation under RCRA does not apply to NARM. 

Hazardous Waste Hazardous wastes are generated in limited amounts throughout most industrial activities. In terms of generation, concern is with the identification of amounts and types of hazardous wastes developed at each source, with emphasis on those sources where significant waste quantities are generated. 

California and Minnesota have placed restrictions on the disposal of fluorescent light tubes, which contain from 40—50 mg of mercury per tube, depending on size. After batteries, fluorescent lamps are the second largest contributor of mercury in soHd waste streams in the United States (3,14). A California law classifies the disposal of 25 or more fluorescent lamp tubes as hazardous waste. In Minnesota, all waste lamps generated from commercial sources are considered hazardous waste. Private homes are, however, exempt from the law (14). Other states have proposed similar regulations. Several companies have developed technologies for recovering mercury from spent lamps (14). 

Oxygen is used to treat municipal wastewater and wastewater from the pulp and paper industry (see Aeration, water treatment Wastes, industrial Water). Many of these water appHcations can use VSA-produced oxygen (advantage /). Demonstration and development programs are in place that use oxygen to oxidize sludge from municipal waste and bum hazardous wastes and used tires (advantages 1—4). 

The main objectives of RCRA ate to protect pubHc health and the environment and to conserve natural resources. The act requires EPA to develop and adininistet the following programs soHd waste disposal practices providing acceptable protection levels for pubHc health and the environment transportation, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes practices that eliminate or minimize hazards to human health and the environment the use of resource conservation and recovery whenever technically and economically feasible and federal, state, and local programs to achieve these objectives. 

The application of waste-management practices in the United States has recently moved toward securing a new pollution prevention ethic. The performance of pollution prevention assessments and their subsequent implementation will encourage increased activity into methods that 1 further aid in the reduction of hazardous wastes. One of the most important and propitious consequences of the pollution-prevention movement will be the development of life-cycle design and standardized hfe-cycle cost-accounting procedures. These two consequences are briefly discussed in the two paragraphs that follow. Additional information is provided in a later subsection. 

Because many of the techniques, especially those associated with the recovery of materials and energy and the processing of solid hazardous wastes, are in a state of flux with respect to application and design criteria, the objective here is only to introduce them to the reader. If these techniques are to be considered in the development of waste-management systems, current engineering design and performance data must be obtained from consultants, operating records, field tests, equipment manufacturers, and available literature. 

Requirements The requirements for a hazardous-waste landfill are detailed in RCRA and the regulations developed to implement the act. From a design standpoint, two of the most important requirements are (1) complete leachate containment, and (2) control of the surface water on and around the site. 

Many but not all hazardous wastes can be disposed of on land in properly designed landfills. To minimize potentially adverse environmental effects from wastes deposited at hazardous-waste landfill sites, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed specific regulations regarding the characteristics of wastes suitable for landfilling. These regulations (40 CFR 265) include a prohibition on the placement of ... 

Develop a logging system for hazardous wastes containing tbe date, waste description, source, volume shipped or hauled, name of hauler, and destination. Follow through to he sure that wastes reach destination. 

Develop procedures for deahug with with emergency situations involving the storage, collection, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes. 

Now you can reconsider the material balance equations by adding those additional factors identified in the previous step. If necessary, estimates of unaccountable losses will have to be calculated. Note that, in the case of a relatively simple manufacturing plant, preparation of a preliminary material-balance system and its refinement (Steps 14 and 15) can usefully be combined. For more-complex P2 assessments, however, two separate steps are likely to be more appropriate. An important rule to remember is that the inputs should ideally equal the outputs - but in practice this will rarely be the case. Some judgment will be required to determine what level of accuracy is acceptable, and we should have an idea as to what the unlikely sources of errors are (e.g., evaporative losses from outside holding ponds may be a materials loss we cannot accurately account for). In the case of high concentrations of hazardous wastes, accurate measurements are needed to develop cost-effective waste-reduction options. It is possible that the material balance for a number of unit operations will need to be repeated. Again, continue to review, refine, and, where necessary, expand your database. The compilation of accurate and comprehensive data is essential for a successful P2 audit and subsequent waste-reduction action plan. Remember - you can t reduce what you don t know is therel... 

U.S. EPA. Case Studies Addendum 1-8 Remedial Response at Hazardous Waste Sites. Office of Research and Development, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1987. 

The DOE and private industry have learned many lessons from years of experienee in site remediation. This book will refer to seleeted lessons learned from the DOE, the Army Corps of Engineers, private industry, and personal experienee. After reading this book the reader should have a better understanding of how to interpret the hazardous waste requirements to make sure eomplianee is maintained at a high level for eaeh site-speeifie aetivity. Over and above eomplianee, the authors eneourage the development of health and safety programs to help build a sound and workable safety eulture that ean be utilized aeross all boundaries. 

Hazardous waste operations often include tasks and activities that are conducted on a periodic basis, are of very short duration, are transient in nature, or otherwise pose little hazard. Developing a brief HASP template (e.g., fill in the blank ), a permit, or a checklist system that includes essential HAZWOPER-type information may suffice for these types of operations. 

Only qualified individuals should be allowed to develop air monitoring strategies. In addition, only trained and qualified field personnel should operate sereening equipment and be allowed to interpret results. For many sites, the results obtained from direet reading instruments ean help determine a variety of important faetors on a hazardous waste site. These faetors inelude ... 

The audit/inspeetion form that you should use ean be developed from the safety plan. A qualified person should examine the safety plan and eome up with a eheeklist that should serve as an audit/inspeetion form. Allowanees should be made to inelude items not speeifieally noted in the safety plan but that may be observed during field walk-throughs. Certain highly pertinent seetions of what OSHA uses when performing a eomplianee inspeetion of hazardous waste sites is ineluded in Appendix D. This inspeetion/audit form eovers many of the basies and ean be used a general guide. 

Employers are required to develop and implement a program to inform workers performing hazardous waste operations of the level and degree of exposure they are likely to eneounter. This information needs... 

Subcontractor may be used in support zone or nonhazardous site activities. Eor limited activities at a hazardous waste site, the scope of work must be reviewed with the health and safety professional before work is started (examples landscape service, electricians, software development, training, etc.). The subcontractor must meet the following minimum requirements ... 

Does the SAHP eontain site eontrol proeedures that have been developed during the planning stages of a hazardous waste elean-up operation and modified as new information beeomes available [OSHA Referenee. 120(b)(4)(ii)(F),. 120(d)(2)]... 

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