Industrial dumps

The US EPA set a drinking water limit of 0.2 parts per billion (ppb) of lindane. Industrial dumping sites such as the one in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania contain an estimated 400 tons of lindane waste and other waste dumped over a 50-year period on 30 acres of land. The runoffs from this site as well as others have the potential to contaminate drinking water with lindane. Lindane is regularly detected in surface water in the United States (see US Geological Survey monitoring studies). 

Mote Probably the most newsworthy, publicized incidents have stemmed from public and industrial dumping sites, covered in this summary under landfill leachate. A class of pesticides most commonly found in groundwater is ncmatocidcs. They arc particularly difficult because manufacturers design them to be both persistent and toxic. DBCP il,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane) is a representative nematocide. 

Exposure to small amounts of beryllium occurs with ingestion of some foods and drinking water. Beryllium enters the air, water, and soil as a result of natural and human activities. Emissions from burning coal and oil increase beryllium levels in air. Beryllium enters waterways from the wearing away of rocks and soil. Most of the man-made beryllium that enters waterways comes when industry dumps waste water and when beryllium dust in the air from industrial activities settles over water Beryllium, as a chemical component, occurs naturally in soil however, disposal of coal ash, incinerator ash, and industrial wastes may increase the concentration of beryllium in soil. In air, beryllium compounds are present mostly as fine dust particles. The dust eventually settles over land and water. 

Beryllium is also present in solid and liquid fossil fuels. The burning of coal and oil emits beryllium particulates that may continue to circulate in the air for some time or settle into waterways. In lakes and ponds, the beryllium generally settles harmlessly to the bottom, but may enter drinking water reservoirs via rivers and streams, and has shown a marked abundance in Precambrian aquifers. In drinking water, levels exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency s maximum contaminant level of 4 parts per billion are extremely rare, but are most likely to occur near areas where industries dump wastewater. 

According to EPA [3-7] and European directories [11-13], the treatment that should be applied to a deactivated sample before discarding it in an industrial dump, is a preoxidation step at high temperatures, where all organic matter is eliminated in the gas phase (CO, CO2 and H2O) and the inorganic components react to form water-insoluble compounds. There are no fixed rules about the above procedure this is may by understood as a result of the different industrial processes where the catalysts are employed. The lifetime of the catalyst will directly influence the procedure to be adopted in each case. Thus, some preoxidation temperatures should be tested before applying them to the whole deactivated sample. 

Most people think of toxic wastes in terms of an industrial dump, but the municipal landfill is becoming a more popular site for the disposal of hazardous household wastes. Every year, tons of the following toxic materials are placed in commercial landfills ... 

Municipal Solid Waste. In the eady 1990s, the need to dispose of municipal soHd waste (MSW) ia U.S. cities has created a biofuels industry because there is Htde or no other recourse (107). Landfills and garbage dumps are being phased out ia many communities. Combustion of MSW, ie, mass-bum systems, and RDF, ie, refuse-derived fuel, has become an estabhshed waste disposal—energy recovery industry. 

Land pollution has arisen from the direet dumping of domestie and industrial solid waste, but this... 

The table shows that energy costs account for 80% of the total cost during the plant s period of operation. The actual costs of the filter, investment, and maintenance correspond to about 20%, while the costs of dumping amount to only 0.5%. The calculation is based on filtering outdoor air, and filters in industrial applications can have quite different figures. 

In the South Pacific, man-made debris was surveyed on 24 islands in the Thousand Island archipelago north of Java in 1985 (66). Polyethylene bags, footwear and polystyrene blocks comprised more than 90% of the 27,600 items. The main source of this debris is the dumping of rubbish and domestic and industrial waste directly into the sea at Jakarta. On New Zealand beaches, plastic litter was widely distributed and predominantly in the form of polyethylene and polypropylene beads. Near Auckland and Wellington concentrations exceeded 10,000 and 40,000 beads m of beach, and the unweathered appearance of the beads implied a nearby source (66). 

Sources of land pollution include direct dumping of domestic and industrial solid waste, excessive application of agrochemicals, and indirect contamination resulting from leaks or from leaching of hazardous components from liquid waste disposal sites or from atmospheric fallout. Land may also become contaminated by chemicals processed, stored or dumped at the site, perhaps in the distant past. Such contamination may pose a health risk to workers on the site, those subsequently involved in building, construction or engineering works, or the public (e.g. arising from trespass), and to animals. 

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