Polychlorinated biphenyl Waste disposal

Although the major concern about the fate of organic pollntants in soil has been about pesticides in agricultural soils, other scenarios are also important. The disposal of wastes on land (e.g., at landfill sites) has raised questions about movement of pollutants contained in them into the air or neighboring rivers or water conrses. The presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or PAHs in snch wastes can be a significant source of pollution. Likewise, the disposal of some industrial wastes in landfill sites (e.g., by the chemical industry) raises questions about movement into air or water and needs to be carefully controlled and monitored. 

With the recent Increase In activity at hazardous waste sites where cleanup and remedial action are underway, there has emerged a need for rapid analytical methods for assessing contamination in water, sediment, and soil. Of special Interest, because of widespread use and disposal. Is the group of materials known as PCB s (polychlorinated biphenyls). 

The vendor claims that the TDR process can be used to treat soil and sludge contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, polynuclear aromatic compounds, solvents, dioxins, furans, organic pesticides and herbicides, solvents, petroleum wastes, as well as nonhalogenated volatile and semivolatile compounds. The treated residuals from the process include recovered water, oil that can be used for recycling as an alternative fuel or for recycling or can be disposed, and clean soil that can be used as backfill. The volume of treated sludge is reduced by as much as 95% by this thermal process, depending on the initial level of contaminants. 

Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (SCDE) is an ex situ process currently being researched for the treatment of soil and debris contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAHs) as well as for the removal of solvents from low-level solid mixed wastes and land disposal restricted (LDR) wastes. 

This technology has been used to treat polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), halogenated and nonhalogenated solvents, semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides, herbicides, fuel oils, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX), and mercury. This system has also treated Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous wastes such as petroleum refinery wastes and multisource leachate treatment residues to meet RCRA Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) treatment standards. 

Nadim, L., Schocken, M.J., Higson, F.J., Gibson, D. T., Bedard, D. L., Bopp, L. H. Mondello, F. J. (1987). Bacterial oxidation of polychlorinated biphenyls. In Proceedings of the 13th Annual Research Symposium on Land Disposal, Remedial Action, Incineration, and Treatment of Hazardous Waste, pp. 395—402. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH (EPA/600/9-87/015). 

The system for classification and disposal of hazardous chemical waste developed by EPA under RCRA does not apply to all wastes that contain hazardous chemicals. For example, wastes that contain dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), or asbestos are regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). In addition, the current definition of hazardous waste in 40 CFR Part 261 specifically excludes many wastes that contain hazardous chemicals from regulation under RCRA, including certain wastes produced by extraction, beneficiation, and processing of various ores and minerals or exploration, development, and use of energy resources. Thus, the waste classification system is not comprehensive, because many potentially important wastes that contain hazardous chemicals are excluded, and it is not based primarily on considerations of risks posed by wastes, because the exclusions are based on the source of the waste rather than the potential risk. 

PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) A family of chemicals composed of biphenyl molecules that have been chlorinated to varying degrees, performance assessment A type of risk assessment in which the potential long-term impacts of hazardous waste disposal on human health and the environment are evaluated for the purpose of determining whether disposal of specific wastes at specific sites should be acceptable, persistence The length of time that a contaminant persists in the environment. 

Griffin, R.A., Clark, R., Lee, M.C., Chian, E.S.K. (1978) Disposal and removal of polychlorinated biphenyls in soil. In Land Disposal of Hazardous Waste. David Schultz Ed., EPA-600/9-78-016, pp. 169-181. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Use of rotary kilns for hazardous waste incineration is becoming more common for disposal of chlorinated hydrocarbons such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Flow in these kilns is cocurrent. Major advantages include high temperature, long residence time, and flexibility to process gas, liquid, solid, or drummed wastes. 

Estimate the cost of waste disposal, as well as the treatment of volatile organic components (VOCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and any other materials forbidden by the environmental regulations. 

While industrial practice requires a trial burn and a facility may not operate until the data are accepted, industrial facilities obtain approval to process many different waste streams based on a single trial burn. In special situations, particularly with toxic materials such as polychlorinated biphenyls, both a surrogate burn and a trial burn would be required. RCRA regulations offer the option of allowing the use of data from another facility, under certain conditions, in lieu of a trial burn. However, industry has used this mechanism at only a few sites with similar units. It has been used twice by the CMA for the Tooele, Utah, disposal facility. The CMA should pursue this mechanism with the respective regulatory authorities. The committee believes that chemical agent disposal facilities are treated similarly to industrial facilities with respect to the conduct of trial bums. 

Chlorobiphenyls (CBs) are used widely by industry, including transformers and capacitors in the electrical industry and inks, paints and paper in the printing and allied industries. Unwanted polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) formulations and waste materials containing PCBs are normally incinerated. However, PCBs and waste products containing these materials are inadvertently or illegally disposed of at dump sites and landfill sites. Unsealed PCB sources are leached into the terrestrial and aquatic environment and incomplete combustion vaporises these compounds into the atmosphere therefore, they enter the wider global cycle of trace organic compounds and ubiquitous environmental contaminants that occur in bovine milk, milk powders and products as a result of intake via animal feed. 

Unwanted polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) formulations and waste materials containing PCBs are normally destroyed by high temperature incineration. However, this is a relatively costly method of waste disposal and alternative, but illegal, practices are known to occur, such as dissolving PCBs in waste mineral oil. Unless the oil is chemically analysed for the presence of the CBs it will pass as waste oil which can be... 

Stress reactions to occupational and community chemical exposures occur in both acute and chronic forms. Much of the literature pertaining to community reactions to chronic chemical exposures involves hazardous waste sites. By 1988, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified 29,300 sites needing cleanup. The EPA listed 950 of them on the National Priorities List, also known as the Superfund sites [Health Aspects of the Disposal of Waste Chemicals 1986 Upton et al. 1989). Several sources review the medical and environmental aspects of hazardous waste sites (Andelman and Underhill 1987 Committee on Environmental Epidemiology 1991 Epstein et al. 1982 Health Aspects of the Disposal of Waste Chemicals 1986 Petts 1994 Weisaeth 1984). The most common chemicals in these sites include trichloroethylene, lead, toluene, benzene, chloroform, polychlorinated biphenyls, and miscellaneous solvents (Upton et al. 1989). 

Fed. Reg. 57235 (Oct. 9,2007) Transfer of Polychlorinated Biphenyl Cleanup and Disposal Program from the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances to the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response 72 FR 57235 PCB management 10-9-07... 

The third exanqile for polycyclic aromatic compoimds of environmental concern is the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The vast majority of PCBs in the environment are derived from commercial mixtures iAroclors), which contain 60 to 80 different congeners. These mixtures have found widespread industrial use in the past, owing to their physical and chemical stability and their dielectric properties. Inadequate waste disposal has led to their release into the environment, and they have been routinely detected in soil and water samples since the early 1960s. 

In 1976, the Toxic Substances and Control Act prohibited the further manufacture of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) after July 2, 1979, established limits on PCB use in commerce, and established regulations for proper disposal of PCBs. In the disposal of wastes containing PCBs, both RCRA and TSCA standards apply. The TSCA standards for incineration of PCB wastes are generally more restrictive than the RCRA standards. The TSCA standards may be summarized as follows ... 

Once the hazardous waste arrives at a disposal facility, it may be stored, buried, or incinerated. How it will be disposed of depends on the degree of hazard presented by the waste. Hazardous materials such as polychlorinate biphenyls (PCBs) are usually incinerated. The PCBs must be destroyed to a level of six 9s or 99.9999 percent burned to ensure that little or no toxic residue survives. Other materials such as asbestos, which is a regulated waste, can be buried because it is very unlikely due to it stability to get into groundwater and spread. 

Environmental Problems—This section describes N Reactor operational activities that affected the environment. The affected environs are groundwater contamination (radionuclides, volatile organics, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), metals, and other Inorganics) soil contamination (surface and vadose zone contamination from radionuclides and organic compounds) biota contamination (flora [vegetation] and fauna [animals] from radionuclide uptake by plants or Ingestion by animals) and evaluated radiation at the Columbia River (unshielded sediments In the 1301-N Liquid Waste Disposal Facility). 

Polychlorinated Biphenyls. There are several sources of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in museums. Often these are first discovered by waste-disposal companies that pick up a museum s hazardous refuse. Disposal companies usually analyze solvent, paint, and other hydrocarbon wastes because disposal of PCB-contaminated material is vastly more complex and expensive than disposal of ordinary wastes. In some cases, museum waste has been contaminated by fluids leaking from transformers or fluorescent light ballasts, both of which are common sources of PCBs. However, on two occasions of which the present author is aware, the contamination was from Arochor slide-mounting medium (a material which contains PCBs and polychlorinated triphenyls) and/or PCB-contaminated pigments such as phthalocyanine blue and green, and diarylide (benzidine) yellow. 

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