Underground injection on-site

In Section 5, you must account forthe total aggregate releases of the toxic chemical to the environment from your facility for the calendar year. Releases to the environment include emissions to the air, discharges to surface waters, and on-site releases to land and underground injection wells. If you have no releases to a particular media (e.g., stack air), enter not applicable, NA do not leave any part of Section 5 blank. Check the box on the last line of this section if you use Part IV, the supplemental information sheet. 

Zero Releases. If you have no releases of a toxic chemical to a particular medium, report either NA, not applicable, or 0, as appropriate. Report NA only when there is no possibility a release could occur to a specific media or off-site location. If a release to a specific media or off-site location could occur, but either no release occurred orthe annual aggregate release was less than 0.5 pounds, report zero. However, if you report zero releases, a basis of estimate must be provided in column B. For example, if hydrochloric acid is Involved in the facility processing activities but the facility neutralizes the wastestreams to a pH of 6-9, then the facility reports a 0 release for the chemical. If the facility has no underground injection well, it enters NA for that item on the form. If the facility does not landfill the acidic waste, it enters NA for landfills... 

Air" Water Underground injection Land Total on-site release" Total off-site release Total on and off-site release... 

According to the Toxics Release Inventory, in 1996, the estimated releases of lead of 15,147,385 pounds (6,870,738 kg) to land from 1,454 large processing facilities accounted for about 89.4% of total environmental releases (TRI96 1998). An additional 794 pounds (360 kg), constituting less than 0.005% of the total environmental releases, were released via underground injection (TRI96 1998). Also, some of the estimated 370,905,354 pounds (168,239,838 kg) of lead transferred off-site may be ultimately disposed of on land. It should be noted that TRI-reported releases to land include, but are not limited to, releases to soil. Table 5-1 lists amounts released from these facilities. The TRI data should be used with caution, however, since only certain types of facilities are required to report. This is not an exhaustive list. 

Because acrylonitrile is listed as a hazardous substance, disposal of waste acrylonitrile is controlled by number of federal regulations (see Chapter 7). Rotary kiln, fluidized bed and liquid injection incineration are acceptable methods of acrylonitrile disposal (HSDB 1988). Underground injection is another disposal method. The most recent quantitative information on amount of acrylonitrile disposed in waste sites is for 1987. Emissions were 0.9 metric tons in surface water, 152 metric tons disposed through Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW), 92 metric tons disposed of on land 1,912 metric tons by underground injection (TR11988). Because acrylonitrile is relatively volatile and is also readily soluble in water, release to the environment from waste sites is of concern. 

Fryberger, J. S. and Shepard, D. C., 1987, Reinjection of Water at Hydrocarbon Recovery Sites International Symposium on Class V Injection Well Technology. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Underground Injection Practices Council, 19 pp. 

The breakdown of on-site waste disposal practices from the United States pharmaceutical industry in 1995 and 2006 is shown in Table 3.4. Table 3.5 displays some of the commonly used solvents in the pharmaceutical industry and the amount of each directly released on-site in 1995 and 2006. As shown in Table 3.4, in 1995 the majority of on-site releases were due to stack emissions. By 2006 the amount of fugitive, stack, and water releases decreased significantly, whereas the amount of wastes injected underground remained the same. This suggests that... 

Underground refers to underground releases and is defined as the injection of fluids into on-site subsurface wells for the purpose of waste disposal. 

TRI is an annually compiled series of databases spanning the reporting years 1987-2001, and which contains information on the annual estimated releases of toxic chemicals to the environment. It is based upon data collected by the US EPA. Mandated by the Superfund legislation, TRI s data cover air, water, land, and underground injection releases, as well as transfers to waste sites, and waste treatment methods and efficiency, as reported by industrial facilities in the United States. TRI also includes data related to source reduction and recycling. 

Number of facilities Aii Water Underground injection Total Land on-site release s ... 

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