Waste treatment local pollution

A successful modem hazardous industrial waste treatment program for a particular industry will include not only traditional water pollution control but also air pollution control, noise control, soil conservation, site remediation, radiation protection, groundwater protection, hazardous waste management, solid waste disposal, and combined industrial-municipal waste treatment and management. In fact, it should be a holistic environmental control program. Another intention of this handbook series is to provide technical and economical information on the development of the most feasible total environmental control program that can benefit both industry and local municipalities. Frequently, the most economically feasible methodology is a combined industrial-municipal waste treatment. 

From a treatment perspective, despite their specific contents, hospital waste-waters (HWWs) are quite often considered to be of comparable pollutant nature to UWWs and, as such, are discharged directly into public sewers and co-treated with UWWs at the nearest WWTP. Unsurprisingly, this management strategy is currently the subject of lively debate in the scientific community [12-14], which has recently begun to evaluate the hospital contribution to UWWs in terms of micropollutant load at a local level. 

Surface water can be contaminated by point or nonpoint sources. An effluent pipe from an industrial plant or a sewage-treatment plant is an example of a point source a field from which pesticides and fertilizers are carried by rainwater into a river is an example of a nonpoint source. Industrial wastes probably constitute the greatest single pollution problem in soil and water. These contaminants include organic wastes such as solvents, inorganic wastes, such as chromium and many unknown chemicals. Contamination of soil and water results when by-product chemicals are not properly disposed of or conserved. In addition industrial accidents may lead to severe local contamination. For a more in-depth discussion of sources and movements of water pollutants, see Chapter 27. 

Only a few years ago, it was common practice to dispose of many laboratory wastes down the drain. Today, the indiscriminate disposal to the sanitary sewer of laboratory chemicals is not acceptable. Most laboratory drain systems are connected to sanitary sewer systems, and their effluent will eventually go to a sewage treatment plant. Some chemicals can interfere with the proper functioning of sewage treatment facilities or affect particularly sensitive bodies of water into which the chemical is discharged. In the laboratory drain system itself, some chemicals can create hazards of fire, explosion, or local air pollution. Others can corrode the drain system. 

Industrial pollution affects not only the local regions in which industries are found. Pollutants spread rapidly in very wide patterns, either in the atmosphere or in underground water systems. Increasingly, methods are being found to recycle industrial waste products that can be useful and even sold commercially. This is sometimes done by means of additional chemical treatment. Plastic and paper recycling have become part of daily consumer habits aU over the globe. 

As there is a very wide range of applications of electrochemical reactors In metal removal and pollution control. It Is Important first of all to attempt to identify the main approaches or strategies for their use The first of these Is known as "point source" or the treatment of a pollutant at Its point of origin. The second is known as "end of pipe" and describes the use of a treatment technology to process a combination of waste sources, generally before being discharged from the plant Into a sewer or local watercourse. Three examples or case studies will be presented which Illustrate these applications. 

EPA s mission is to enforce federal laws to control and abate pollution of air and water, solid waste, noise, radiation, and toxic substances. It is also to administer the Superfund for eleaning up abandoned waste sites, and award grants for local sewage treatment plants. ... 

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