Toxic waste

Last updated

Toxic waste is any unwanted material in all forms that can cause harm (e.g. by being inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin). Mostly generated by industry, consumer products like televisions, computers, and phones contain toxic chemicals that can pollute the air and contaminate soil and water. Disposing of such waste is a major public health issue.

Contents

Classifying toxic materials

Toxic materials are poisonous byproducts as a result of industries such as manufacturing, farming, construction, automotive, laboratories, and hospitals which may contain heavy metals, radiation, dangerous pathogens, or other toxins. Toxic waste has become more abundant since the Industrial Revolution, causing serious global issues. Disposing of such waste has become even more critical with the addition of numerous technological advances containing toxic chemical components. Products such as cellular telephones, computers, televisions, and solar panels contain toxic chemicals that can harm the environment if not disposed of properly to prevent air pollution and the contamination of soils and water. A material is considered toxic when it causes death or harm by being inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin.

The waste can contain chemicals, heavy metals, radiation, dangerous pathogens, or other toxins. Even households generate hazardous waste from items such as batteries, used computer equipment, and leftover paints or pesticides. [1] Toxic material can be either human-made and others are naturally occurring in the environment. Not all hazardous substances are considered toxic.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has identified 11 key substances that pose a risk to human health:

The most overlooked toxic and hazardous wastes are the household products in everyday homes that are improperly disposed of such as old batteries, pesticides, paint, and car oil. Toxic waste can be reactive, ignitable, and corrosive. In the United States, these wastes are regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). [2]

With the increase of worldwide technology, there are more substances that are considered toxic and harmful to human health. Technology growth at this rate is extremely daunting for civilization and can eventually lead to more harm/negative outcomes. Some of this technology includes cell phones and computers. Such items have been given the name e-waste or EEE, which stands for Electrical and Electronic Equipment. This term is also used for goods such as refrigerators, toys, and washing machines. These items can contain toxic components that can break down into water systems when discarded. The reduction in the cost of these goods has allowed for these items to be distributed globally without thought or consideration to managing the goods once they become ineffective or broken.

In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state environmental agencies develop and enforce regulations on the storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous waste. The EPA requires that toxic waste be handled with special precautions, and be disposed of in designated facilities around the country. Also, many US cities have collection days where household toxic waste is gathered. Some materials that may not be accepted at regular landfills are ammunition, commercially generated waste, explosives/shock sensitive items, hypodermic needles/syringes, medical waste, radioactive materials, and smoke detectors. [3]

Health effects

Toxic wastes often contain carcinogens, and exposure to these by some route, such as leakage or evaporation from the storage, causes cancer to appear at increased frequency in exposed individuals. For example, a cluster of the rare blood cancer polycythemia vera was found around a toxic waste dump site in northeast Pennsylvania in 2008. [4]

The Human & Ecological Risk Assessment Journal conducted a study that focused on the health of individuals living near municipal landfills to see if it would be as harmful as living near hazardous landfills. They conducted a 7-year study that specifically tested for 18 types of cancers to see if the participants had higher rates than those that do not live around landfills. They conducted this study in western Massachusetts within a 1-mile radius of the North Hampton Regional Landfill. [5]

People encounter these toxins buried in the ground, in stream runoff, in groundwater that supplies drinking water, or in floodwaters, as happened after Hurricane Katrina. Some toxins, such as mercury, persist in the environment and accumulate. As a result of the bioaccumulation of mercury in both freshwater and marine ecosystems, predatory fish are a significant source of mercury in human and animal diets. [6]

Prevalence of Toxic Waste Sites in the United States

In the United States today millions of Americans live near a toxic waste site that is in a radius of three miles of where they currently reside. For example, In February 2022 it was found that "Black Americans are 75 percent more likely to live near waste-producing facilities." Residents that live in or near communities that are 1.8 miles around a Superfund or hazardous site have a "high risk for life-long and long-term mental health and physical health challenges, including cancer, birth defects, and developmental disabilities." There are an estimated 21 million people that reside within a mile of these sites allowing the harsh chemicals and toxins, such as lead and mercury, that have escaped to enter nearby water supplies, to affect the air quality, and ground conditions resulting in destructive environmental surroundings. In the past, recent years' climate change increasing severe rainstorms, flooding, and winds from hurricanes have a greater possibility to disrupt the content of these toxic waste sites allowing unstable organic compounds to go back into the environment.

Toxic Lead Waste and Disease in Three Latin American Countries

Of the exposed population, the proportion of women of childbearing age was relatively equal across the three countries. Exposed population by age and childbearing status.jpg
Of the exposed population, the proportion of women of childbearing age was relatively equal across the three countries.
Geographical distribution of TSIP sites in Argentina and Uruguay with DALYs resulting from lead exposure TSIP sites in Argentina and Uruguay.jpg
Geographical distribution of TSIP sites in Argentina and Uruguay with DALYs resulting from lead exposure
Geographical distribution of TSIP sites in Mexico with DALYs resulting from lead exposure TSIP sites in Mexico.jpg
Geographical distribution of TSIP sites in Mexico with DALYs resulting from lead exposure

It can be seen that in Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay there has been an increase in industrial development, urbanization, and socioeconomic forces. As these industries grow there is an underlying consequence of pollution that comes from environmental exposure to hazardous waste. When people are exposed to this pollution, they suffer negative health effects. With diseases on the rise, the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) starts to decline, so the time the average person lives decreases, especially in low to middle-income countries.

These low to middle-income countries (LMIC) have minimal resources to deal with toxic waste, such as "inadequate regulation, the informality of many industries, poor surveillance, and improper disposal of contaminants." For example, "lead is still used for glazing artisanal ceramics despite the availability of less hazardous alternatives." Lead enters the soil and water sources if not kept under control. Children are more susceptible than adults to absorbing more lead if exposed early on, causing them to have "behavioral problems in adolescence, IQ decrements, cognitive impairment, and decreased visuospatial skills." If adults are exposed occupationally, they can have higher rates of hypertension than the average person. Men can result in low sperm count and females can result in miscarriages.

In order to further quantify the burden of diseases caused by toxic wastes TSIP, Toxic Sites Identification Program, " identifies active and abandoned hazardous waste sites resulting from both formal and informal industrial activities in LMICs". As an investigation begins a key pollutant is sought out and identified. For example, "Heavy metals are the most commonly occurring key pollutant, with ingestion of contaminated soils being the most commonly occurring route of exposure listed in the TSIP database." Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay were chosen since they had more available data after meeting certain criteria. As of now, there are five criteria that have to be met in order for a hazardous waste site to be included in the analysis; "a biological or environmental sample had to be present; a population at risk had to be specified; the location of the site was represented by GPS coordinates, and a description of the activities leading to contamination were outlined." To measure the amount of lead in the soil a handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer was used. When this method seemed unavailable and an area was suspected of having to lead contamination, the blood of individuals was tested to show the amount the people who were exposed to lead.

The exposure data were collected from a total of 129 hazardous waste sites distributed across Argentina (n = 23), Mexico (n = 62), and Uruguay (n = 44). In Figs. 1 and 2 the sites of geographical distributions are shown. An estimated population of 316,703 individuals were at risk of exposure (mean = 2455; median = 250 per site), which is approximately 0.19% of the total population of all three countries. There was an estimation of 80,021 individuals who were women of childbearing age (15–49 years of age), and 122,084 individuals who were younger than 18 years of age.

Dioxins and Solid Waste Disposal in Campania, Italy

In recent years in the region of Campania, Italy there has been a rise in illegal dumping and burning of toxic and solid waste. In response to this, there has been a rise of dangerous chemical molecules like dioxins that are carcinogenic, which implies that they have the potential to cause cancer, that is appearing in humans and animals. For example, there has been a recent increase in sheep that have been born in contaminated areas that have, "higher rates of chromosome fragility, higher mortality, and a higher incidence of abnormal fetal development when compared with sheep raised in non-contaminated areas."

To assess the causal relations between cancer mortality and congenital malformations in humans coming from illegal dumping a map was drawn using the geographical locations of the sites.

As one can see most of these sites are located in Campania where Naples and Caserta are based.

The spread of dioxin through food consumption is primarily due to the animal products from the animals that were raised in the geographical locations where dioxins were the highest. Researchers tested mammalian milk from these areas and saw that the levels of dioxin were over the suggested amount. This was greatly seen as an issue because humans have the highest capability to concentrate the dioxin in their fat tissues. To test this, 94 women in Campania who were breastfeeding had samples of their breast milk tested and it was found that every woman had dioxin in their breast milk. A correlation was also discovered that the older you were the more dioxin was in your breast milk.

Handling and disposal

One of the biggest problems with today's toxic material is how to dispose of it properly. Before the passage of modern environmental laws (in the US, this was in the 1970s), it was legal to dump such wastes into streams, rivers, and oceans, or bury them underground in landfills. The US Clean Water Act, enacted in 1972, and RCRA, enacted in 1976, created nationwide programs to regulate the handling and disposal of hazardous wastes. [7] [8]

The agriculture industry uses over 800,000 tons of pesticides worldwide annually that contaminate soils, and eventually infiltrate into groundwater, which can contaminate drinking water supplies. The oceans can be polluted from the stormwater runoff of these chemicals as well. Toxic waste in the form of petroleum oil can either spill into the oceans from pipe leaks or large ships, but it can also enter the oceans from everyday citizens dumping car oil into the rainstorm sewer systems. Disposal is the placement of waste into or on the land. Disposal facilities are usually designed to permanently contain waste and prevent the release of harmful pollutants to the environment.[ citation needed ]

The most common hazardous waste disposal practice is placement in a land disposal unit such as a landfill, surface impoundment, waste pile, land treatment unit, or injection well. Land disposal is subject to requirements under EPA's Land Disposal Restrictions Program. [9] Injection wells are regulated under the federal Underground Injection Control program. [10]

Organic wastes can be destroyed by incineration at high temperatures. [11] However, if the waste contains heavy metals or radioactive isotopes, these must be separated and stored, as they cannot be destroyed. [12] The method of storage will seek to immobilize the toxic components of the waste, possibly through storage in sealed containers, inclusion in a stable medium such as glass or a cement mixture, or burial under an impermeable clay cap. Waste transporters and waste facilities may charge fees; consequently, improper methods of disposal may be used to avoid paying these fees. Where the handling of toxic waste is regulated, the improper disposal of toxic waste may be punishable by fines [6] or prison terms. Burial sites for toxic waste and other contaminated brownfield land may eventually be used as greenspace or redeveloped for commercial or industrial use.

History of US toxic waste regulation

The RCRA governs the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. [13] The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), also enacted in 1976, authorizes the EPA to collect information on all new and existing chemical substances, as well as to control any substances that were determined to cause unreasonable risk to public health or the environment. [14] [15] The Superfund law, passed in 1980, created a cleanup program for abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. [16]

There has been a long ongoing battle between communities and environmentalists versus governments and corporations about how strictly and how fairly the regulations and laws are written and enforced. That battle began in North Carolina in the late summer of 1979, as EPA's TSCA regulations were being implemented. In North Carolina, PCB-contaminated oil was deliberately dripped along rural Piedmont highways, creating the largest PCB spills in American history and a public health crisis that would have repercussions for generations to come. [17] The PCB-contaminated material was eventually collected and buried in a landfill in Warren County, but citizens' opposition, including large public demonstrations, exposed the dangers of toxic waste, the fallibility of landfills than in use, and EPA regulations allowing landfills to be built on marginal, but politically acceptable sites.

Warren County citizens argued that the toxic waste landfill regulations were based on the fundamental assumption that the EPA's conceptual dry-tomb landfill would contain the toxic waste. This assumption informed the siting of toxic waste landfills and waivers to regulations that were included in EPA's Federal Register . For example, in 1978, the base of a major toxic waste landfill could be no closer than five feet from groundwater, but this regulation and others could be waived. The waiver to the regulation concerning the distance between the base of a toxic waste landfill and groundwater allowed the base to be only a foot above ground water if the owner/operator of the facility could demonstrate to the EPA regional administrator that a leachate collection system could be installed and that there would be no hydraulic connection between the base of the landfill and groundwater. Citizens argued that the waivers to the siting regulations were discriminatory mechanisms facilitating the shift from scientific to political considerations concerning the siting decision and that in the South this would mean a discriminatory proliferation of dangerous waste management facilities in poor black and other minority communities. They also argued that the scientific consensus was that permanent containment could not be assured. As resistance to the siting of the PCB landfill in Warren County continued and studies revealed that EPA dry-tomb landfills were failing, EPA stated in its Federal Register that all landfills would eventually leak and should only be used as a stopgap measure.

Years of research and empirical knowledge of the failures of the Warren County PCB landfill led citizens of Warren County to conclude that the EPA's dry-tomb landfill design and regulations governing the disposal of toxic and hazardous waste were not based on sound science and adequate technology. Warren County's citizens concluded also that North Carolina's 1981 Waste Management Act was scientifically and constitutionally unacceptable because it authorized the siting of toxic, hazardous, and nuclear waste facilities prior to public hearings, preempted local authority over the siting of the facilities, and authorized the use of force if needed. [18]

In the aftermath of the Warren County protests, the 1984 Federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act focused on waste minimization and phasing out land disposal of hazardous waste as well as corrective action for releases of hazardous materials. Other measures included in the 1984 amendments included increased enforcement authority for EPA, more stringent hazardous waste management standards, and a comprehensive underground storage tank program. [19]

The disposal of toxic waste continues to be a source of conflict in the U.S. Due to the hazards associated with toxic waste handling and disposal, communities often resist the siting of toxic waste landfills and other waste management facilities; however, determining where and how to dispose of waste is a necessary part of economic and environmental policy-making. [18]

The issue of handling toxic waste has become a global problem as international trade has arisen out of the increasing toxic byproducts produced with the transfer of them to less developed countries. [20] In 1995, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights began to notice the illicit dumping of toxic waste and assigned a Special Rapporteur to examine the human rights aspect to this issue (Commission resolution 1995/81). In September 2011, the Human Rights Council decided to strengthen the mandate to include the entire life-cycle of hazardous products from manufacturing to the final destination (aka cradle to grave), as opposed to only movement and dumping of hazardous waste. The title of the Special Rapporteur has been changed to "Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes" (Human Rights Council 18/11). The Human Rights Council has further extended the scope of its mandates as of September 2012 due to the result of the dangerous implications occurring to persons advocating environmentally sound practices regarding the generation, management, handling, distribution, and final disposal of hazardous and toxic materials to include the issue of the protection of the environmental human rights defenders. [21]

Mapping of toxic waste in the United States

TOXMAP was a geographic information system (GIS) from the Division of Specialized Information Services [22] of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) that used maps of the United States to help users visually explore data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Superfund and Toxics Release Inventory programs. The chemical and environmental health information was taken from NLM's Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET) [23] and PubMed, and from other authoritative sources. The database was removed from the internet by the Trump Administration in December 2019. [24]

"Toxic waste" is often utilized in science fiction as a plot device that causes organisms or characters to undergo mutation. Examples of works that feature toxic waste in such a manner include the films Mutant , [25] C.H.U.D. , [25] Impulse (all 1984), [25] and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). [26] [27] Several films produced by Troma Entertainment involve mutation via toxic or radioactive waste, including The Toxic Avenger (1984) and Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986). [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazardous waste</span> Ignitable, reactive, corrosive and/or toxic unwanted or unusable materials

Hazardous waste is waste that must be handled properly to avoid damaging human health or the environment. Waste can be hazardous because it is toxic, reacts violently with other chemicals, or is corrosive, among other traits. As of 2022, humanity produces 300-500 million metric tons of hazardous waste annually. Some common examples are electronics, batteries, and paints. An important aspect of managing hazardous waste is safe disposal. Hazardous waste can be stored in hazardous waste landfills, burned, or recycled into something new. Managing hazardous waste is important to achieve worldwide sustainability. Hazardous waste is regulated on national scale by national governments as well as on an international scale by the United Nations (UN) and international treaties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polychlorinated biphenyl</span> Highly carcinogenic chemical compounds

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are organochlorine compounds with the formula C12H10−xClx; they were once widely used in the manufacture of carbonless copy paper, as heat transfer fluids, and as dielectric and coolant fluids for electrical equipment. They are highly toxic and carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer electronic products, whose production was banned internationally by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sewage sludge</span> Semi-solid material that is produced as a by-product during sewage treatment

Sewage sludge is the residual, semi-solid material that is produced as a by-product during sewage treatment of industrial or municipal wastewater. The term "septage" also refers to sludge from simple wastewater treatment but is connected to simple on-site sanitation systems, such as septic tanks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chemical waste</span> Waste made from harmful chemicals

Chemical waste is any excess, unused, or unwanted chemical. Chemical waste may be classified as hazardous waste, non-hazardous waste, universal waste, or household hazardous waste, each of which is regulated separately by national governments and the United Nations. Hazardous waste is material that displays one or more of the following four characteristics: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity. This information, along with chemical disposal requirements, is typically available on a chemical's Safety Data Sheet (SDS). Radioactive and biohazardous wastes require additional or different methods of handling and disposal, and are often regulated differently than standard hazardous wastes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industrial waste</span> Waste produced by industrial activity or manufacturing processes

Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and gravel, masonry and concrete, scrap metal, oil, solvents, chemicals, scrap lumber, even vegetable matter from restaurants. Industrial waste may be solid, semi-solid or liquid in form. It may be hazardous waste or non-hazardous waste. Industrial waste may pollute the nearby soil or adjacent water bodies, and can contaminate groundwater, lakes, streams, rivers or coastal waters. Industrial waste is often mixed into municipal waste, making accurate assessments difficult. An estimate for the US goes as high as 7.6 billion tons of industrial waste produced annually, as of 2017. Most countries have enacted legislation to deal with the problem of industrial waste, but strictness and compliance regimes vary. Enforcement is always an issue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solutia</span> American manufacturer of materials and specialty chemicals

Solutia Inc. was an American manufacturer of materials and specialty chemicals including polyvinyl butyral (PVB), ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) interlayers for laminated glass, aftermarket window films, protective barrier and conductive films, and rubber processing chemicals. The company was formed on September 1, 1997, as a divestiture of the Monsanto Company chemical business. In July 2012, the company was acquired by Eastman Chemical Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Munisport</span>

Munisport Landfill is a closed landfill located in North Miami, Florida adjacent to a low-income community, a regional campus of Florida International University, Oleta River State Park, and estuarine Biscayne Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soil contamination</span> Pollution of land by human-made chemicals or other alteration

Soil contamination, soil pollution, or land pollution as a part of land degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotic (human-made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. It is typically caused by industrial activity, agricultural chemicals or improper disposal of waste. The most common chemicals involved are petroleum hydrocarbons, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, solvents, pesticides, lead, and other heavy metals. Contamination is correlated with the degree of industrialization and intensity of chemical substance. The concern over soil contamination stems primarily from health risks, from direct contact with the contaminated soil, vapour from the contaminants, or from secondary contamination of water supplies within and underlying the soil. Mapping of contaminated soil sites and the resulting clean ups are time-consuming and expensive tasks, and require expertise in geology, hydrology, chemistry, computer modelling, and GIS in Environmental Contamination, as well as an appreciation of the history of industrial chemistry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Construction waste</span> Unwanted material produced directly or incidentally by the construction industries

Construction waste or debris is any kind of debris from the construction process. Different government agencies have clear definitions. For example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA defines construction and demolition materials as “debris generated during the construction, renovation and demolition of buildings, roads, and bridges.” Additionally, the EPA has categorized Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste into three categories: non-dangerous, hazardous, and semi-hazardous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazardous waste in the United States</span>

Under United States environmental policy, hazardous waste is a waste that has the potential to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biomedical waste</span> Waste containing infectious material

Biomedical waste or hospital waste is any kind of waste containing infectious materials generated during the treatment of humans or animals as well as during research involving biologics. It may also include waste associated with the generation of biomedical waste that visually appears to be of medical or laboratory origin, as well research laboratory waste containing biomolecules or organisms that are mainly restricted from environmental release. As detailed below, discarded sharps are considered biomedical waste whether they are contaminated or not, due to the possibility of being contaminated with blood and their propensity to cause injury when not properly contained and disposed. Biomedical waste is a type of biowaste.

In 1990, the Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River in southwestern Michigan was declared by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be a Superfund site – in other words, an abandoned industrial site containing significant amounts of toxic waste. The EPA and companies responsible for the waste in this area, which includes a three-mile section of Portage Creek as well as part of the Kalamazoo River, into which it flows, are currently involved in an effort to reduce the amount of toxic waste at the site, which is contaminated by PCBs from paper mills and other factories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic waste in the United States</span>

Electronic waste or e-waste in the United States refers to electronic products that have reached the end of their operable lives, and the United States is beginning to address its waste problems with regulations at a state and federal level. Used electronics are the quickest-growing source of waste and can have serious health impacts. The United States is the world leader in producing the most e-waste, followed closely by China; both countries domestically recycle and export e-waste. Only recently has the United States begun to make an effort to start regulating where e-waste goes and how it is disposed of. There is also an economic factor that has an effect on where and how e-waste is disposed of. Electronics are the primary users of precious and special metals, retrieving those metals from electronics can be viewed as important as raw metals may become more scarce

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility</span> Hazardous waste and municipal solid waste disposal facility

The Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility is a large hazardous waste and municipal solid waste disposal facility, operated by Waste Management, Inc. The landfill is located at 35.9624°N 120.0102°W, 3.5 mi (5.6 km) southwest of Kettleman City on State Route 41 in the western San Joaquin Valley, Kings County, California.

Solid waste policy in the United States is aimed at developing and implementing proper mechanisms to effectively manage solid waste. For solid waste policy to be effective, inputs should come from stakeholders, including citizens, businesses, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, universities, and other research organizations. These inputs form the basis of policy frameworks that influence solid waste management decisions. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates household, industrial, manufacturing, and commercial solid and hazardous wastes under the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Effective solid waste management is a cooperative effort involving federal, state, regional, and local entities. Thus, the RCRA's Solid Waste program section D encourages the environmental departments of each state to develop comprehensive plans to manage nonhazardous industrial and municipal solid waste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health effects of coal ash</span>

Coal ash, also known as coal combustion residuals (CCRs), is the mineral residue that remains from burning coal. Exposure to coal ash and to the toxic substances it contains may pose a health risk to workers in coal-fired power plants and residents living near coal ash disposal sites.

Emmell's Septic Landfill (ESL) is a landfill in Galloway Township, New Jersey and takes up about 38 acres of space. The landfill was in operation from 1967 until 1979. ESL disposed of liquid and solid waste including many chemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), Trichloroethene and Vinyl chloride which all had their own effect on the environment and community. These chemicals affected the groundwater required millions of dollars to reconstruct the groundwater pathways and provide clean water to residents. The landfill holds a Hazardous Ranking Score of a 50/100, qualifying for the Superfund National Priority List. In August 1999, the state acknowledged the site's contamination and held town meetings and provided research upon the site such as groundwater samples. In July 1997, a sitewide investigation was called upon by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In total the clean up was estimated to cost $5 million to fund this superfund site, and a grant of $3.9 million was given by the Federal Government under the Recovery Act Funding (Previti). Today, the project is still ongoing however, greatly improved since the landfill was discovered.

Brook Industrial Park (BIP) is an industrial area occupying 4.5 acres of the Borough of Bound Brook, New Jersey, in the United States of America. It is located on the northern bank of the Raritan River. Industrial, chemical and pesticide operations began in 1971 and eventually lead to the contamination of groundwater and exposure of workers to harmful dioxins. Throughout 1980 to 1988 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) conducted studies to determine if there were any threats being posed on the workers, community or environment by the BIP companies in their disposal of processed and stored chemicals.

Price Landfill is a 26-acre site located in Pleasantville, Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey. Price Landfill is also known as Price Sanitary Landfill, Prices Pit, Price Landfill No.1 and Price Chemical Dump. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) added Price Landfill to the Superfund National Priorities List on September 20, 1983, because of the hazardous chemicals found on the site and in the groundwater. The site was originally owned by Mr. Charles Price and was used to mine sand and gravel, which was shut down in 1968. The site was then turned into a private landfill in 1969 and then a commercial solid waste landfill in 1971. At this point the landfill was used to dispose of liquid waste by companies, specifically Atlantic City Electric Company. The liquid waste consisted of industrial chemicals, oils and greases/sludges, septic tank and sewer wastes, which were disposed on the site for 8 years, ending altogether in 1976, but in the meantime, having contaminated the groundwater, soil, air, and nearby creeks, specifically Absecon Creek. Chemicals dumped on the site are believed to be 1,2-Dichloroethane, arsenic, benzene, chloroform, lead, and vinyl chloride, all of which contaminated the groundwater, soil, air, and nearby creeks. The USEPA originally got involved in 1982 by beginning to correct the damage. Currently the USEPA states that they are continuing to monitor and treat the groundwater and land, and that hazards to humans are controlled.

The Burnt Fly Bog Superfund Site is located in Marlboro Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Contamination began in the 1950s and 1960s. It was used as a dumping ground for hazardous chemicals and oils. This site was used to reprocess or recycle oil, and it was also used as a landfill during the 1950s. The contamination affected the surface water and soil. The EPA got involved in the 1980s and addressed the situation. Human health concerns were a main part of the EPA getting involved because residents lived only about 1,000 to 2,000 feet around the site. Major components of the remedy included excavation and off-site disposal of contaminated soil from Northerly Wetlands, Tar Patch Area. The back filling of the areas addressed, monitoring of the surface water and sediments, and biological sampling in the Westerly Wetlands. The current status of the site is complete. The remedial stages were completed in the late 1990s and a five-year monitoring of the surface water was completed around 2004.

References

  1. ↑ "Toxic Waste". National Geographic . 2016-05-03. Archived from the original on October 1, 2011.
  2. ↑ United States. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Pub. L.   94–580, 90  Stat.   2795, 42 U.S.C.   § 6901. Approved 1976-10-21.
  3. ↑ Vaughn, J. (2013). Toxic Waste. United Kingdom. ISBN   9780765682932.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ "Disease Clusters in Pennsylvania" (PDF). National Resources Defense Council. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  5. ↑ Goodman Julie E, Hudson Todd C, Monteiro Richard J (2010). "Cancer Cluster Investigation In Residents Near A Municipal Landfill". Human & Ecological Risk Assessment. 16 (6): 1339–59. Bibcode:2010HERA...16.1339G. doi:10.1080/10807039.2010.526504. S2CID   84794261.
  6. 1 2 "Toxic Waste." National Geographic. National Geographic, 2010. Web. 26 Apr 2010. .
  7. ↑ United States. Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 ("Clean Water Act"). Pub. L.   92–500, October 18, 1972.
  8. ↑ Copeland, Claudia (2016-10-18). Clean Water Act: A Summary of the Law (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Congressional Research Service. RL30030.
  9. ↑ "Land Disposal Restrictions for Hazardous Waste". EPA. 2017-08-16.
  10. ↑ "Protecting Underground Sources of Drinking Water from Underground Injection". EPA. 2017-05-09.
  11. ↑ "High Temperature Incineration". Environmental Technology Council. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Regulatory Exclusions and Alternative Standards for the Recycling of Materials, Solid Wastes and Hazardous Wastes". EPA. 2017-08-10.
  13. ↑ "Learn the Basics of Hazardous Waste". EPA. 2017-08-16.
  14. ↑ United States. Toxic Substances Control Act. Pub. L.   94–469, approved 1976-10-11.
  15. ↑ "Chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act". EPA. 2017-06-28.
  16. ↑ United States. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (commonly known as "Superfund"). Pub. L.   96–510, approved 1980-12-11.
  17. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-08-12. Retrieved 2016-06-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)[ self-published source ]
  18. 1 2 .<http://www.ncpcbarchives.com Archived 2011-02-07 at the Wayback Machine >.[ self-published source ]
  19. ↑ "Summary of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act". EPA. 2016-12-01.
  20. ↑ "Toxic Waste Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Toxic Waste". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  21. ↑ "Special Rapporteur on Toxic Wastes". ohchr.org. Retrieved 2016-05-08.
  22. ↑ "SIS Specialized Information System". United States National Library of Medicine. Archived from the original on 21 March 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
  23. ↑ "Toxnet". United States National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
  24. ↑ Martin, Jeffery (December 24, 2019). "TOXMAP, Federal Database Allowing Public to Track U.S. Pollution, Shut Down After 15 Years by Trump Administration". Newsweek . Retrieved December 26, 2019.
  25. 1 2 3 4 Newman, Kim (1999). Millennium Movies: End of the World Cinema. Titan Books. p. 94. ISBN   978-1840230604.
  26. ↑ Humphrey, Craig R.; Lewis, Tammy L.; Buttel, Frederick H. (2002). Environment, Energy and Society: Exemplary Works. Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN   978-0534579579.
  27. ↑ McCoy, Joshua Kristian (March 15, 2023). "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: What Is The Ooze?". GameRant . Retrieved September 8, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.