Exam 6 (Chps 21, 22, 11th Hour video) Flashcards
Municipal Solid Waste
materials thrown away from homes and small commercial establishments
landfill
dump covered in 6 inches of earth every day
siting
finding a place to build
LULU
Locally Unwanted Land Use
BANANA
Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone
NIMTOO
Not In My Term Of Office
primary recycling
original waste material made back into the same material
secondary recycling
waste materials made into different products that may or may not be recyclable
materials recovery facility
a processing plant in which regionalized recycling is carried out. Recyclable MSW, usually presorted, is prepared in bulk for the recycling market.
Resource Recovery Act
- 1970
- gave jurisdiction over waste management to EPA
- encouraged state programs
Solid Waste Disposal Act
- 1965
- gave jurisdiction over SW to Bureau of Solid Waste Management
- financial and technical vs. regulatory
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
- 1976
- used regulatory (command-and-control) approach
- EPA could close dumps, regulate landfills and combustion facilities
- required states to make SWM programs
Superfund Act
- 1980
- addressed abandoned hazardous waste sites
Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments
- 1984
- gave EPA more responsibility for setting criteria
- EPA must monitor landfills and combustion criteria
WasteWise
- EPA sponsored
- voluntary partnership that allows partners to desing their own SW reduction programs
Landfill Problem
- leachate and groundwater contamination
- methane explosions
- incomplete decomposition
- settling
Combustion Problems
- air pollution
- expensive
- siting problems (smell, pollution)
- ash toxic
- needs a continuous supply of MSW to justify the cost
- wastes energy and materials unless augmented with recycling
source reduction
- reduce weight, amount, toxicity
- reduce paperwork
- reuse
- design to last
qualities of the most successful recycling programs
- PAYT trash
- mandatory
- curbside
- single stream
- bulk trash day, or site
- goals ambitious, clear, feasible
policy goals that would improve sustainability of MSW management
- extended producer responsibility, or product stewardship
- incentives at government level
- working internationally
hazardous substance
- flammable
- corrosive
- reactive
- toxic
factors that increase a substance’s ability to harm
- persistence
- bio-accumulation
- ease of absorption
risk characterization
the process of determining the level of a risk and its accompanying uncertainties after hazard assessment, dose response assessment and exposure assessment have been accomplished
threshold level
the level below which no ill effects are observed
Toxics Release Inventory
- EPA’s annual report
- required by EPCRA
- annual releases of toxic chemicals to the environment and locations and quatities of toxic chemicals stored at US sites
Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act
- EPCRA - SARA (Title III)
- 1986
- a section of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act that addresses hazardous waste accidents and promulgates community right to know requirements
halogenated hydrocarbons
a synthetic organic compound containing one or more atoms of the halogen group, which includes chlorine, fluorine, and bromine
Pollution Prevention Act of 1990
mandates collection of data on all chemicals used
Persistant Organic Pollutants
- POPs
- any members of a class of organic pollutants that are resistant to biodegradation and that are often toxic
- DDT, PCBs, dioxin, etc.
chlorinated hydrocarbons
- synthetic organic molecules in which one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by chlorine atoms
- hazardous when nonbiodegradable and bioaccumulate
- many carcinogenic
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
- CERCLA
- Superfund
- 1980
- provides trust fund (through taxing chemicals) for the ID of abandoned chemical waste sites, protection of groundwater near the sites, remediation, and cleanup
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act
- 1986
- SARA
- greatly expands Superfund program
Stockholm Convention on Persistant Organic Pollutants
- 2004
- outlaws 9 pollutants
- limits DDT use for malaria
- limits accidental production of pollutants by breakdown of other products
National Priorities List
the most immediate and severe threats of the Superfund sites
bioremediation
- oxygen injected into contaminated zones
- organisms feed on the pollutants, then die
phytoremediation
- uses plants for cleanup steps
- stabilizes soil to prevent movement of contaminents by erosion
- extracts contaminants by direct uptake
- sunflowers -> uranium, poplars -> dry-cleaning solvents and mercury, ferns -> arsenic
brownfields
abandoned, idled, or underused industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by contamination
Brownfield Act
- 2002
- provides grants for site assessment and remediation work
- limits liability for owners and prospective purchasers
- 100,000 jobs
discharge permit
- under Clean Water Act
- any firm discharging more than a certain amount must have a permit
- required to report on what is discharged
Department of Transportation Regulations
specify kinds of containers and methods of packing to be used in the transport of various hazardous materials
the two most toxic chemical groups
heavy metals
synthetic organic compounds
why most dangerous chemicals cause damage
- soluable in water,
- easily absorbed,
- nonbiodegradable,
- mess with enzymes,
- mutagenic,
- carcinogenic,
- teratogenic
Superfund priorities
- pressure facilities to clean up their messes
- immediately clean up immenant threat
- worst sites put on NPL
Leaking Underground Storage Sites
- strict monitoring
- remediating to begin w/in 72 hours of leak detected
- upgraded with interior lining and cathodic protection or fiberglass
- states required to have storage-tank programs
- 0.1 cent tax for clean-up trust fund
Toxic Substances Control Act
- 1976
- manufacturers must submit a notice to EPA with health impacts of new chemicals
- huge loophole - companies allowed to keep “trade secrets”
Environmental Justice
- 1994 Environmental Justice Program
- Brownfield program
- Aarhus, Basel, Stockholm, Rotterdam
pollution prevention
- minimization (floating roofs)
- subsitution (green chem)
- reuse (military chems)
4 ways to address hazardous chemical pollution
- prevention
- recycling
- treatment
- safe disposal
