=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #39
—August 24, 1987—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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NEW EPA REPORT DESCRIBES TRENDS: MORE WASTES MAY BE PRODUCED BUT FEWER
WASTES WILL BE REGULATED.
A new “overview” of America’s hazardous waste problems has been released by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). Called “The Hazardous Waste System,” the report tries to look at “the big
picture” of hazardous waste production and regulation in the U.S. The report finds that 96% (250 million
tons) of all hazardous wastes are treated on-site by the companies that produce the wastes; only four
percent is shipped off-site to commercial treatment plants. The vast majority of on-site treatment consists of
storage in a lagoon (to let the volatiles become airborne), or treatment in a waste-water treatment tank (which
also volatilizes many organics). Two million tons are burned in 174 on-site incinerators or in 14 commercial
incinerators operating today. Thirteen million tons are sent to about 430 landfills, only 60 of which are
commercial (the other 370 being operated by individual waste-generating companies for their own use).
Between 22 million and 35 million tons of wastes are deep-well injected.
Soon the EPA will require liners to be put into existing surface impoundments (ponds, lagoons), and the
agency expects many companies to close their surface impoundments rather than add expensive liners. The
EPA thinks 100 million tons of wastes that used to go into lagoons will soon be discharged into surface
waters (rivers, lakes), or into sewage treatment plants; both such discharges are exempt from regulation
under RCRA (the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act).
EPA also expects new restrictions on landfilling to increase the demand for offsite commercial treatment
facilities; the agency plans to push hard to site new incinerators and new waste-processing plants.
An appendix to the report lists all the commercial hazardous waste landfills, incinerators and deep well
injection operations known to the agency in 1985. Curiously, the report does not list the privately-operated
on-site facilities that handle 96% of the nation’s hazardous wastes.
The report says EPA will release draft regulations for ocean incineration in October, 1987, and will issue final
regulations in October, 1988.
The report is available free from the Office of Solid Waste (WH-562A), EPA, 401 M Street, SW, Washington,
DC 20460; phone (202) 382-3000, or (800) 424-9346.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: overviews; hazardous waste; epa; statistics; landfilling; lagoons; incineration; deep well
injection; ocean incineration;