UNIT 3: Waste Management 4/26/07

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UNIT 3Waste Management4/26/07
Groundwater pollution and treatment Solid waste
disposal
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Groundwater Pollution and Treatment

Saltwater intrusion More than half of the worlds population lives in or near the coastal zones GW pollution from saltwater intrusion is not a local isolated problem Causes major water supply problems in NY, FL, CA Case History Long Island
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What is MTBE?(methyl tertiary butyl ether)

• A gas additive contaminating drinking water

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History of MTBE?

• 1970 MTBE replaced lead in gasoline
• Clean Air Act of 1990 mandated MTBE in gas
• 4.5 billion gallons of MTBE have been used each
  year
• Discovered health risks in 1997

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Health Risks of MTBE

• Dizziness
• Rashes
• Swelling
• Respiratory problems
• Diarrhea
• Caused cancer in research rats and mice

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What are the concerns with MTBE?

• Soluble in water
• Degrades slowly
• Does not readily bind to soil particles
• Resists natural degradation
• travels quick and easy through ground water

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Concentration of MTBE?

• For every 10 gallons of gas there is 1 gallon of
  MTBE
• 1 cup of MTBE contaminate a reservoir 360ft wide,
  15ft deep holding 5 million gallons of water

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GW Treatment


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Methods of solid waste disposal

• On site disposal
• Garbage disposals, small-scale incineration
• Composting
• Incineration
• Open dumps
• Sanitary landfills

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Figure 12.2
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Composition of Urban Solid Waste (by wt.) (Table
12.1)
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Open Dumps

• Oldest, most commonly used
• No safety
• Breeding grounds for pests
• Phased out in U.S.
• Continued use in Third World Countries

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Modern Waste Management

• 1/2 the U.S. cities are running out of landfill
  space
• Industrialization and Urbanization
• New and innovative programs are the only solution
• costly

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Modern Trends Integrated Waste Management

• Many modern methods involve moving waste from
  site to site, not disposing of it.
• Disposal sites can produce significant air
  pollution
• IWM emerged in the 80s management alternatives.
• IWM needs to be rethought to include materials
  management

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Materials Management

• Part of Integrated Waste Management
• Their goal is zero production of waste
• Incentives toward sustainability
• Removal of subsidies

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Sanitary Landfill

• Refuse is deposited, compacted, and covered
• Potential hazards
• Leachate mineralized liquid
• Concentration of pollutants much higher than raw
  sewage or slaughterhouse waste
• Methane gas
• May be trapped and used for energy generation

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State of the art landfill with a double liner
of clay and plastic, a leachate collection
system, and groundwater and vadose zone
monitoring wells (Fig. 12.5)
Cross section
Map view
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Site selection for sanitary landfills

• Avoid
• siteing over aquifers
• swampy areas
• Floodplains
• High water table
• Seek
• Siting over rocks of low hydraulic conductivity
  (clays silts)
• Flat areas

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Monitoring sanitary landfills

• Monitoring wells to monitor groundwater
• Monitoring wells to monitor vadose zone
• Test soils
• Gases
• Heavy metals
• Test crops and plants in the disposal area
• Test surface water runoff

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San Diego Landfills issuesMiramar
Landfillhttp//www.sandiego.gov/environmental-ser
vices/ems/index.shtml
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Hazardous Chemical and Radioactive Waste
Management

• Dont put down the drain or
• in the landfill

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Radioactive waste

• Differ from other hazardous chemical wastes
• Half life
• Uranium-238 T1/2 4.5 billion yrs
• Plutonium-239 T1/2 24,000 yrs.
• Strontium-90 T1/2 29 yrs
• Iodine-131 T1/2 8 days
• Type of radiation emitted

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Classification of Radioactive Wastes

• Low level
• Over 90
• States dispose of their own
• High level
• Spent reactor fuel rods
• Currently contained in temporary disposal sites
• 1985 EPA specified that they should be disposed
  so they cause fewer than 1000 deaths in 10,000
  years

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How Much Nuclear Waste is in the United States?

• 49,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from
  nuclear reactors.
• 22,000 canisters of solid defense-related
  radioactive waste

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Where is radioactive waste kept

• temporary facilities at some 125 sites in 39
  states.
• more than 161 million people reside within 75
  miles of temporarily stored nuclear waste.

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Treating radioactive waste

• 1. Leaving it where it is
• 2. Disposing of it in various ways
• ? Sub-seabed disposal
• ?Very deep-hole disposal
• ? Space disposal
• ? Ice-sheet disposal
• ? Island geologic disposal
• ? Deep-well injection disposal
• 3. Making it safer through advanced technologies

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Nuclear Waste Policy Act (1982)

• established a comprehensive national program for
  the safe, permanent disposal of highly
  radioactive waste
• directed the U.S. Department of Energy to study
  suitable sites for a geologic repository
• the Nuclear Regulatory Commission the
  Department of Energy is to build and operate it
• in 2002, Congress and the President approved the
  development of a geologic repository at Yucca
  Mountain, Nevada.

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Selecting a site for permanent high-level
radioactive disposal

• Issues
• Sites with LONG TERM geologic stability
• Social/Political issues
• Arid climate
• Low regional water table
• Low population density
• Appropriate rock and geologic structure
• Engineering technology for containment

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Two sites were in development in U.S.

• Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)
• Carlsbad, New Mexico
• Store waste drums in rooms in underground salt
  deposit
• Yucca Mountain, Nevada
• 1987 Congress designated as the only site for
  study
• Storage in volcanic tuff

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Yucca Mountain Projecthttp//www.ocrwm.doe.gov/ym
p/index.shtml

• Over 20 years of study
• 4 billion dollars
• February 15, 2002 President Bush recommended to
  congress the issuance of a construction permit
  for the site

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Most Popular Reasons To Oppose Yucca Mountain
Project

• 1. Accomplishes No Reasonable Objective.
• Not enough space to store all of the waste
• 2. Provides Minimal Protection.
• The casks provide the protection. So why Yuca
  Mtn?
• 3. Creates More Nuclear Waste.
• Facilities have a storage limit. By decreasing
  the storage on-site, additional waste will be
  generated.
• 4. Adverse Effects on Future Generations.
• Average half life of over 200,000 years.
• 5. Earthquake Danger.
• Third most seismically active area in US.

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Opposition to Yucca Mnt. (Cont.)

• 6. Fifty Million People Endangered.
• Routes will move through 734 counties across the
  United States. The high-level radioactive waste
  contained in the casks will endanger 50 million
  innocent people who live within 3 miles of the
  proposed shipment routes.
• 7. Terrorist Attacks.
• 8. Costly Accidents and Limited Liability.
• For each spill that may occur (one out of every
  300 shipments is expected to have an accident)
  the cost of the clean-up is estimated
  conservatively at 6 billion dollars. Paid by
  taxpayer money.

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Continued

• 9. Adverse Impact on Water Sources.
• Yucca Mountain sits above the only source of
  drinking water for the residents of Amargosa
  Valley.
• 10. Violates Treaties.
• Yucca Mountain is located on Native American
  land, belonging to the Western Shoshone by the
  treaty of Ruby Valley. The Western Shoshone
  National Council has declared this land a nuclear
  free zone and demanded an end to nuclear testing
  and the dumping of nuclear wastes on their land.

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Alternate Disposal Methods

• MOX fuel burning mixing plutonium with uranium.
  Burns up the plutonium by nuclear fission
• Vitrification borosilicate glass logs buried in
  deep (over 3km) boreholes
• Subductive Waste Disposal