Title: UNIT 3: Waste Management 4/26/07
1UNIT 3Waste Management4/26/07
Groundwater pollution and treatment Solid waste
disposal
2 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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8What is MTBE?(methyl tertiary butyl ether)
- A gas additive contaminating drinking water
9History 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
10Health Risks of MTBE
- Dizziness
- Rashes
- Swelling
- Respiratory problems
- Diarrhea
- Caused cancer in research rats and mice
11What 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
12Concentration 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
13GW Treatment
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19Methods of solid waste disposal
- On site disposal
- Garbage disposals, small-scale incineration
- Composting
- Incineration
- Open dumps
- Sanitary landfills
20Figure 12.2
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22Composition of Urban Solid Waste (by wt.) (Table
12.1)
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25Open Dumps
- Oldest, most commonly used
- No safety
- Breeding grounds for pests
- Phased out in U.S.
- Continued use in Third World Countries
26Modern 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
27Modern 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
28Materials Management
- Part of Integrated Waste Management
- Their goal is zero production of waste
- Incentives toward sustainability
- Removal of subsidies
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30Sanitary 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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38State 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
39Site 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
40Monitoring 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
41San Diego Landfills issuesMiramar
Landfillhttp//www.sandiego.gov/environmental-ser
vices/ems/index.shtml
42Hazardous Chemical and Radioactive Waste
Management
- Dont put down the drain or
- in the landfill
43Radioactive 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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46Classification 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
47How 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
48Where 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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51Treating 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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53Nuclear 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.
54Selecting 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
55Two 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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59Yucca 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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62Most 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.
63Opposition 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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- 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.
65Alternate 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