• Hazardous Waste Hazardous Waste means wastes {solid, liquid or containerized gas}which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may – cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness
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Hazardous WasteHazardous Waste means wastes {solid, liquid or containerized gas}which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or.
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• Hazardous WasteHazardous Waste means wastes {solid, liquid or containerized gas}which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may
– cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness
Or
– pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of or otherwise managed.
Considered “hazardous” if
1. waste is specifically listed by the EPA (includes those “known to be fatal”)
2. waste is toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic to any life forms
3. waste is tested and meets one of four characteristics established by the EPA: ignitable, corrosive, reactive, toxic
4. waste is declared hazardous by its generator based on their knowledge of it
Federal Regulations
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
• Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA)
• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)
• Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
• established 1976
• federal management of hazardous waste
• set up as a separate office within the EPA that was charged with identifying which wastes are hazardous and establishing a system for tracking waste
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
• Held generators responsible for the wastes they produced from the “cradle to the grave”– even if third party disposal was utilized the
generator was still liable
• Provided for “citizen suits” allowing the government to be sued for failure to comply with this act.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is the world's first underground repository licensed to safely and permanently dispose of transuranic radioactive waste left from the research and production of nuclear weapons. After more than 20 years of scientific study, public input, and regulatory struggles, WIPP began operations on March 26, 1999.
• Located in the remote Chihuahuan Desert of Southeastern New Mexico, project facilities include disposal rooms mined 2,150 feet underground in a 2,000-foot thick salt formation that has been stable for more than 200 million years. Transuranic waste is currently stored at 23 locations nationwide. Over a 35 year period, WIPP is expected to receive about 37,000 shipments.
Yucca Mountain
• repository for high-level radioactive waste (spent fuel rods, and waste from the various bomb programs)
• nuclear fuel consists of small, ceramic-like pellets of enriched uranium, slightly larger than pencil erasers. One pellet contains the energy equivalent to almost one ton of coal. The pellets are stacked end-to-end and sealed in strong metal tubes 3.5-4.5 meters (12-15 feet) long.
• The tubes containing the uranium pellets are bundled together in groups of about 200 to form nuclear fuel assemblies. These fuel assemblies are placed inside a nuclear reactor where the nuclear fission process takes place.