EPA Launches Program to Control Hazardous Wastes
by Eugene E. Dallaire, Assoc. Editor;Serial Information: Civil Engineering—ASCE, 1978, Vol. 48, Issue 12, Pg. 39-45
Document Type: Feature article
Abstract:
In January 1979, the federal Environmental Protection Agency will issue its long awaited guidelines on the control of hazardous wastes. These guidelines will propose a so-called manifest system for keeping control of hazardous wastes from the place they are generated, through transportation, to final disposal. At the present time, EPA estimates there are 20,000 to 25,000 hazardous waste disposal sites (landfills, lagoons, etc), most of these located on private plant sites. The vast majority of these sites do not now satisfactorily dispose of these wastes. Often, they result in ground water pollution, an area that up till now has been seriously neglected. Under the new EPA proposed regulations, many of these industrial sites will have to be upgraded; all will have to get permits. Some of the smaller industrial sites, faced with the cost of upgrading, will opt for disposing of their hazardous wastes at permitted off-site disposal facilities. To date, only a few states have really good hazardous waste disposal programs, the leader being California.
Subject Headings: Hazardous wastes | Waste sites | Waste disposal | Occupational safety | Environmental Protection Agency | Industrial facilities | Groundwater pollution
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