Arresting a Toxic Plume
At an abandoned gravel pit in New Hampshire turned into a dump site for hazardous liquid chemical wastes (as well as drummed solid waste), engineers had to race against the clock to stem...
Spilled Petroleum Recovered from Atop Water Table
An undetected oil spill endangered the Mississippi Aquifer and the people who lived nearby. A thorough engineering analysis determined a solution. A containment procedure and recovery...
Chemical Spill Cleanup Named Project of the Year
A 1978 hazardous-waste spill in Michigan has been cleaned up so successfully that the American Consulting Engineers Council named it the 1982 project of the year. Here is how the railroad...
Hazardous Waste Landfill: Some Lessons from New Jersey
There are four key elements in a secure, hazardous waste landfill: a bottom liner; a leachate collection system; a cover; and the natural hydrogeologic setting. Each of these elements...
Controlling Productivity at a Hazardous Waste Site
The hazards associated with waste disposal sites can make estimating the resources required for a remedial action difficult. During the recent clean-up of a dioxin disposal site, the manpower...
Risk Analysis: Is EPA Changing the Rules?
Recent actions by EPA seem to indicate a departure from past practices in health risk assessment. In the past, findings that a substance is an animal carcinogen have usually led to regulatory...
The Hazardous Waste Dilemma
Issues and Solutions
The legal aspects, siting, management, disposal and site restoration of hazardous wastes are explored in an expansion of 30 of the technical papers that were presented at the 1980 conference...
Groundwater Contamination by Chlorinated Hydrocarbons: Causes and Prevention
Groundwater contamination by chlorinated hydrocarbons is becoming a major problem to public water suppliers and private homeowners who have their own wells. The chemical background, composition...
Hazardous Waste Management in California: Lessons for the U.S.
California has what many say is the best hazardous waste management program in the U.S. In fact, the Federal government used the California program as the basis for a national plan for...
Hazadous Wastes Should be Destroyed by Incineration�Not Stored in Landfills; Cement Kilns Could do the Job
Presently, it is common practice to place in landfills various hazardous wastes. Yet, say some experts, landfilling these wastes is a mistake. Landfilling is not final disposal, but merely...
Thermal Destruction Options for Controlling Hazardous Wastes
Incineration will play an increasingly important role in the management of hazadous waste in the United States. Properly designed and operated incineration systems are capable of destroying...
Industry Challenges EPA on Whether Certain Wastes are Hazardous or Not
Before the U.S. can clean up its hazardous wastes, it must first decide which wastes are hazardous, which not. The case histories presented here show that this decision is not always easy...
Four Options for Hazardous Waste Disposal
Landfills, land treatment, mine storage, and deep well injection are four options examined as solutions to the hazardous waste disposal problem. Statistics indicate approximately 40 million...
Willow Island Aftermath: The Limits of OSHA
In April 1978 a natural-draft hyperbolic concrete cooling tower under construction at Willow Island, W.Va. collapsed. Fifty-one workers, suspended on a scaffold supported mainly by a layer...
Public Works Directors�Why Do Some Stand Out�
William Hennessy, Commissioner of New York State's DOT began as a junior engineering aide, went into real estate acquisitions for the state and later entered the state's...
Tangshan Rebuilds after Mammoth Earthquake
The City of Tangshan, China was totally devastated in 1976 by a major earthquake. Over 240,000 people were killed in one of history's greatest disasters. The quake had a Richter...
Environmental Engineering
The 1980 National Conference on Environmental Engineering was sponsored by the Environmental Engineering Division of the American Society of Civil Engineering in cooperation with Manhattan...
How New Jersey is Handling Its Hazardous Wastes
For many years, environmental agencies have paid little attention to how industry manages and disposes of its hazardous wastes. This has been especially true in New Jersey. As a result...
Environmental Engineering Research Needs
In June 1979 a National Science Foundation�ASCE workshop was convened to prepare a report suggesting top-priority research needs in civil engineering for the 1980s. The field was split...
World's First Iron Bridge
In 1779, using a new man-made material, skilled English workmen built a single-span bridge of cast iron over a steep river gorge about 140 miles northwest of London. The result was a 424-ton...
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