1,4-Dioxane Chemistry, Uses, and Occurrence - Environmental Investigation and Remediation - page 104

Transfers to energy recovery
Transfers to treatment
Transfers to POTWs
Transfers off-site for disposal or other releases
Total transfers off-site for further waste management

3,000,000

2,500,000

2,000,000

1,500,000

1,000,000

500,000

1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004

Year

FIGURE 2.6 Estimated transfers and treatment of 1,4-dioxane from 1988 through 2004. [U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (USEPA), 2006, Envirofacts data warehouse. http://www.epa.gov/enviro/ (accessed July
22, 2007).]

was found to contain an average of 0.25 mg 1,4-dioxane per person per day. Sources of 1,4-dioxane
in households discharging to the treatment plant were presumed to be shampoos and liquid dish-
washing and laundry soaps, which in Japan contain from 0.2 to 0.56 mg/L 1,4-dioxane (Abe, 1999).
The City of Ann Arbor, Michigan, tested raw wastewater and treated wastewater efl uent for
1,4-dioxane. In each of three sampling events, 1,4-dioxane was present in inl uent at an average con-
centration of 3 ppb; 1,4-dioxane remained present in all the three corresponding treated wastewater
efl uent samples at an average concentration of 2 ppb. The source of 1,4-dioxane in raw wastewater
was not identii ed in the study (Skadsen et al., 2004). A similar comparison of wastewater inl uent and
treated wastewater efl uent from Japan showed 16 ppb in inl uent and 11 ppb in efl uent for one sam-
pling event; a subsequent sampling event showed 3 ppb in inl uent and 3 ppb in efl uent. The treatment
plant used an activated sludge process. Sources of 1,4-dioxane in the Japanese study were indicated as
industrial pollution and surfactants (Abe, 1999). A 1988 survey of organic compounds in U.S. sewage
sludge samples detected 1,4-dioxane in three samples out of more than 100 samples analyzed (USEPA,
1990). The ability of conventional aerobic treatment technology to remove 1,4-dioxane is discussed in
Chapter 7. A case study of 1,4-dioxane in recycled water is presented in Chapter 8.

2.8.2 1,4-D IOXANE IN L ANDFILLS
1,4-Dioxane is frequently detected in landi ll leachate, groundwater beneath municipal and indus-
trial landi lls, and in landi ll gas and landi ll gas condensate. Not all landi lls release 1,4-dioxane.
Landi lls receiving vapor degreasing still bottoms, solvent wastes, paint i lters, scintillation and
other laboratory wastes, ink sludge, pesticide containers, household products with methyl chloro-
form as an ingredient, and industrial sludges from textile production, resin production, and cellulose
acetate membrane production have a higher likelihood of 1,4-dioxane presence in leachate, gas, and
affected groundwater. 1,4-Dioxane has been detected in landi ll gas at a landi ll in Westphalia,
Germany (Bruckman and Mulder, 1982).
An USEPA survey of U.S. landi lls reviewed the chemistry of leachates. The mean concentration
of 1,4-dioxane in leachate from all municipal landi lls, including landi lls not regulated under Subtitle
D, was 118 ppb. The mean concentration of 1,4-dioxane at a construction and demolition landi ll was