Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
5.1 Regulatory Affairs
In order to protect human health and environment, any handling of the waste solids disposed
from an industrial operation must be monitored within the framework of existing
environmental and resource regulations. The summary of all relevant acts controlling the
quality of ground water was given by Nielsen
[296]
, whereas that of the ambient air by Wang
et al.
[297]
. In USA, the largest body of environmental regulations has been promulgated by
the US EPA. In this regard, the major regulatory programs include:
(1) The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) that includes the Hazardous and
Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA).
(2) The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
(CERCLA) or Superfund, including amendments.
(3) The Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA).
(4) The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and amendments.
(5) Clean Air Act (CAA) setting up National Ambient Air Quality (NAAQ) standards.
(6) The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA).
All stages of handling solid and hazardous wastes, starting with generation and transportation,
as well as all activities performed by the operators of treatment, storage, and disposal facilities
(TSDF) are subject to the RCRA regulations. The subtitle C of the RCRA defines what is
considered a hazardous waste and what is not. It also defines the types of facilities required for
spent catalyst handling and movement which comply with regulations. For example, one
requirement includes the installation and operation of the ground water monitoring system for
continuous monitoring of the performance of TSDF. The permits may be granted only to those
TSDF operators, who are in the compliance with the RCRA regulations. The ground water
monitoring system may be necessary during the closure and postclosure period of the TSDF.
The CERCLA, better known as Superfund, was established to deal with abandoned waste sites
which may pose threat to public. One of the objectives of the Superfund has been to develop
strategy and set priority for cleaning up the worst existing hazardous waste sites. In this case,
responsible parties have to cover the cost of clean up wherever possible. The Hazardous Waste
Trust Fund (HWTF) may be used if the responsible parties cannot be identified. It is believed
that the sites contaminated with spent catalysts can still be found in various parts of the world.
However, their size is not expected to be large provided that only spent catalysts are involved.
The TSCA was introduced with the aim to prohibit or to regulate the production, processing,
distribution, and disposal of chemical products, which pose a risk to human health or the
