Visualizing Environmental Science

Andy Levin/Photo Researchers, Inc.

NG Maps

Global

Locator

Aerial view of Love Canal toxic waste site in

̅iÊi>ÀÞÊ£™näÃÊUʈ}ÕÀiʣȰ££Ê

All the homes shown in this photograph

were evacuated and demolished.

Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA),

which holds polluters accountable for the costs of clean-

ups (discussed shortly). CERCLA is often referred to as

the Superfund Act because it authorized a large fund

that the EPA can use to remediate sites where hazardous

wastes threaten people or the environment.

Types of Hazardous Waste

Hazardous chemicals include a variety of acids, dioxins,

explosives, heavy metals, infectious wastes, nerve gas,

organic solvents, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pes-

ticides, and radioactive substances. Many of these chemi-

cals are discussed in other chapters; see Chapters 4, 8, 10,

14, and 17, which examine endocrine disrupters, air pol-

lution, water pollution, pesticides, and radioactive waste.

1. Define hazardous waste.


2. Briefly characterize two types of hazardous
   waste: dioxins and PCBs.

H

azardous waste (also called toxic waste)
accounts for about 1 percent of the solid waste
stream in the United States. Hazardous waste
includes dangerously reactive, corrosive, ignit-
able, or toxic chemicals. The chemicals may be solids, liq-
uids, or gases. More than 700,000
different chemicals are known to
exist. How many are hazardous is
unknown because most have never
been tested for toxicity, but without
a doubt, there are thousands.
Hazardous waste has periodically been in the news
since 1977. At that time it was discovered that toxic waste
from an abandoned chemical dump had contaminated
homes and possibly people in Love Canal, a small neigh-
borhood on the edge of Niagara Falls, New York. Love
Canal became synonymous with chemical pollution
caused by negligent hazardous waste management. In
1978 it became the first location ever declared a national
emergency disaster area because of toxic waste; more
than 700 families were evacuated (Figure 16.11).
From 1942 to 1953 a local industry, Hooker Chemical
Company, disposed of about 20,000 metric tons of toxic
chemical waste in the 900-m-long (about 3000-ft-long)
Love Canal. When the site was filled, Hooker added top-
soil and donated the land to the local board of educa-
tion. A school and houses were built on the site. Several
years later, toxic waste began seeping into some of the
buildings, accompanied by reports of unusual illnesses.
More than 300 chemicals, many of them carcinogenic,
have been identified in Love Canal’s toxic waste.
In 1990, after almost 10 years of cleanup, the EPA and
the New York Department of Health declared the area
safe for resettlement. Today, the canal is a 16- hectare
(40-acre) mound covered by clay and surrounded by a
chain-link fence and warning signs.
The Love Canal episode catalyzed public concern
about unsafe disposal of hazardous wastes. In 1980,
Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental

hazardous waste

A discarded chemical

that threatens

human health or the

environment.

Hazardous Waste

LEARNING OBJECTIVES