Environmental Engineering FOURTH EDITION

304 ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Alternative Land Use. Areas with low ultimate land use should receive prime
consideration. Areas with high recreational use potential should be avoided because
of the increased possibility of direct human contact with the wastes.
Transportation. Transportation routes to facilities are a major consideration in
siting hazardous waste management facilities. USDOT guidelines suggest the use of
interstate and limited-access highways whenever possible. Other roads to the facilities
should be accessible by all-weather highways to minjmize spills and accidents during
periods of rain and snowfall. Ideally, the facility should be close to the generation
of the waste in order to reduce the probability of spills and accidents as wastes are
transported.
Socioeconomic Factors. Factors that could make or break an effort to site a
hazardous waste management facility fall under this major heading. Such factors,
which range from public acceptance to long-term care and monitoring of the facility,

1. Public control over the opening, operation, and closure of the facility. Who will
   make policy for the facility (Slovic 1987)?


2. Public acceptance and public education programs. Will local townspeople
   permit it?


3. Land use changes and industrial development trends. Does the region wish to
   experience the industrial growth induced by such facilities?


4. User fee structures and recovery of project costs. Who will pay for the facility?
   Can user charges be used to induce industry to reuse, reduce, or recover the resources
   materials in the waste?


5. Long-term care and monitoring. How will postclosure maintenance be guaranteed
   and who will pay?

All are critical concerns in a hazardous waste management scheme.
The term mixed waste refers to mixtures of hazardous and radioactive wastes;
for example, organic solvents used in liquid scintillation counting are an excellent
example. Siting a mixed waste facility is difficult because the laws and regulations
governing handling of chemically hazardous waste overlap and sometimes conflict
with those governing handling of radioactive waste.

are:

Incinerators

Incineration is a controlled process that uses combustion to convert a waste to a less

bulky, less toxic, or less noxious material. The principal products of incineration

from a volume standpoint are carbon dioxide, water, and ash, but the products of pri-

mary concern because of their environmental effects are compounds containing sulfur,

nitrogen, and halogens. When the gaseous combustion products from an hcineration

process contain undesirable compounds, a secondary treatment such as afterburning,

scrubbing, or filtration is required to lower concentrations to acceptable levels before

atmospheric release. The solid ash products from the incineration process are also a

major concern and must reach adequate ultimate disposal.