Avoiding land disposal of hazardous waste. Some case studies.

In response to a growing societal mandate, land disposal of hazardous wastes is gradually being replaced by treatment technologies. This shift to “alternative technologies” is the result of the impacts of past land disposd practices on other environmental media (groundwater, surface water, and air). A prime motivation for pdopting alternatives to land disposal is to eliminate these cross-media impacts. Alternative techuologies, however, can themselves have cross-media environmental impacts which must be recognized and addressed before such technologies are extensively applied. This paper discusses hazardous waste constituents, common disposal practices, alternative technologies currently being applied, possible crossmedia environmental impacts of the alternative technologies, and proposed methods of mitigating these environmental impacts. Case studies from uncontrolled hazardous waste sites and industrial operations are used to illustrate the application of alternative technologies. Case studies include the application of waste treatment technologies as well as the adoption of waste minimization techniques.