OPINION: [*6] Per Curiam: The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 instituted a ban on the land disposal of classes of hazardous wastes unless certain conditions are met. Those amendments require the Environmental Protection Agency to follow a phased schedule for implementing the ban. In this case we consider various challenges to regulations implementing the final portion of this progr...

The Government of India has promulgated the Hazardous Waste (Management & Handling) Rules (HW (M&H)) in 1989 through the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) under the aegis of Environment (Protection) Act [E(P) Act], 1986. Also in order to encourage the effective implementation of these rules, the MOEF has further brought out the Guidelines for HW (M & H) in 1991. However, case studies r...

In this study, the concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDFs) in breast milk from mothers living in the vicinity of a new hazardous waste incinerator (HWI) were determined. Monitoring was performed after three years of regular operations in the facility and the present results were compared with baseline concentrations obtained in a pre-operational progra...

Household hazardous waste (HHW) includes waste from a number of household products such as paint, garden pesticides, pharmaceuticals, photographic chemicals, certain detergents, personal care products, fluorescent tubes, waste oil, heavy metal-containing batteries, wood treated with dangerous substances, waste electronic and electrical equipment and discarded CFC-containing equipment. Data on t...

This paper presents a model standardized risk assessment protocol (SRAP) for use with hazardous waste sites. The proposed SRAP focuses on the degree and patterns of evidence that exist for a significant risk to human populations from exposure to a hazardous waste site. The SRAP was designed with at least four specific goals in mind: to organize the available scientific data on a specific site a...

This paper analyzes how choices involving the assignment of authority for public goods provision to alternative sets of jurisdictions within a multi-tiered government affect both the average quantity of the public good provided as well as the variation of that quantity across jurisdictions. An empirical illustration considers the example of the California hazardous waste program. This situation...

The hazardous waste remediation process is completed through multiple phases each served by differing professions. First, geologists, hydrogeologists, the EPA and consultants complete a site assessment and investigation at a potential hazardous waste site. The environmental engineering and consulting professionals are then responsible for providing design services. Finally, construction profess...

Detection of traces of toxic chemicals in drinking water supplies, in polar ice caps, groundwater sources and episodes such as those in Minamata Bay, Japan and Love Canal, USA have focussed the attention of the public worldwide on the risks posed by the inappropriate disposal of hazardous waste and accidental release of toxic chemicals into the environment. In India regulations to control and m...

The management of discarded treated wood products upon disposal is one of the many factors that should be considered when evaluating a new wood preservative or when comparing wood preservatives as part of a life cycle assessment. Future environmental ramifications of disposal, as well as regulatory requirements and costs, must be assessed and weighed. This paper presents an overview of the fact...