Although the East Central Florida area is not heavily industrialized, its dependence on groundwater resources makes it especially vulnerable to contamination by poor waste disposal practices. The East Central Florida area was studied to discover the nature and disposal of hazardous wastes generated. It was found that a large portion of hazardous wastes in the region were from very small industries, distributors, and even consumers. Three of the most toxic and/or voluminous waste problems in the area--metal plating wastes, pesticide wastes, and hospital wastes--were studied to determine available alternatives for disposal and their costs.

The number of hazardous materials transported by truck mode and also the quantities shipped continues to grow every year. In recognition of the potential disasters associated with the occurrence of the release of hazardous materials, several studies have been conducted on various aspects of the problem - assessment of risk, container safety, emergency response, disaster assistance, regulations, routing etc. The development of mitigation measures is a relatively new area in hazardous materials research in the sense that it has not been studied comprehensively. The objective of this study is to determine the appropriateness and effectiveness of different steps to be taken to reduce either the likelihood of hazardous materials accidents/incidents or the damage which would ensue from a release for different hazardous materials. This work attempts to identify, or flag, potentially high-risk locations due to spills of hazardous materials, and to evaluate the alternatives to be designed and implemented in order to reduce risk. The appropriate type of roadway improvements for the safe transportation of hazardous material trucks and protective systems that might be incorporated into new or reconstructed highway segments in order to mitigate consequences are presented for various generalized scenarios. The output of mitigation is the reduced risk value. This work forms a part of a comprehensive decision making framework integrating the risk identification, calculation, and mitigation that can apply to both urban and rural areas. / Master of Science

The comprehensive planning of transportation systems resource allocations and operating regulations so as to minimize the danger to localities from hazardous materials shipments is a growing concern among transportation planners. Standing in their way are a number of difficulties inherent in the data collection and modeling practices currently in use. Additionally, such current practices do not afford practical means for comparing large numbers of jurisdictions which is necessary for equity among jurisdictions and cost effectiveness. In response to these difficulties, this research is intended to develop a microcomputer based model to quantitatively compare the susceptibility of different streets and jurisdictions to the resulting effects of different types of hazardous materials accidents. Implied in the development of this model are such worthwhile considerations as: ease of use, maximum ability for user customizing, ability to work with existing and future data and data types, and clarity as well as variety of output formats. An evaluation of the appropriateness of this model for 1984 through 1987 Pennsylvania data is then undertaken. In addition, a brief assessment of the applicability of this macro level model in the total risk reduction environment is incorporated. / Master of Science

The transportation of anhydrous ammonia, which is classified as a hazardous material, poses risk to the transporter, surrounding communities, and the environment. The commercial transportation of anhydrous ammonia is highly regulated, while the private transport is not subject to the same degree of mandates. Given the regulatory policies, the current locations of licensed dealers of anhydrous ammonia within North Dakota may be leading to a scenario where a private transporter has an incentive to disobey these policies and thereby expose him/herself, the surrounding communities, and the environment to unnecessary risk. Three stylized counties were constructed to represent the attributes of the eastern, central, and western counties of North Dakota. Attributes included transportation infrastructure, population distribution, and crop composition. Mathematical programming techniques were then utilized to determine the number and optimal location of licensed dealers of anhydrous ammonia within these counties. The results were then compared and contrasted with the current locations of licensed dealers throughout North Dakota to determine if the regulatory policies are sufficient in that they are not encouraging unsafe actions of the transporters and thereby endangering the transporters, surrounding communities, and the environment. The results indicated that the current regulatory structure associated with the transportation of anhydrous ammonia is sufficient to limit incidents.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

No description available.

No description available.

The move from hazardous waste management to pollution prevention is viewed as a paradigm shift in American industry. Pollution prevention involves source reduction to reduce the amount of hazardous waste that is generated, and recycling of those wastes that cannot be prevented within the production process. The first piece of federal pollution prevention legislation was enacted in 1990. Subsequently, six states have passed similar laws that require industries producing hazardous waste to shift to less polluting practices. The Oregon Toxics Use Reduction and Hazardous Waste Reduction Act of 1989 requires businesses to develop and implement a hazardous waste reduction plan that reduces not only the amount of hazardous waste generated, but also the type and amount of materials classified as "toxic". Within the geographical region of Oregon, California, Washington, Alaska, and Idaho, only four studies exist that have researched waste reduction opportunities in the automobile industry. The purpose of this study was: 1) to determine the number of Small Quantity Hazardous Waste Generators within the Oregon automobile dealership industry, 2) to determine the amount of used radiator coolant and used crankcase oil that is generated by Oregon dealerships (two waste streams that are not being tracked by the regulatory community), 3) to compare the waste disposal practices of urban and rural facilities, and 4) to develop a "Model" Toxics Use Reduction and Hazardous Waste Reduction Plan to be used in regional training sessions. Based on a 74% rate of return (160 out of 215 dealerships), the results indicated that the gross quantities of the materials investigated (solvents, used oil, and used antifreeze) were greater in urban dealerships. These differences were not significant when quantities of material were standardized to the number of repair orders written. Urban dealerships generate 0.462 gallons of used oil per repair order written and rural dealerships generate 0.481 gallons. Urban dealerships also generate 0.209 pounds of hazardous waste for each repair order while rural dealerships generate 0.412 pounds. The data were used to develop a "Model" Toxics Use Reduction and Hazardous Waste Reduction Plan for this industry. The plan, which was published by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), provides dealerships and the entire automobile repair industry with a step by step guideline to comply with Oregon law in reducing the amount of toxic materials used and hazardous waste generated. / Graduation date: 1994

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are toxic and persistent anthropogenic contaminants. Concern on their adverse health effects has led to their regulation in air, water and/or soil in addition to sludge. Hence, removal of PCBs in various matrices, including transformer oils (TO) is a priority. This study aims to investigate PCB-118 and Aroclor 1254 toxicity and dechlorination by varying certain critical experimental components including electron donor (sludge or fatty acids), inocula (unacclimated or acclimated culture) and the doses of PCB and TO under anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic toxicity assays (ATA) reactors, lab-scale anaerobic batch digesters and sediment microcosms were used for this purpose. Increase in PCB-118 and TO doses affected anaerobic digester performance by negatively influencing methanogenesis, while favoring dechlorination only with the increase in PCB-118 dose. Up to 22% PCB-118 removal was attained with unacclimated culture. Studies with acclimated cultures showed Grasse River (GR) sediment to be the most active when compared to Fox River and Baltimore Harbor sediments. In GR sediment microcosms, PCB-118 and Aroclor 1254 removal efficiencies decreased when TO was present (1%), while 10% TO inhibited PCB dechlorination. Waste activated sludge was shown to be an effective electron donor, similar to fatty acids. Aroclor 1254 dechlorination was dechlorinated through removal of flanked meta and para chlorines, however, dechlorination pathways appeared to differ according to the presence/absence of TO. No ortho or unflanked chlorines were removed. Molecular tools (qPCR and DHPLC) were used to confirm the presence of active PCB dechlorinators. Dechlorination of PCBs was shown to be growth-linked.