Important reporters tools:
DOT Emergency Response Guidebook — Look up Hazmat placard numbers for trains, trucks, tankers and determine appropriate safety measures in case of spills or fires. Available as free phone app.
Example: A rail tanker with a placard #1170 has spilled on the tracks near your town. It’s a flammable liquid that mixes in water, according to Guide #127. What is it and how dangerous is it? What should the emergency responders be doing?
National Library of Medicine WISER guidebook — Emergency responses and advice.
Air pollution terminology
Stationary sources usually measured in tons per year. Mobile sources (cars and trucks) are measured in parts per million (PPM).
- TSP — Total Suspended Particulates
- SOx — Sulfur Oxides (esp. S02, sulfur dioxide)
- NOx — Nitrogen Oxides
- VOC — Volatile Organic Compounds — Any organic compound which evaporates readily to the atmosphere. VOCs contribute significantly to photochemical smog production and respiratory health problems.
- CO — Carbon monoxide
- HC or UBF — Hydrocarbons or unburned fuel These are usually measured in tons of emissions per year for “stationary sources” such as coal fired power plants and industries.
- PM 2.5 — Particulate matter below 2.5 microns in size is regulated by EPA. These particles can cause premature deaths, asthma and heart attacks.
- Air toxics — Carcinogenic chemicals found in auto, truck and power plant exhaust, especially benzene, tolune (methyl benzene) and xylene (di-methyl benzene). These may be added at the refinery through a severe reforming process to bring octane values above 87 (R+M/2). Other octane boosters are safer, including MTBE, ETBE and ethanol. Historical octane boosters (especially tetra ethyl lead) are considered to be worse.
Water Treatment Process – The Basics:
- Primary Settling – Large chunks of debris are filtered out by a screen. The dirty water is then allowed to sit while heavy solid particles sink to the bottom and oily residues rise to the surface. The residues can then be skimmed off the surface.
- Advanced Primary Treatment (optional) – the use of chemical coagulants to remove some remaining organic waste.
- Secondary Treatment – Reduces the Biological Oxygen Demand in the waste water. Helps microorganisms in the water decompose organic pollutants.
- Further BOD reduction – Using screens or chemical coagulants to remove even more biological waste
- Disinfection – Makes the water safe to drink by killing bacteria and viruses in the water. Can come in a number of different forms. The most common are using chlorine, ozone, chlorine dioxide, or ultraviolet radiation.
Water pollution terminology
Most states issue discharge permits to industries and municipal sewage systems under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), and often permits have state prefixes (e.g. VPDES for Virginia). Major areas of concern are:
BOD — Biochemical Oxygen Demand — When biodegradable waste material is released into water, bacteria and other microorganisms feed on the wastes. This breaks them down into simpler organic and inorganic substances. The total amount of oxygen needed to completely break down the wastes is one of the most important measures of pollution. The standard practice is to report the oxygen demand during the first five days of degradation: BOD-5 is the measurement.
The BOD-5 test involves adding a sample of a few milliliters (mL) of waste water to water with a known dissolved oxygen (DO) content. The sample is kept out of the light and air tight. After five days, the drop in DO is measured in terms of milligram per liter mg/L or total loading of kilograms or pounds per day. A sewage treatment plant using secondary (but not tertiary) methods might have a BOD-5 level of 1,000 pounds per day in an effluent of 5 million gallons.
COD — Chemical Oxygen Demand — The amount of oxygen needed to chemically oxidize waste material. This reflects non-biological pollutants.
Pathogens Many contagious diseases are spread through water contamination. Bacteria are responsible for cholera, dysentery, typhoid and other diseases; viruses are responsible for infectious hepatitis and poliomyelitis; protozoa can cause amebic dysentery and giardiasis; and helminths, or parasitic worms, can cause shistosomiasis and dracontiasis. Human waste from a single infected individual, if allowed to enter water untreated, may result in epidemics of major proportions. Waste treatment experimentation began in the U.S. in the 1880s and chlorination of drinking water began around 1908.
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) — A group of toxic, persistent chemicals used in electrical transformers and capacitors for insulating purposes, and in gas pipeline systems as a lubricant. The sale and new use of PCBs were banned by law in 1979. In some cases PCBs can be filtered from drinking water using active charcoal filtration.
Heavy Metals — More properly called toxic metals, typcial pollutants are aluminum, arsenic, beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, selenium, strontium, thallium, tin, titanium, and zinc. In sufficient concentrations, toxic metals can cause kidney and nervous system damage, mutations and tumors.
Toxic & Hazardous Waste
Toxic vs Toxin vs Toxicant — Something is toxic if it can damage an organism. A toxin is a poisonous substance produced by living cells or organisms. (Snake venom is a toxin). The opposite of toxin is toxicant, which is a toxic chemical created by an artificial process, and not by a biological organism. (Benzene is a toxicant, also a toxic chemical).
Hazardous waste is a generic term for wastes that may be toxic, corrosive, flammable or other other ways potentially harmful.
LD50 — The quantity of toxic material that when ingested, injected, or applied to the skin as a single dose, will cause death of 50% of the test animals. The test conditions should be specified, the value is expressed in g/kg or mg/kg of body weight. A good tactic when trying to explain the hazards of a chemical is to compare it to a known value. For example, a chemical might be one hundred times or one thousand times more toxic than ethanol (ethyl alcohol). These comparisons can be made through the Merck Index, a chemical encyclopedia found in most reference libraries.
CERCLA — Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) — Superfund — In 1980, Congress passed Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also called the “Superfund.” It was aimed at cleaning up hazardous waste sites on EPA’s National Priorities List. CERCLA was a new approach — companies would be liable for cleanup costs even if they no longer owned the land they contaminated.
EPCRA– Right to Know — In 1984, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA). Related bills included Title III Superfund, also passed in 1984. and Title III CERCLA passed 1985 The law required reporting by 1987 These were followed by the Right to Know Act of 1986. Both CERCLA and EPCRA laws were the direct result of citizen lobbying by the Grassroots Movement for Environmental Justice, a coalition of a variety of groups, including: the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes, Environmental Action, Environmental Research Foundation, Environmental Policy Insistute, Greenpeace, the US Public Interest Research Group. The coalition effort resulted in the Working Group on Right to Know law (202-546-9707).
These laws require that companies report four specific groups of chemicals:
* 366 Extremely hazardous chemicals / emergency planning. (Section 301 – 304)
* 720 Hazardous substances (Section 304) . that pose an immediate hazard to a community.
* Hazardous Chemicals (Section 311 – 312 ) chemicals listed with OSHA
* Toxic Chemicals (Section 313) Chronic or long term toxicity.