Inactive Hazardous Waste Sites Research Articles

Editor's perspective – Per‐ and polyfluorinated substances pose substantial challenges to remediation practitioners

Editor's perspective – Per‐ and polyfluorinated substances pose substantial challenges to remediation practitioners

When Does an Administrative Order Resolve CERCLA Liability Sufficiently to Trigger a § 113 Contribution Action?

ABSTRACTThis article discusses how parties who are negotiating administrative agreements with regulatory agencies regarding the remediation of inactive hazardous waste sites can best protect their right to bring a contribution action against other responsible parties. The article discusses the relevant statutory provisions and the case law, much of which holds that parties failed to preserve their contribution rights, and provides advice regarding specific language to include in such agreements.

Analytical, Risk Assessment, and Remedial Implications Due to the Co-Presence of Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Terphenyls at Inactive Hazardous Waste Sites

Investigations conducted at three inactive hazardous waste sites in New York State have confirmed the co-presence of polychlorinated hiphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated terphenyls (PCTs) in soils, sediments, and biota. The PCTs at all three sites were positively identified as Aroclor 5432, with the most probable source being the hydraulic fluid Pydraul 312A utilized for high-temperature applications. The identification of the lower-chlorinated PCT formulations in environmental samples is problematical, since PCT Aroclors 5432 and 5442 are not chromatographically distinct from the higher-chlorinated (PCB) Aroclors 1254, 1260, 1262, and 1268 using conventional gas chromatography–electron capture detection. Results from this study indicate that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) approved PCB methods routinely utilized by most commercial laboratories based on Florisil adsorption column chromatography cleanup are inadequate to produce valid chromatographic separation and quantitative results with soils, sediment, and biota samples containing both PCBs and PCTs. The presence of co-eluting PCBs and PCTs precludes accurate quantitation due to significant differences in PCB/PCT electron capture detector response factors, and the potential for misidentification of PCT Aroclors as higher chlorinated PCB Aroclors. A method based on alumina column adsorption chromatography was used, allowing for the accurate identification and quantitation of PCB and PCT Aroclors. The results of this study suggest that the utilization of alumina adsorption column separation may have applicability and regulatory significance to other industrially contaminated sites which historically used Pydraul 312A. Inferences.

Communication at inactive hazardous waste sites

AbstractThe remediation of inactive hazardous waste sites frequently involves a protracted negotiation with the respective state or federal agency and the entity responsible for creating the site and paying the costs. At orphaned sites, decisions are made almost exclusively by agency staff. Most of remedial decisions are made with little input or participation by the interested public. The public usually receives information in a highly technical and difficult‐to‐understand format after decisions are made. This ineffective form of communication can lead to mistrust and delays or changes in the remediation process.Effective public participation requires multidirectional modes of communication that provide for active and full involvement by all interested parties. At the present time, most agencies pay minimal attention to the needs of the interested public, often leaving area residents suspicious and dissatisfied with the overall program. There is an opportunity to significantly improve the public participation component of the federal Super‐fund program through reauthorization. Subtle changes in the program can result in a significant increase of the public's sense of participation and overall satisfaction.

Maternal Residential Proximity to Hazardous Waste Sites and Risk for Selected Congenital Malformations

Croen, Lisa A.; Shaw, Gary M.; Sanbonmatsu, Lisa; Selvin, Steve; Buffler, Patricia A. Author Information

Maternal residential proximity to hazardous waste sites and risk for selected congenital malformations.

Using data from two population-based case-control studies, we investigated whether maternal residential proximity to hazardous waste sites increased the risk for neural tube defects, conotruncal heart defects, and oral cleft defects in California. We obtained a residential history by interview for mothers of 507 neural tube defect cases (82.7% of eligible) and their 517 controls (84.6%); and 201 heart cases (84.4%), 439 cleft cases (82.2%), and their 455 controls (72.1%). We identified the locations of 764 inactive hazardous waste sites and systematically collected information on site-related contamination for the subset of 105 National Priority List sites. After controlling for several potential confounders, we found little or no increased risk for maternal residence in a census tract containing a site [odds ratio (OR) = 0.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.7-1.3 for neural tube defects; OR = 1.3, 95% CI = 0.8-2.1 for heart cases; OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.8-1.8 for clefts], but elevated risks for neural tube defects (OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 0.6-7.6) and heart defects (OR = 4.2, 95% CI = 0.7-26.5) for maternal residence within 1/4 mile of a National Priority List site. Furthermore, we observed elevated ORs (> or = 2.0) for neural tube defects and heart defects in association with maternal residence within 1 mile of National Priority List sites containing selected chemical contaminants. Among controls, only 0.6% and 4.4% lived within 1/4 mile and 1 mile of a National Priority List site, respectively, resulting in imprecision in risk estimation.

Obesity and 33-year follow-up for coronary heart disease and cancer mortality.

We used tree-structured survival analysis (TSSA), a computer-intensive method of classification, to determine prospectively the relation of the body mass index and the waist-to-calf circumference ratio to coronary heart disease and cancer mortality in 3,155 middle-aged men initially free of these diseases. Applied to coronary heart disease mortality, TSSA identified seven subgroups that differed in profile of risk factors and associated survival. Among the seven subgroups, a small subgroup of older, obese, normotensive men (N = 71) experienced an exceptionally high risk of coronary heart disease deaths over the 33 years of follow-up (34%), similar to the risk of 36% experienced by a larger subgroup (N = 387) of men of similar ages who were less obese and had higher blood pressure levels. We also observed a higher overall risk of coronary heart disease deaths during follow-up (10.3% vs 5.3%) in younger centrally obese men who had low blood pressure levels compared with their counterparts of similar age who were less obese. When applied to mortality from cancer of all sites, TSSA identified five subgroups that differed in survival distributions and profile of risk factors. A subgroup of younger, centrally obese, and ever-smoker men experienced a higher risk of cancer deaths than their counterparts who were less obese (14% vs 8%). Results from these analyses demonstrate the usefulness of a tree-structured analysis for classification of subjects into high- and low-risk survival subgroups.

The Role of Geographic Scale in Monitoring Environmental Justice

Utilizing the concept of environmental justice, this paper examines the differential burdens of toxic and hazardous waste facilities locations in low income minority communities. The association between the presence of facilities and socioeconomic characteristics of places are examined for the state of South Carolina at three different spatial scales: counties, census tracts, and census block groups. Three different types of hazardous waste/toxic facilities are also examined: Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) sites, Treatment, Storage, and Disposal sites (TSD), and inactive hazardous waste sites. At the county level, there was some association between the presence of toxic/hazardous waste facilities and race and income. In South Carolina, this translates to a disproportionate burden on White, more affluent communities in metropolitan areas, rather than low income minority communities. At both the census tract and block group levels, there is no association between race and the location of toxic/hazardous waste facilities. There are slight differences in the income levels between tracts and block groups with facilities and those without. This localized ecology of hazard sources must be expanded to include emission/discharge data in order to adequately address environmental justice issues on who bears the burdens of environmental contamination.

Risk assessment and accepted regulatory cleanup levels

AbstractThe determination of cleanup levels at a CERCLA or RCRA site is often the single most important decision made by risk managers. This decision can have a major impact on the costs and time required for remediation, as well as on the selection of remedial technologies. The object of this article is to provide a critical review of the methods used by regulatory agencies and the regulated community to calculate chemical‐specific cleanup goals for inactive hazardous waste sites, focusing on those cleanup goals that are designed to protect human health from the effects of chemicals. In addition to this analysis of historical methods that have been used, this article discusses some innovative solutions to the problem of calculating cleanup levels and presents an analysis of controversial topics related to cleanup levels currently under debate by regulatory agencies, industry, environmentalists, and legislative bodies.

The effects of scale on tests for disease clustering.

Surveillance of a large geographic region for 'clusters' of adverse health events, particularly cancers, often involves searching for raised incidence in the vicinity of prespecified putative sources of hazard. For reasons of practicality or of confidentiality, incidence and population data are usually only available aggregated over subregions or 'cells'. The performance of statistical procedures designed to detect the presence of clusters can be highly sensitive to the level of aggregation, that is to the choice of partition of the region into the cells. We investigate this sensitivity in the cases of three recently proposed procedures, namely those of Besag and Newell, Stone, and Waller et al. For illustration, we use leukaemia incidence data for 1978-82 in a region of upstate New York, with inactive hazardous waste sites containing trichloroethylene acting as suspected sources.

Chronic disease surveillance and testing of clustering of disease and exposure: Application to leukemia incidence and TCE‐contaminated dumpsites in upstate New York

AbstractSurveillance of large geographic areas for “clusters” of adverse health events, particularly cancers, has interested statisticians and epidemiologists. Recent statistical research involves so‐called “focused” clustering of disease, i.e. aggregation of incident cases of disease in the vicinity of prespecified, putative foci of increased risk. We introduce a statistical test of focused clustering with optimal, or near‐optimal power properties. This test, and two other recent tests of focused clustering are illustrated and compared using leukemia incidence data for 1978–1982 in a region of upstate New York, with inactive hazardous waste sites containing trichloroethylene acting as the suspected foci. Once potential problem areas are identified, more localized methods may be applied.

Contaminated Collateral and Lender Liability: CERCLA and the New Age Banker

Enacted in December of 1980, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or the Act) authorizes the federal government to clean up inactive hazardous waste sites that threaten human health or the environment (42 U.S.C. 9601-9675, 1982 and Supp. V 1987). CERCLA, also known as Superfund, provides a fund for cleanup of contaminated sites when no other parties are able to conduct the cleanup. This enormous reserve of money is replenished from federal funds, taxes on certain chemicals and petroleum, litigation settlements with responsible parties, and recovery of fines. CERCLA empowers the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) to recover the cleanup costs from those parties responsible for the contamination, if they can be identified, with little or no costs to the American taxpayer. Because of the need for reauthorization, and calls for legislative clarification of what has been cited as poorly drafted legislation. (United States v. Northeastern Pharmaceutical & Chemical Co., 579 F. Supp. 823, 839, W.D. Mo. 1984). CERCLA was amended in October of 1986 by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, also known as SARA (Pub. L. No. 99-499, 100 Stat. 1613-1782, 1986; codified throughout 42 U.S.C. Sections 9601-75, 1982 & Supp. V 1987). However, these amendments have proved to be inadequate because of inconsistent judicial interpretation and implementation of the Act's stringent provisions regarding lender liability for contaminated collateral. As a result, lenders who are unsure of what constitutes risk-free lending activities under CERCLA are again raising the call for further legislative reform. What follows is a general overview of CERCLA provisions pertinent to lender liability, a review of several case law holdings which have added to lender confusion and heightened liability concerns, and a discussion of actions taken by lenders to avoid being cited under the Act for cleaning up contaminated properties.

Risk Assessment Issues Associated with Cleaning up Inactive Hazardous Waste Sites

The broad practice of using risk assessment approaches for the evaluation of suspected human carcinogens is about 12 years old. The primary departure point was the announcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that adopted guidelines for assessing the risk of carcinogens and a policy to regulate suspect carcinogens based essentially on a risk management approach. The scientific basis was derived from the earlier experience of assessing the risk of health impacts from radiation exposure. From a practical standpoint, the use of risk assessment for carcinogens has received broad and general endorsement. The early use of risk assessment of carcinogens relied heavily on replacing the uncertainties in the risk assessment process with very conservative assumptions to ensure that the risk would in no case be underestimated. As the practice of risk assessment has become widespread, considerable attention has been focused on improving the scientific basis for evaluating each step of the risk assessment process: the weight-of-evidence indicating likely carcinogenicity, the dose-response relationships, and the environmental exposures. Chemicals that are thought to cause health or ecological effects through threshold mechanisms are also being evaluated by risk assessment approaches. More attention has been focused on the scientific relationships that underlie the characterization of suspect carcinogens and their dose-response relationships, including extrapolation from animals to humans and from high dose to low dose; far less attention has been focused on the exposure assessment, which can impact the outcome of the quantitative risk assessment by certainly as much as the assumptions in the dose-response extrapolation part of risk assessment.

Insurance Issues Associated with Cleaning up Inactive Hazardous Waste Sites

While the ultimate cost of cleaning up the nation's inactive hazardous waste disposal sites may be beyond the resources of corporate American and its liability insurers, their ongoing contributions to this task can be assured only if they can predict and plan for these outlays. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) deprives both potentially responsible parties (PRP's) and their insurers of predictability essential to business planning. CERCLA's liability rules and cleanup standards impose costs so potentially ruinous as to compel PRP's and their insurers to expend millions in efforts to shift or evade them. On the assumption that neither Congress nor the Supreme Court is likely to resolve the escalating PRP-insurer fight over insurance coverage for cleanup obligations, this paper argues that only a voluntary resolution of their differences will permit PRP's and their insurers to bring efficiency, fairness and predictability to the process of financing an important national objective. It proposes some principles and procedures around which a settlement of the coverage disputes, and a predictable, “pay-as-you-go” system for financing cleanups, might be built.

Superfund Will Need More Money to Continue Cleanup Work

The Environmental Protection Agency's authority to clean up abandoned and inactive hazardous waste sites won't expire until 1985. But the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Transportation & Tourism already has begun gathering information on how well the law—best known as Superfund—has been working. One major concern is whether there will be enough money in Superfund to finance all of the cleanup work it is supposed to do. The consensus is that there won't. Even the chemical industry agrees. As Louis Fernandez, board chairman of both Monsanto and the Chemical Manufacturers Association, told the subcommittee, had originally hoped that the five-year, $1.6 billion fund would be adequate [but] great uncertainties remain. We don't know how many sites ultimately will need attention, the average cost of cleaning up such sites, or the average percentage of Superfund participation necessary at each site. Our review at least indicates that more funding will be needed beyond 1985 to continue an ...