Re: Dioxin, etc. disposal methods

[Philip Fleischer <philip@coc.powell-river.bc.ca>]

>Are there any recommended recognized safe methods of disposing of dioxin,
>pcb's, DDT, trace metals and/or PAH's into a landfill?

I am new on this list and interested in exchanging notes on just this
kind of thing.  Here is some answer from where I sit.

Methods I have heard of for disposing of dioxin depend on how much, in
what form, and legal details within the jurisdictions involved.

Soil or sediment may be landfilled, incinerated or 'remediated' by
exposing it to UV light and posibly with chemical treatment.  Treatment
with fungi (white rot) I have heard of as being in experimental use. 

Landfill is of course not a real disposal, just a delaying tactic.
Incineration can get rid of some dioxin and dump some in the sky.
Laws and some recognize the above two as 'safe'.

The following are dioxin concentrations in picograms per gram of
dredgate near the warf of the coastal pulp mill where I live in BC:

 dioxin congener          concentration

 1) T4CDD (TOTAL)                   190     

 2) 2,3,7,8 TCDD                     13    
   
 3) P5CDD(TOTAL)                    320    

 4) 1,2,3,7,8 PCDD                   28    
 
 5) H6CDD(TOTAL)                   1800    

 6) 1,2,3,4,7,8 H6CDD                14

 7) 1,2,3,6,7,8 H6CDD               340  

 8) 1,2,3,7,8,9 H6CDD                88

 9) H7CDD (TOTAL)                   800

10) 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 H7CDD            2800     

11) O8CDD                         20000      

    BC MoE TEQ                      166 pg/g    
    (includes furans not listed here)

  (and why is the 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 H7CDD > total H7CDD?, a good ?
  but that is what is on the AXYS Analytical Services Ltd sheet )

The federal Environment Department will not permit Ocean Disposal of
this material, because of dioxin levels and also metals and PAH levels
(which I have not listed here). 

Their criteria may be 10 pg/g but this is not completely clear to me. 

Provincial (BC) Environment could allow the landfilling of this material
in an industrial waste dump.  (Although in this municipal jurisdiction
where such a landfill permit has been applied for, it is presently blocked 
by public protest, and the landfilling of dredgate is one of the 
sore points.)

I do not know of any current incineration of contaminated soil/sediment 
in this country (Canada) but I think it has been done in the past.  

If it was over 100 ppb (100 ng/g), it would be 'special waste' in BC for
which no BC landfill exists, as far as I can determine, but there is a 
landfill in Alberta which might take it, and probably the one in Roosevelt
County Washington where I have heard of spill contaminated soil and 
hardware having gone before.

I would be interested to know more about Howland Hook.  How
contaminated is the dredgate and how did it get that way?


Philip Fleischer    Philip@coc.Powell-River.BC.CA    604/483-4701