18-Env-B5 Industrial & Hazardous Waste Management · May 2013
Nivaar worked solution (AI-drafted; not reviewed by a licensed engineer)
Reference texts: Nemerow & Dasgupta, Industrial and Hazardous Waste Treatment, 2nd ed.; Metcalf & Eddy, Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Resource Recovery, 5th ed.; Davis & Cornwell, Introduction to Environmental Engineering, 6th ed.; LaGrega, Buckingham & Evans, Hazardous Waste Management, 2nd ed.; CCME, Guidelines for the Management of Biomedical Waste in Canada (1992); Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regulatory framework and NWMO Adaptive Phased Management; Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), 1999.
All nineteen questions are compulsory on this paper and are answered in full below.
Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.
The national guideline for biomedical waste management in Canada, the Guidelines for the Management of Biomedical Waste in Canada (1992), was developed and is administered by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), the intergovernmental forum of federal, provincial and territorial environment ministers, working in cooperation with Health Canada on the public-health aspects of the guideline. Because waste management (including biomedical/healthcare waste) is primarily a provincial and territorial jurisdiction in Canada, the CCME guideline itself is not directly legally binding — its role is to establish a harmonized national framework of definitions and management practices, which individual provinces and territories then adopt or reference in their own binding regulations (in BC, for example, through the Environmental Management Act and its Hazardous Waste Regulation, and through the CSA Z317.10 standard, "Handling of Healthcare Waste Materials," commonly referenced by provincial health-facility licensing requirements).
