18-Env-B5 Industrial & Hazardous Waste Management · December 2015
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 Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), 1999; Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes (1989); provincial hazardous waste regulations (e.g. BC's Environmental Management Act and Hazardous Waste Regulation).
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.
(1) Recycling and recovery — reclaiming a usable material (solvent redistillation, metals reclamation) from the waste, which is preferred over disposal wherever technically and economically feasible. (2) Incineration — high-temperature thermal destruction of organic hazardous constituents in a licensed hazardous-waste incinerator, typically with residual ash requiring further disposal. (3) Chemical treatment / stabilization-solidification — neutralization, precipitation or encapsulation of the waste in a cementitious or pozzolanic matrix to immobilize contaminants and reduce leachability before land disposal. (4) Secure engineered landfill — disposal in a purpose-built hazardous-waste landfill cell with a double composite liner, leachate collection and monitoring system, used for residuals that cannot be recycled, destroyed or otherwise treated to a non-hazardous state. (5) Deep-well injection — injecting a liquid hazardous waste into a permitted deep, isolated geological formation well below any usable groundwater zone, used for certain liquid wastes where surface treatment/disposal options are not viable.
