18-Env-B5 Industrial & Hazardous Waste Management · December 2016
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); Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regulations on radioactive waste; 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.
The ultimate goal of an in-plant waste survey is to characterize every individual waste stream at its point of generation, before it is diluted or mixed with other streams, so that the facility can identify and implement source reduction, segregation, reuse and recovery opportunities and design an accurate, appropriately-sized and cost-effective end-of-pipe treatment system. A survey performed only at the final combined outfall obscures which specific process is responsible for a given pollutant load, making it impossible to target the cheapest and most effective fix (which is very often reducing waste at the source rather than treating a larger combined flow). The survey therefore serves both a pollution-prevention objective and a treatment-design objective simultaneously.
