A screening level risk assessment of the indirect impacts from the Columbus Waste to Energy facility in Columbus, Ohio

Book · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:495336

Lorber, M; Cleverly, D; Schaum, J ^[1]

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1. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Research and Development

Testing for emissions of dioxins from the stack of the Columbus, Ohio Waste to Energy (WTE) municipal solid waste combustion facility in 1992 implied that dioxin emissions could approach 1,000 grams of dioxin toxic equivalents (TEQs) per year. The incinerator has been in operation since the early 1980s. Several varying activities to further evaluate or curtail emissions were conducted by local, state and federal agencies in 1994. Also in that year, US EPA`s Region 5 issued an emergency order under Section 7003 of RCRA requiring the facility to install maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT). As part of their justification for this emergency order, Region 5 used a screening level risk assessment of potential indirect impacts. This paper describes this assessment. The exposure setting is a hypothetical dairy farm where individuals on the farm obtain their beef, milk, and vegetables from home sources. A 70-year exposure scenario is considered, which includes 45 years of facility operation at the pre- and post-MACT emission rates, followed by 25 years of impact due to residual soil concentrations. Soil dermal contact, inhalation, and breast milk exposures were also considered for this assessment. The source term, or dioxin loadings to this setting, were derived from air dispersion modeling of emissions from the Columbus WTE. A key finding of the assessment was that exposures to dioxin in beef and milk dominated the estimated risks, with excess cancer risk form these two pathways estimated at 2.8 {times} 10{sup {minus}4}. A second key finding was that over 90% of a lifetime of impact from these two pathways, and the inhalation and vegetable ingestion pathways, has already occurred due to pre-MACT emissions.

• OSTI ID: 495336
• Report Number(s): CONF-9504119--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
AIR POLLUTION MONITORING
BIOLOGICAL ACCUMULATION
COMPILED DATA
DIOXIN
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE PATHWAY
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FOOD CHAINS
HEALTH HAZARDS
OHIO
RESOURCE RECOVERY FACILITIES
RISK ASSESSMENT