A screening level risk assessment of the indirect impacts from the Columbus Waste to Energy facility in Columbus, Ohio
- 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-; TRN: IM9731%%29
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Air & Waste Management Association international speciality conference on thermal treatment and waste-to-energy technologies for solid waste management, Washington, DC (United States), 18-21 Apr 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Solid waste management: Thermal treatment and waste-to-energy technologies. VIP-53; Kilgroe, J.D. [comp.] [National Risk Management Research Lab., Research Triangle Park, NC (United States)]; PB: 981 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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