Document OJJVv52jMoamYz8KEOpxMNV2e

HONS 045532 PCB--power transmission's invisible menace .\ Eliminating a potentially carcenogenlc chemical is Gov ernment's headache. But when the illegal substance has been used In plants for decades. It becomes an Industry nightmare. Earlier this year, the transformer, the most innocuous of static de vices, ofllcinlly became the source of a new industry scourge: PCBs. Odds are that you have some in your plant right now. PCB is shorthand for polychlori nated biphenyls, a dielectric fluid developed for capacitors in 1929. With fifty years of use, this chemi cal has spread to virtually every in dustry using transformers or recycled oil. This summer, it was pronounced hazardous, toxic, and illegal. While perception of PCli's fatal ALEX KRI8LOV Assistant Editor qualities took more than forty years to congeal, the dangers are not in dispute. This once-`,beneficial" substance produces birth defects, tumors, and skin lesions in animals. Workers exposed to PCBs display symptoms ranging from jaundice and impotence to skin disorders and throat and respiratory irritations. Most damning of all, studies show that exposed workers develop statistically unlikely numbers of cancers. Acting under the authority of the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Environmental Protection Agency PT D/11/79 *1 i\ I 1 (EPA) put sweeping PCB control measures into effect on July 2nd of this year. This rule applies to any party who manufactures, pro cesses, distributes in commerce, or uses or disposes of any item with substantial PCB contamination. The key word is "substantial." How much Is too much?-- Substantial contamination is de fined differently for different condi tions. A transformer with over 500 parts-per-million (ppm) PCB in the dielectric fluid is considered a "PCB Transformer." The same trans former is considered merely con taminated if it has less than that amount. However, in a spill, there's no safety cut-off: any detectable level of PCBs in spilled fluid is abso lutely forbidden. Any item falling into these classifications demands special treatment. That treatment, regardless of cost, is industry's re sponsibility. Searching It out --PCBs were pro duced in this country exclusively by the Monsanto Corp., which volun tarily stopped making them in 1977. However, while Monsanto used the name "Askera!'' on all its PCB fluids, other companies, buying wholesale quantities for resale, marketed it under different tradenames. Aroclor, Pydraul, Abestol and Inerteen are common examples; there are many others. Even with a list of them all, there is no guarantee that the outlaw chemi cal will be found. All too often, likely prospects for contamination simply have no label. Here lies the net which ensnaris all industry: while some PCBs lurk in solids, the majority are mixed into mineral oils. From 35 to 40% of mineral-oil transformers, says the EPA, arc either contaminated with PCBs or filled to over the 500-ppm mark. Thus, all transformers arc as sumed to be contaminated, unless they are tested and their safety is proven. Another problem lies in the recycling of oil drained from the transformers. Naturally, this is now out of the question --but for almost fifly years it was business-as-usual. The reusable oil could end up any where, including transmissions. The epa calls this "waste oil" and notes that it may be found as a rem nant of fuel oil, transmission oil, of various lubricants. Of course, if old transformer oil ended up as a lubricant on exposed gears, it is probably already in the environment. Oil that found its way into a transmission is another mat ter. If your transmission has been sealed for more than a few years, the oil that went into it might have a dangerous level of contaminant. The best bet, in such a case, is to assume suspicion is warranted. To bury or to burn--By 1975, over 300 million pounds of PCBs had entered the general environment according to the epa. The ban rule naturally forbids any disposal methods that might add to this load. In getting up rules for junking PCB items, though, the EPA created another load for the already bur dened shoulders of industry. If discovering all the PCBs in a factory is difficult, disposing of them is so complicated as to be monstrous. The epa mandates spe cific methods for cleaning up--and levies stilf penalties for. error. The punishment for breaking the rules includes civil fines of up to $25,000 per day, plus criminal fines of another $25,000 per day, plus up to one year in jail. There are only two ways to be rid of PCB-contaminated articles.- The first is incineration. This sounds simple enough--but stringent regu lations make it an expensive and complex proposition. PCBs cannot be destroyed injust any furnace. An EPA-approved furnace must be ca pable ofa PCB destruction efficiency ofno less than 99.9%; and even then the PCB content of the feed is limited to 10%. Nor can the chemical be added to the combustion chamber during stan-up or shut-down. Fi nally, emissions from the furnaces have strict limits as well. If incineration is too large a problent, burying the stuff is a possibility--but, once again, strict, limiting regulations must be fol lowed. PCBs can only be dumped in a special EPA-approved chemical landfill. If an industry is near or in New York, Oregon, California, Iowa or Kentucky, it's in luck. Those states house the eight ap proved landfills--there are no more in existence. Keeping it around With all these limitations and reg ulations, it is inevitable that some people are going to have problems getting rid of their PCBs. The final alternative left opeto to them is stor age. The attraction of this choice is the low-initial cost; the drawback comes with the continuing expense of time and money. The EPA will allow the storage of nonleaking PCB articles for up to thirty days, as long as no damage can occur in the storage area. Stor age for longer periods requires a special EPA-approved storage area. These must be walled, roofed, and diked, and the floor must be con structed of some impermeable sub stance such as concrete or steel. Even then, the items being stored must be inspected every thirty days. Additionally, the storage room must be above the 100-year flood level. But there's still more: while PCBcontaminated equipment need be inspected only once a month. PCH transformers come up for cheek- P1D/11/78 ' 0 SNOW , , [ ' 1 outs once a week. And the following control are rigorous. The proper ab items may not be stored for more sorbent materials must be used to than thirty days: leaking PCB articles soak the liquid up; leaking contain and equipment (which, during their ers must be transferred to nonleak 30-day grace period, must reside in ing ones; and the absorbents used containers approved by both the are then considered KB materials, EPA and the Department of Trans and slated for proper disposal. The portation); non-liquid KBs in con power transmission engineer should tainers; and KB-contaminated liq keep these rules in mind: uids in 30 to 449-ppm concen trations. No level of KB contamination is allowable in oil used as a sealant, Using a PCB transformer--The rule has built-in exemptions forcertain uses of transformers. With al most half the transformers in the dust control agent, or coating. Such waste-oil use on surfaces introduces PCB contaminants directly into the environment. Almost any electric U.S. falling under the ban rule, motor may be a PdB article. Motors wholesale elimination of these units using KBs for cooling processes, is simply implausible. Here's a list such as certain mining equipment of "do*s and don'ts" for the trans are certainly contaminated. But if former that's kept in service: your motor uses KB transformers XYou may NOT add PCB- or capacitors, plan on checking it, contaminated dielectric fluid with a too. Under the law, determining greater concentration of the chemi possible contamination is your re cal than already exists in the trans sponsibility. former. Some hydraulic systems are con / You MAY drain the coolant in the taminated. KB may be used in hy transformer, add noncontaminated draulic systems until July 1, 1984, if fluid in its place, and test it three the system was already in use be months later for possible fore July I of this year. Even so, reclassification. ^ users of these systems will have a X You may NOT dilute the KB fluid number of regulations to deal with. in the transformer by adding non Among them: draining the systems, contaminated fluid. testing the fluid, lowering the KBs You MAY rebuild PCB- to an acceptable level, retesting the contaminated transformers (but systems every year, and disposing NOT KB transformers). of excess KBs. Fifty years of waste-oil from dielectric fluid has spread the out Spill* and consequence* lawed chemical far and wide. What Maintaining a transformer can re kind of oil is in that transmission? sult in trouble (see sidebar). A spill Are those gears contaminated? involving KBs is automatically over Should they be checked? any legal limit. The single exception to this rule is a leak in a small The cardinal rule, then, is to re capacitor--and that ceases to be an member that KBs have been around exception if it threatens a water fora long time--but they have only course, such as a river or an open been recognized as a danger in sewer. Any spill requires immediate recent years. They could be all EPA notification, even if it is brought around you. or entirely absent from under control. Additionally, the your environment. But it is your re regulations for bringing it under sponsibility to know. Are you a PCB container? The BO to 500 ppm classifications desig nated by the Environmental Protection Agency are essentially a stopgap mea sure. These rules will remove ton* of pcb from the environment without forcing In dustry to pay an "unacceptable" cost. At least one proposal euggested that 10 ppm be the cut-off. and a figure of 1 ppm was tossed about as well. Left unsaid: If the cut-off point It too low, a number of human beings would Isgaily be pcs con tainers. If pcss are already so widespread, then, what's all the lute about? Bristly, the danger of the chemical la Its tendency to bloaccumulate. peas thrown into the wrong landfill may eink Into the water ta ble. From there, they may find their way Into cattle feed, or tome other part of the food chain. From the cattle, they may eventually reach your body. If they do. you risk any number of toxic effects. Including digestive disturbances. Impotence, Jaun dice, reaplretory Irritations, severe headaches, and possibly cancar. The pea Ban Rule It an effort to stop the chemict! from reaching you. To some ex tent it's already too late for that. Detecta ble concentrations have shown up In milk, grain, and meat A great deal of the genie, It la clear, can no longer be forced back Into the bottle. 8ometlmee. however, the danger Is caught In lima--but at graat coil. In Juna. a transformtr at Plarca Packing Co.. Bikings, Mont., ruptured, spilling as much as 200gallons of Its dlslsctrlc fluid. Among tha costs: 300,000 hans have been gassed, and anothe/ 53,000 Slaughtered. Millions of egga have been deatroyed. 139,000 pounds of chicken meat are being held In Iowa and Minnesota, possibly to be de stroyed. In all, 1.3 million pounds ol posslbly'contamlnaled meat meat was shipped to six states over a 3-1/2-month period. How much contaminated food hat es caped the fda net? foa commisloner Sherwln Gardner It "reasonably certain" that none has--but he could not be sure, he recently said, for at laset thirty more days. I HONS 045534 PTDMItfB