Document QgjQo6bE3nyj7kGB1LN0qxv3k

Methods for Disposing Of PCB Polluntants Are Set by the EPA By a Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter WASHINGTON - Eectrical parts and other materials containing PCBs, a group of hazardous industrial pollutants, will have to be disposed of in special ways beginning in April under new federal rules. The regulations, issued by the Environ mental Protection Agency, are a final ver sion of rules the EPA proposed last May to deal with PCBs, or polychlorinated biphen yls. PCBs are found mainly in heavy electri cal parts used by utilities, but also in small electrical parts used in home appliances such as microwave ovens, air conditioners and fluorescent lights. The chemicals are "a particularly seri ous human health hazard," according to the EPA, because they can cause damage to the human liver, kidneys and reproductive or gans, and may also cause genetic and birth defects and cancer. The chemical is appar ently dangerous even in small concentra tions and is exceptionally long-lived. Although U.S. manufacture erf PCBs has been ended, the EPA estimates that about 95% of the 1.25 billion pounds of PCBs pur chased by U.S. industry since 1929 is still either in active use or in the environment. Under the new rules, all of this material will have to carry special labels, and must be disposed of using either high-temperature incineration or special federally approved chemical-waste landfills. The rules specify that power transform ers must be disposed of in 'the chemical Bndfills, while all liquids containing PCBs, including those drained from transformers, ifust be incinerated at high temperatures. Sbch incineration is the only disposal tech- iique that destroys PCBs, according, to the agency. : Large power capacitors being disposed of after Jan. 1, 1990, must be incinerated but may be buried in landfills before that date. Smaller electrical parts containing PCBs may be disposed of as normal municipal waste "for the present," the EPA said. Sludge from municipal sewage treatment plants, and materials dredged from water ways, must also be specially handled in dis posal if they contain PCBs. They may either be incinerated, put into the special landfills or disposed of in other ways approved by the BPA. ________ ---------------- DSW 378463