Document o9weqppzrD84ZnXpxaBJrx85g

.......-Vv:.. ii'iTifuraMWlir-s^ M N iti PCBs spread by waste-oil use? I'cdcral und stale environmental offi cials arc focusing on waste-oil dealers as a mnjor source of widespread PCB (poly* chlorinated biphenyl) contamination in Midwest waterways. Investigators have shown that much of the wustc oil and solvents from industrial sources, such as chemical firms, electrical equipment manufacturers and power plants, arc contaminated with PCBs, once widely used in transformers and electric motors. Officials have found that most waste-oil dealers fail to check whether the material they collect is contaminated before they recondition it for resale. As a result, PCB-laden oil is making its way into home and industrial furnaces and onto county roads for dust control. It is "one (if the major sources in the country for water pollution," declared an Environ mental Protection Agency ollicial. Mas Wilcoinb of EPA's Kansas City, Mo., office, says the waste-oil haulers are "modern-day Typhoid Mary's. They don't understand the problem and can't figure out wltHl's happening to them." In one major investigation, Minnesota pollution authorities arc scrutinizing the activities of more than 20 waste-oil dealers in the slate who they allege ore distrib uting contaminated oil. The latest ease is Micks Oil (Pipestone, Minn.), which received oil shipments from a transformer salvager in South Dakota whose oil contained PCBs (C'W/, Jan. 18. p. 18), according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Hicks says it was assured by the salvager that the oil contained no PCBs. The company resells oil for use on roads and as fuel to indus tries and schools, MPCA adds. MPCA also says two other dealers, Mankato Oil (Mankato, Minn.) and Hy Iricdmnn (Minneapolis), allegedly sold PCB-ladcn fuel to customers, including private homes. Those firms claim they weren't aware they were selling contami nated oil. Samples of recycled oil sold by such dealers bus turned up fairly high PCB levels, says MPC'A's Richard Kablc, who adds that he often finds recycled oil with 100 parts per million of the contaminant. "These arc local, small time collectors . . . who get the oil themselves from old transformers," of ten mixing it with No. 6 fuel oil for large industrial customers, or with old drain oil for resale to others. PCB concentra tion in oil originally collected from junked transformers or motors is often "in thousands of parts per million," he adds. The burning of PCB-conlaminated oil in furnaces releases the pollutants into the air, says MPCA, and they eventually wind up in ground runoff into lakes and streams. "That's one of the biggest sources" of PCB contamination in waterways, adds MPCA biologist Marvin Mora. Because PCBs are not water-soluble, they accumulate in river sediment and are ingested by fish. PCB levels in fish sampled in Minnesota waters within the hist scvcml years have been high enough to prompt a ban on consuippuon of a batch of carp in Lake Pepin and a warning to those who fished parts of the Mississippi River near Minneapolis not to eat more than one meal of fish per week. Although the ban has been lifted, the consumption warning is still in effect. MPCA says PCB levels in the fish urc still high. Not Alone: Kablc says his state is not the only one with such a problem. "Minne sota is probably more aware than other states," Hora adds, perhaps because thou sands of gallons of PCB-laden oil shipped from the state was almost applied to roads in Iowa last year. "The problem is widespread in Michi gan, too," says EPA Regional (Chicago) Toxic Substances Coordinator Karl Brem er, although stale officials try to track waste-oil haulers. The burning of contami nated oil is probably responsible for PCB pollution in Wisconsin, where EPA anal yses of snow samples from golf courses in nonindustrial areas revealed PCB residues, he adds. When oil that contained numerous hazardous substances, including PCBs, seeped from an illegal disposal site into a stream at Ditmer, Mo., last April, slate and federal officials traced the source to waste collector Raymond Bliss. EPA initiated a $500,000 cleanup, averting pollution of a nearby scenic river. Harry Gilmer of EPA's regional office in Kansas City said the dumping incident involved extremely toxic wastes. At cer tain spots around the disposal site, he said, PCB concentrations in the ground reached 4%. The origin of most of the wastes was unknown, Gilmer said, although EPA traced the presence of bromophcnylchlorophenyl ether to Monsanto. The company says it gave Bliss some wastes, although since the mid-1960s it has had a policy of tracing its wastes to assure they are disposed of properly. EPA says identifying the source of contaminants in waste oil, and even of the wastes themselves, is very difficult. Collec tors receive oil from filling stations, truck fleets, junkyards, transformer salvagers, and power plants in addition to "the back doors of industry," as one official cads it. EPA's Bremer contends thut many waste haulers are paid by companies to carl away their wastes. No questions arc asked and "they just want to get rid of (he stuff.'' he adds. On (he other hand. Walt Kovalick of EPA's Hazardous Waste Disposal section in Washington, D.C., says, "Some companies arc so concerned about their wastes that they send inspec tors out to watch where the wastes go." EPA says the new Resource Conserva tion and Recovery Act will go a Jong way toward controlling improper oil recycling. Under that law, waste receivers will need permits to operate and will have to prove lo EPA that they arc disposing of wastes legally. In addition, waste generators will have to test their wastes and identify the chemical components. Says EPA's Wilcomb of the pending low: "We still don't have teeth, but we're gctlin' cm," Offers for coke unit Allied Chemical is weighing at least three proposals to take over its 240,000tons/ycar, fire-damaged Scmct-Solvny Di vision coke plant at Tonawandu, N Y. Allied, which had been trying to sell the coke unit before the fire, decided earlier this month to shut down operations permanently because it estimated that repairs and rehabilitation would cost more than $8 million (CW, Jan. 18. p. 18). Since the fire, Allied has lowered its asking price by an undisclosed amount. One bidder is J.D. Crane, who is leuving his job as vice-president of Donner-Hanna Coke Corp, in BulTalo to form Tonawandu Coke Corp and to buy the coke plant. Crane began organizing the company after his attempt to gel Donner-Hanna to buy the plant failed last year. Crane says he would need co-operation from several state agencies to get the plunt back into operation, and that this must be done no later than the end of January. The coke-oven battery, he says, can be kepi idle-hot for only a limited time. Main fire damage was to pollution control and tar storage facilities; the 65 coke ovens were not seriously alTccted. Allied says that one of the potential purchasers inspected the plunt recently. The company adds that a plnnt operated by its plastics division on a 135-acre complex adjacent to the coke unit will be undirected by the closing of the coke operation. HONS 000685 January 25. 1978 CHEMICAL WEFK 15 top oUho news Pilotage costs rising Pilotage costs in the Houston Ship Channel arc expected to increase 20-25% as u result of a new rate structure upproved last week by the Fort of Houston Commission. The new rates, however, arc considered unsatisfactory by both the pilots and ship owner representatives. Further work stop pages arc considered possible. Spokesmen for pilots and operators say it will take several days to work out the exact impact of the proposed new rate structure, which is retroactive to Jan. 1. Earlier this month the majority of the pilots licensed to work in the ship channel staged a two-day "sickout" in a successful effort to force the Pori Commission to vole for a wage hike. Claiming (hat the new pilotage rate increases urc "about half of what we asked for," Captain Jack Niday. presiding officer of the Pilots' Assn., says that another sickout action is "in the thinking stage." The earlier work stoppage lied up ship ping in the channel for about three days and threatened to disrupt the unloading of crude and loading of products from several of the country's largest refineries and petrochemical plants. The full impact of the new pilotage rates is disputed. Wiley George, president of the West Gulf Maritime Assn., which represents ship owners and operators, esti mates that under the new structure, pilots' annual earnings would be between $72,000 and $75,000. "They're lying in their teeth," says Captain Niday of this estimate by the ship owners group. "They don't know what I make," he says, and adds that he isn't telling. Worried about Kepone A member of Virginia's Kepone task force says deposits of the. insecticide now in the James River would be swept into the Chesapeake Bay if a major storm occurred. And an Environmental Protection Agency official says that ridding the river of Kepone contamination would be expen sive- if it is at all possible. The stale's task force was disbanded earlier this month by Governor Mills E. Godwin, Jr., whose term is expiring. But an EPA task force is expected to release an interim report on the Kepone disposal problem about Fch. 1. Robert Huggett, head of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science's ecology and 1$ CHEMICAL WEEK January 25, 1978 pollution department, says: "We arc afraid that a major storm on the scale of Hurricane Agnes or worse could push the stufT into the bay. The prospect is fright ening." Tudor Davies, a scientist with EPA, says the crux of the problem lies in deter mining how much Kepone could escape from the river into the bay. If the risk is small, he adds, it might be better to leave the pollutant in the river. Davies estimates that it would cost more than $35 million just to contain Kepone deposits on the bottom of Bailey's Creek, which covers 1,000 acres. The Keponepolluted area in the James River covers about 2,000 acres. If the EPA report concludes a major storm would shift the Kepone to the bay, Davies says, there would be no other alter native but to try dredging the river --a project that would also cost "millions.'' Davies points out that scientists are very apprehensive about such a prospect. He says, "I'm very scared about these deliber ations. We arc right on the fringe or science. We are putting our scientific reputations on the line." Pushing SBA loans Small businesses have shown limited interest in a federal program to fully guar antee tax-exempt bonds to finance manda tory installation of pollution control equip ment. So the Environmental Protection Agency has decided to begin a campaign to promote the use of such loans. EPA is about to mail 500,000 notices announcing 10 seminars--one in each of its regions-- that will explain the bond program, as well as other governmental financial assistance programs for pollution control. Congress authorized the Small Business Administration to provide such bond guar antees in June, 1976, but so far bonds under the program have been issued only in California and Illinois. SBA says that, in California, only seven businesses have taken advantage of the bonds, while, in Illinois, only five. Originally, the government estimated that as much as $3 billion of the bonds could be sold annually. But, says SBA, nationwide potential is only $100 million/year. "EPA is upset that we're not promoting the program," an SBA official says. But he asserts that SBA is meeting the demand where it exists. Essentially, he says, there arc not many small businesses that arc looking for pollution financing. He maintains that these businesses arc not going to put in controls until EPA threatens to close them. DU PONT'S GEE will become president of International Paper, effective April l, Gee to head IP After 30 years at Du Pont, Edwin A. Gee will retire as senior vice-president and director of the company on Mar. 31, to assume the position of president of Inter national Paper. The IP post has been vacant since Judson Hannigan resigned two years ago. In his role as industry representative on the National Commission on Water Qual ity, Gee championed the cause of a delay in implementation of the 1983 best avail able technology (BAT) standards that were scheduled in the Water Pollution Control Act. NCWQ recommended this midcoursc correction to Congress on the basis of measured water-quality improve ments made by some 90% of industrial plants meeting the 1977 standards. And in passing the new amendments to the act last year (OP, M*\ 23. 1977, p. 15) Congress allowed for the delays by including a test of "reasonableness" before BAT standards could be enforced. Many officials have given Gee credit for bringing about what he calls a "reasonable compro mise." Gee, 58, became a member of l)u Pom's board in 1969 and was made a vice president and member of the executive committee in 1970. He was appointed senior vice-president in I9~2. Gee joined the company's titanium development ven ture in 1948 after receiving his Ph D m chemical engineering from the University of Maryland. In 1963 he became director in charge nl new ventures and was named general manager of the company's Photo Products Dept, in 1968. MONS 000686