Hazardous Waste Site Analysis (Small Site Technology)

Abstract : A methodology is presented for classifying hazardous waste sites according to six primary discriminators, i.e. (1) risk to public, (2) setting on the site, (3) uncontrolled releases, (4) federal laws and regulations, (5) societal and political issues, and (6) estimated cost of remediation. A decision tree is used to ask questions of the user about each waste site to be classified. Each possible answer to the questions has a numerical weighting factor. At the conclusion of classification, the weighting factors for each site may be totaled so that waste sites may be ranked against each other in a priority listing. The methodology will also recommend possible remediation (treatments) for each waste site, based upon (1) waste constituents, (2) soil permeability, and (3) medium and environment to be treated. The system was tested on five small waste management units at the Sierra Army Depot, Herlong, CA. The methodology can be computerized, if desired. Keywords: Hazardous waste site.