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Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) Workgroup
Toronto
Meeting Minutes
May 17, 2001
Below are minutes of the PCB Workgroup meeting of May 17, 2001. Follow-up action items identified during the meeting are summarized under the Path Forward heading.
Progress since November 16, 2000 Workgroup Meeting
Progress since the PCB Workgroup meeting of November 16, 2000 was
reviewed. A summary report of the workgroup’s progress was distributed to
attendees and will be posted on the PCB workgroup’s web-site:
www.epa.gov/glnpo/bns/pcb/.
PCB Reduction Commitments
An update on the voluntary commitment letters was provided. In
addition to the information in the progress report, it was noted that GM
in Canada notified Environment Canada that 1000 tones of high level PCB
had been recently destroyed and approximately 3800 tones of low level
contaminated soil had been treated and that Ford and Daimler-Chrysler have
sent similar responses.
The workgroup discussed that companies sometimes are not able to commit immediately to PCB reduction because, 1) reduction/replacement is dependent on companies’ internal planning and budgeting cycle, and 2) reduction/replacement is tied to market conditions. EPA and Environment Canada will continue mailing out the voluntary reduction and commitment letters to the priority sectors and associations seeking additional commitments to reduce PCBs.
Presentation on PCB Destruction in Canada
Gordon Godin and Al Wakelin of Sensor Environmental gave a
presentation on Swan Hills waste management facility in Alberta and
touched on PCB destruction in Canada. The Swan Hills facility is under new
management who’s mandate includes a review of options for its future. One
of the issues is the continuing high cost to operate the facility. Sensor
Environmental is currently under contract to Alberta government to run
Swan Hills until the end of the year 2001. The facility has enough
capacity to handle additional waste from both U.S. and Canada.
Fugitive Emissions and Other PCB Air Data
Dr. William J. Mills from the University of Illinois at Chicago
presented his findings on additional work he conducted on emissions from
the Smithville CWML site in Ontario. The site is an inactive PCB
equipment, transfer, and storage site. Remediation activities at the site
took place over several years and included excavation, on-site
containment, and treatment by incineration. During this period, extensive
monitoring was conducted which included measurements of PCBs in ambient
air (daily), water effluent and incinerated materials. The presentation
included a review of information on the site provided by Dr. Mills at the
May 16, 2000, PCB workgroup meeting.
The main conclusions of the additional analysis and presentation were:
An analysis of the ambient air concentrations relation to temperature and wind effects showed that there was a definite correlation between the ambient PCB concentration and ambient temperature and wind speed and that the Smithville site was the source of PCBs detected in off-site monitors.
Results of air dispersion modeling showed that calculated ambient air PCB concentrations from the incinerator stack emissions were one to four orders of magnitude (10 to 10,000 times) less than those observed. This led to the conclusion that observed PCB concentrations from the site were probably not from the incinerator stack and instead from other on-site sources. Five sources were identified from receptor modeling: 1) the incinerator stack, 2) ground water treatment areas, 3) the containment building, 4) shredder operations, and 5) contaminated soil at the southeast corner of the site. The receptor modeling also identified the water treatment area and shredder operations as the main sources. Additional analysis of ambient PCB concentrations on the dates over which PCB liquids were destroyed showed that stored PCB liquids were also a main source of the ambient PCB concentrations.
Other incinerator emission parameters were examined and it was observed that:
Some of Dr. Mills conclusions of the analysis of the data were:
Some of Dr. Mills recommendations for future activities include:
- focus should be on material handling and less on the disposal technology itself,
- daily ambient air sampling during PCB destruction activities should be performed,
- air monitoring is suggested for in-service electrical equipment,
- air monitoring is suggested for storage sites,
- in conducting air monitoring, concentrations in warm weather versus cooler weather should be considered,
- the effect of air deposition should be evaluated,
- in conducting air monitoring, congener specific analysis should be conducted, and dioxins and furans should be sampled at the same time, and
- in conducting air monitoring, particulate and gas phase PCBs should be sampled.
A question was raised on if there is a correlation between site emissions and PCBs in sediment and would quicker reductions of PCBs come from cleaning sites or cleaning sediments. Opinions differed. More investigation would be needed. One source of PCBs in the lakes is volatilization from contaminated sediment. The data presented by Dr. Mills shows that PCBs in the lakes can also be due to air deposition from contaminated sites.
As a consideration for addressing releases during handling operations, one workgroup member raised the possibility of using mobile technology for the destruction of PCBs to reduce handling.
Outreach and Communication
A workgroup member mentioned that they get inquiries regarding PCBs,
that there are no incentives for them or other companies to help their
customers, and that there is some concern about possible liabilities for
providing information. It was suggested that it would be beneficial to
develop and provide stakeholders with an educational package on PCBs that
they could distribute to their customers. One potential incentive for
assisting or providing information to customers could be positive public
recognition.
The workgroup also discussed the following outreach and communication activities.
Incentives
Several comments were made that there are few, if any, incentives for
facilities to remove their PCBs or to help their customers do so. Without
incentives, some companies will continue to hold on to their PCB
equipment. Some incentives suggested include:
Stelco is an example of one company that got rid of the majority of their PCBs early. A workgroup member commented that if incentives were to be provided now, it would be unfair to those that disposed of their PCBs early. A comment was also made that there should be minimum regulatory barriers at the border so there are no hold ups in movements across the border.
Work group members stressed that economically viable disposal options are needed and it may be useful to work together with stakeholders involved in disposal (e.g., government, equipment owners, and disposal companies) to identify such options. It was also suggested that if disposal companies could work with stakeholders to get consistent quantities of waste, they could operate at a consistent feed and may be able to lower costs.
PCB Waste Collection Events
It was stated that many sites, although they say they are PCB free,
have ballasts which contain PCBs. It was suggested that collecting
ballasts at municipal household hazardous waste depots in partnership with
the different levels of governments would encourage spent ballasts to be
deposited and recycled according to the regulations. In addition, it was
suggested to try and develop incentives for PCB disposal, i.e. "the
earlier you get rid of PCBs, the cheaper it will be."
City of Windsor collection event: Peter Bziuk, City of Windsor, discussed the city’s PCB initiatives and success stories in consolidating small quantities of PCB contaminated material with other local governments in Essex County. Through consolidating the PCB wastes, they amassed enough to make disposal economical.
Disposal of PCBs in Canada
Steve Radcliffe of Ontario MOE, Policy Branch, gave an update of the
expansion proposal and application of Trans Cycle Industries (TCI) Canada
and Benett Environmental. For further details on an environmental
assessment for thermal destruction facilities he suggested checking MOE’s
web site: and searching the link to the Environmental Bill of Rights for
proposal notices on or after April 20th.
Al Wakelin of Sensor Environmental pointed out that many PCB owners have indicated it is too expensive to dispose of PCBs, and that it is also very expensive to run the Swan Hills Alberta facility. He indicated that Governments and the people should continue to work together to encourage PCB destruction. He suggested developing an accelerated program of legislative requirements for PCB destruction in Canada. These changes would better utilize their facility. He added that many PCB owners will wait until they approach the deadline before destroying their PCBs.
Gordin Godin of Sensor Environmental noted that they may only be able to operate their facility until December 31 of this year. Since the cost of running their facility is supplemented by Alberta taxpayers, he suggested stakeholders and Environment Canada work together to ensure they aren’t operating at a loss.
On workgroup member commented on the need for all stakeholders to develop an overall plan to deal with the disposal capacity issue in Canada, including how to manage residuals of disposal, major spills, and replacement equipment.
Sediment Workshop
The highlights from the sediment workshop were provided. The sediment
workshop was arranged by Binational Strategy stakeholders and was held on
April 24 and 25, 2001. Over 100 representatives of governments,
environmental organizations, and remediation consultants attended. During
the workshop, presentations were made on several treatment technologies
and discussions were held on options for and obstacles to remediation.
Options for remediation discussed included: natural recovery, capping,
in-situ treatment, ex-situ treatment, removal, and disposal. It was
discussed that there is no easy solution. Dredging and land disposal seems
to be the least costly. Obstacles of remediation discussed included
regulatory, resources, social (communication and support), institutional
(goals, politics) and stakeholder involvement.
The messages from the workshop included:
EPA National Action Plan for PCBs
EPA is still working on the National Action Plan for PCBs under the
agency’s Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxics (PBT) initiative. One of
the actions in the draft plan to reduce PCBs is to seek PCB reduction
commitments through efforts like those being implemented by the PCB
workgroup. The PCB workgroup activities will be looked at closely as an
example.
Path Forward and List of Action Items
Below is a summary of the follow-up actions that were identified
during the meeting:
PCB Waste Collection Events
EC/EPA/Industrial Stakeholders (OPG/Utilities/municipalities) should consider coordinating efforts to use municipal household hazardous waste collection depot for the collection of PCB ballasts
Incentives and Barriers for accelerated PCB destruction
Outreach and Education
PCB Reduction Commitments
Case Study Report
Continue development of PCB reduction case studies which identify reasons companies remove PCBs
PCB Releases
Circulate data on releases from contaminated sites and seek comments
Attendees
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CanadaKen.de@ec.gc.ca |
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martig.anton@epa.gov |
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rebecca.bowman@ec.gc.ca |
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pbzuik@city.windsor.on.ca |
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Alice.Dove@cciw.ca |
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gord.godin@sesl.ca |
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j.a.hall@opg.com |
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ghk@cgli.com |
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lorinda.lamb@exeloncorp.com |
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jlewis@sunproservices.com |
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wmills1@mediaone.net |
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straderco@aol.com |
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talbotla@pathcom.com |
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al_wakelin@sesl.ca |
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wooter@glu.org |
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noel.wylie@HydroOne.com |
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