Planning Considerations for Materials and Wastes from Disasters
Throughout an incident response, communities may encounter many issues and considerations during debris management activities. Thinking through these issues when writing a waste or debris management plan can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a response and recovery. For example, the amount of times debris is handled, the number of transporters, debris management sites, and facilities needed, the cost and environmental impact of the incident, and the recovery timeline may all be minimized through thorough and detailed planning prior to a disaster. Each step of the decision-making process influences others, requiring a holistic systems approach.
On this page:
- Considerations for Managing Materials and Wastes Generated by All Hazards
- Role of Waste Management Before and During a Disaster
- Interrelatedness of Pre-Incident Waste Management Activities
Considerations for Managing Materials and Wastes Generated by All Hazards
Below are questions that emergency planners, managers, and responders should consider in the decision-making process for disaster response (pdf)(133 KB):
- What is the type of incident?
- How much materials and wastes did the incident generate?
- Can any items be safely reused, recycled, or composted?
- Why should materials and wastes be segregated into different streams?
- Should items, buildings, or exterior surfaces be decontaminated?
- Can the waste be minimized?
- Do site conditions allow for on-site waste management options?
- Should the materials and wastes be temporarily relocated to a staging or storage area?
- What is the appropriate management option for each debris stream?
- Should the materials or wastes be treated prior to reuse, recycling, composting, or disposal?
- Is it better to use multiple debris management options?
- What if no permanent waste management options can be found?
- Are there any barriers to the selected material and waste management approach?
- How quickly should the materials and wastes be managed?
- What arrangements must be made to transport the materials and wastes to an off-site facility?
What is the type of incident?
The type of the incident may influence what materials and wastes are generated and how they are managed. Different types of disasters generate different materials and wastes, such as:
- Animal disease outbreaks may generate high numbers of animal carcasses contaminated with biological agents.
- Natural disasters may produce large quantities of vegetative debris, construction and demolition debris, and building contents.
- Chemical, biological, or radiological incidents may result in huge volumes of contaminated water, depending upon the decontamination and cleanup technologies and methods used.
Therefore, depending on the type of incident, one or more material and waste management options may be more appropriate, preferable, or available than other options. Some options may be required or prohibited for a particular debris stream. No one option is best for all materials and wastes for all incidents, which is why pre-incident debris management planning is so important.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Pre-incident planning identifies applicable regulations, possible options for managing the anticipated materials and wastes, and facilities’ acceptance criteria. Pre-incident planning should be documented in a pre-incident waste management plan. When a disaster occurs, the plan can be tailored to the actual incident, facilitating the waste management decision-making process for the incident. Planning for foreseeable material and waste management needs before a disaster occurs can limit the related impacts on the overall response and recovery and can free up time and resources for responders to handle unanticipated waste management issues that may arise during the disaster.
How much materials and wastes did the incident generate?
The amount of debris generated by an incident affects decisions regarding how to manage the debris, including the storage, treatment, and disposal of the materials and wastes. For example, available capacity at waste management facilities is limited to a predetermined amount. Available capacity is further limited if facilities still accept materials and wastes from daily activities during the incident response or choose not to accept disaster-generated waste at all. Therefore, estimating the amount of materials and wastes generated from the disaster as early in the response as possible helps facilitate effective decision-making during the response (pdf)(133 KB) (e.g., how many facilities might be needed to manage the materials and wastes, whether staging and storage areas are temporarily necessary).
The amount of debris generated partly depends upon the type and magnitude of the disaster and the resulting contamination or damage. Important to estimating the total amount of materials and wastes that are generated by the disaster itself and the resulting response and recovery activities are factors such as the:
- Size of the area impacted by the disaster.
- Delivery method of an agent (i.e., chemical, biological, or radiological).
- Environmental conditions (e.g., wind speed, temperature, humidity, and UV light intensity), which influence the size, shape, intensity, and overall effectiveness of the agent deposition pattern.
- Spread of contamination by people or vectors.
- Material- and waste-related data from similar incidents in the past.
How Pre-incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Pre-incident planning can include forecasting the amounts of each material and waste stream that may be generated by different types of disasters. These numbers help planners determine how the debris could be managed should a disaster occur.
Tools such as EPA’s Incident Waste Decision Support Tool (I-WASTE DST) and FEMA's Hazus program for earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes can be used prior to a disaster to help forecast debris amounts. This planning also can be used to reduce the amount of anticipated debris by drawing attention to where and how the debris is generated. For example, if large amounts of construction and demolition debris will likely be generated, then communities can ensure the adequacy of building codes in how they address hazard risks, qualities of materials, structural design, and construction methods. Any missing requirements for durable materials and appropriate construction for buildings to withstand greater wind, rain, or snow loads, for example, could be inserted into the building codes.
Can any items be safely reused, recycled, or composted?
Reuse, recycling, and composting opportunities are potentially available for many different debris streams, including composting clean vegetative debris, reusing building materials to rebuild, and safely reusing hazardous materials. In accordance with EPA’s Waste Management Hierarchy, reuse, recycling, and composting options should be considered before other waste management options (e.g., incinerators and landfills) to help lessen the environmental and economic impacts of the disaster. Separating reusable, recyclable, and compostable items from wastes can help decrease the impact of the disaster by conserving resources and disposal capacity. EPA's Planning for Natural Disaster Debris Guidance provides information and resources on recycling various debris streams.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Communities should evaluate their reuse, recycling, and composting programs to ensure they can be scaled up to handle disaster debris. To ensure the availability of waste reduction opportunities for different debris streams after a disaster, a viable reuse, recycling, and composting infrastructure, such as reuse warehouses, recycling facilities, compost facilities, and end markets for reused, recycled, and composted products, should be in place prior to a disaster. Disaster resilience programs, green building programs, local waste management ordinances, and building code requirements can encourage the creation and maintenance of a functioning reuse, recycling, and composting infrastructure. At the same time, pre-incident planning can improve the characteristics of debris to support safe reuse, recycling, and composting by, for example, minimizing potential contamination of debris. Pre-incident planning also can help facilitate the reuse, recycling, and composting of generated debris during a disaster within and across jurisdictional lines. Many of the permitting, compliance, collection, processing, and marketing issues can be largely resolved before a disaster occurs.
Why should materials and wastes be segregated into different streams?
State, local, tribal, and territorial governments are under pressure to remove debris quickly from their communities when a disaster occurs. Separating debris into different material and waste streams may slow down the process of debris removal, especially if the debris is mixed together in large piles. However, debris segregation allows for:
- Reduced health and environmental impacts of debris.
- Waste minimization and support of a circular economy.
- Each material and waste stream to be more appropriately and efficiently managed in accordance with its applicable federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial guidance, regulations, and requirements.
- Debris to be reduced in volume and weight more effectively.
- Debris management to be more cost-effective.
- Facilities to more easily accept the debris.
- More facilities to be able to accept some of the generated debris.
- Non-contaminated and treated debris to remain separated from contaminated debris.
For example, hazardous waste is subject to stringent regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and should be kept separate from non-hazardous wastes in order to avoid contaminating those wastes. Mixing hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste could cause more waste to be deemed hazardous and increase the cost of managing the waste.
Similarly, debris contaminated by chemical, biological, or radiological agents should be separated from non-contaminated and treated debris to limit the spread of contamination. Also, this debris may be further segregated relatively easily because chemical, biological, and radiological incidents may not result in large piles of comingled debris like natural disasters or explosions.
Debris segregation also allows for the reuse, recycling, and composting of different materials, including:
- Electronics for recovering their copper, silver, gold, plastics, and glass to use in new electronic products.
- Vegetative debris for composting.
- White goods (i.e., household appliances, such as refrigerators and window air conditioner units) for refrigerant and metal recycling.
- Vehicles and vessels for scrap metal.
- Soils and sediment for use as fill in reconstruction projects and cover material in landfills, if not returned to their original location.
- Construction and demolition debris, like crushed concrete and asphalt, for use in road reconstruction and gypsum drywall for new drywall, cement, and agricultural uses.
Reuse, recycling, and composting create a usable product that may generate revenue and save valuable resources. Communities should refer to EPA’s Planning for Natural Disaster Debris Guidance for information on reusing and recycling various debris streams.
Debris segregation activities should be started as early in the response as possible (e.g., before the debris is collected) and continue throughout the response and recovery. The debris can be segregated by type, receiving facility, contaminant, required treatment technology, etc.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Communities should plan for debris segregation prior to a disaster and in coordination with other debris management activities (e.g., infrastructure development, collection, processing, transportation). This planning should include the identification of temporary staging and storage areas large enough to accommodate debris segregation activities. Off-site segregation may be necessary if the debris was not able to be segregated on-site, which is preferred, or if further segregation is needed for the collected debris. Pre-incident planning for these activities helps ensure that the debris would be segregated and, therefore, managed more effectively during a disaster without needlessly slowing down debris removal.
Should items, buildings, or exterior surfaces be decontaminated?
Areas contaminated by chemical, biological, or radiological agents may need decontamination to remediate the affected items, buildings, and area. Decontamination aims to save or reuse exposed furnishings and other items, buildings, and the environment by reducing or removing harmful substances, such as noxious chemicals (e.g., with methods using bleach or diluted bleach) and harmful bacteria or other organisms (e.g., with antisepsis and disinfection procedures).
The decision on whether or not to decontaminate particular materials depends upon public health, environmental, economic, private property issues, and other considerations, which may have to be balanced. For example, the decontamination process generates its own waste that requires disposal, including personal protective equipment, contaminated water, and items destroyed during the decontamination process.
The amount of waste generated from the decontamination process depends on the technology used and its effectiveness. On the other hand, decontamination may minimize the overall amount of waste requiring disposal, which is an important goal of any cleanup. Therefore, the decision to decontaminate an item, building, or exterior surface should balance the cost of replacing and managing the item with the time and cost of the decontamination process, which includes managing the associated waste. Other factors to consider include:
- Public health and safety.
- Whether a transporter or facility could or would accept contaminated waste.
- Effectiveness of the decontamination technology in meeting the established clearance level.
- Time and cost of sampling and analysis.
- Packaging and labeling requirements.
- Public and occupant perception of decontaminated materials.
The owner of a specific, affected item or structure also should have input in this decision.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
To increase the effectiveness of the decontamination process, decontamination technologies can be tested and identified for different surfaces and contaminants prior to an incident. Also, to help ensure public acceptance of decontaminated items and buildings in the affected area, pre-incident planning should include the development of a waste management-specific public outreach plan that addresses risk communication and outreach to those with disabilities and Limited English Proficiency.
Can the waste be minimized?
Because waste minimization has important environmental and economic benefits, waste should be minimized early and to the greatest extent possible during a disaster response. Reuse, recycling, and composting opportunities can limit the amount of waste requiring disposal. Entire debris streams, including vegetative debris, building materials, scrap metal, electronics, and soils and sediments, may be diverted from disposal, preserving valuable landfill space and resources.
Decontamination and treatment technologies can reduce the toxicity of items. For example, treating waste to remove or inactivate the contaminating agent will render the waste non-hazardous or less contaminated, which makes transporting and managing the waste (e.g., at RCRA Subtitle D facilities instead of at RCRA Subtitle C facilities) easier and less costly.
Debris segregation also can help with waste minimization by keeping contaminated debris away from non-contaminated debris and hazardous waste away from non-hazardous waste. Every effort should be taken to limit the spread of contaminants (e.g., chemical, biological, or radiological agents after an incident, oil after a spill caused by a natural disaster) during cleanup activities.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Even before a disaster occurs, communities can act to minimize the waste generated by identifying potential strategies for minimizing waste during a response. Communities should maximize opportunities for safe reuse, recycling, and composting of debris to minimize the need for disposal. Also, testing the efficacy of different decontamination technologies for different agents (i.e., chemical, biological, or radiological) on different surfaces in advance of an incident can not only minimize waste but save time and cost during a response. In addition, these communities can begin implementing strategies for decreasing the amount and toxicity of potential debris generated by a disaster by mitigating the hazards in their neighborhoods (e.g., retrofit PCB transformers), updating building codes, and limiting the possible spread of contamination (e.g., seal access points to the sewer or water system with drain covers).
Do site conditions allow for on-site waste management options?
On-site waste management options include on-site composting, mobile incineration, and burial. On-site options may be used to treat (e.g., reduce volume) or otherwise manage debris streams, such as vegetative debris, construction and demolition debris, and animal carcasses. These options may sometimes be preferable to off-site options, particularly for animal disease outbreaks. For these incidents, keeping contaminated animal carcasses on-site minimizes the risk of the disease spreading and increases biosecurity. In addition, removing the need to transport bulky debris off-site simplifies logistics and potentially reduces overall costs. Learn about biosecurity.
On-site options must be carefully considered, and their environmental effects (e.g., air emissions, surface and groundwater contamination, soil contamination) must be carefully reviewed and monitored. The appropriateness of on-site management for a particular disaster may depend upon federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial requirements, deed restrictions, weather, groundwater depth, distance to surface water, and soil composition, as well as other considerations.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Prior to a disaster, emergency planners and managers should determine if on-site options are appropriate for their area by becoming familiar with the environmental characteristics of the area and applicable regulations. If on-site options are feasible, they should plan for environmental monitoring and controls at the sites.
Should the materials and wastes be temporarily relocated to a staging or storage area?
Before debris can be reused, recycled, composted, treated, or disposed of on-site or at an appropriate off-site waste management facility, the debris may need to be temporarily staged or stored on-site or off-site for several reasons. These reasons may include:
- Providing time and space to segregate the debris into different material and waste streams to support efficient transportation and processing, as well as sustainable management.
- Removing hazards from particular debris streams (e.g., refrigerants and food from refrigerators and freezers).
- Minimizing debris volume or toxicity in order to meet waste acceptance criteria or lower transportation costs.
- Lacking immediate available capacity at waste management facilities.
- Lacking sufficient numbers of transporters.
- Lacking open or safe transportation routes.
Temporary debris staging or storage sites also can serve to remove debris management from the “critical path” to reoccupancy by not having the debris management decision-making process and its various transportation, treatment, and disposal issues impact the timeline for people to return to their homes or jobs. These activities should be efficiently conducted to avoid multiple handlings of the debris, if possible. EPA’s Planning for Natural Disaster Debris Guidance, Waste Storage and Staging Site Selection Tool, and Waste Logistics Tool provide guidance on selecting, designing, operating, and monitoring these temporary staging or storage sites. Storing or staging debris on-site or off-site can have different legal requirements.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
If possible, local communities should identify and secure through agreements or contracts temporary staging and storage sites as part of their pre-incident planning and preparation activities. Pre-identifying these sites will save time and effort during a response. Also, multiple locations should be pre-selected to provide emergency responders with options during a disaster response. However, designating specific sites or locations in advance of an incident may not be possible. In this case, communities should develop guidelines that could be used to designate sites during a disaster. Whether specifying sites or locations or developing guidelines, consider the following:
- Public health and community concerns.
- Benefits of on-site vs. off-site management.
- Speed with which materials and wastes need to be managed.
- Material and waste management facility requirements and capacity.
- Permitting procedures.
- Cost of various options.
- Site security.
- Resources needed, including private sources of equipment.
- FEMA cost reimbursement requirements.
- Proximity to anticipated debris generation points and to recycling, treatment, and disposal facilities.
- Ease of access.
- Ease of containment of materials and wastes.
- Ownership of sites.
- Proximity to sensitive/protected areas.
- Need for short- and long-term surface water, groundwater, air, and other environmental monitoring at the sites.
What is the appropriate management option for each debris stream?
If not planned for prior to a disaster, selecting the appropriate management option for each material or waste stream can be a time-consuming search and negotiation. Federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officials can provide information and assistance to help with this process.
The following factors should be considered and balanced when making these important decisions:
- Legal Requirements
Generated materials and wastes from a disaster are likely to be subject to federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial regulations and requirements. Different material and waste streams may be subject to different requirements, affecting the handling, packaging, transportation, treatment, disposal, etc. of each stream. Emergency planners and responders should be familiar with all applicable requirements for each generated material and waste stream to help ensure that they are properly managed during a disaster response. - Environmental Consequences
Each management option triggers some environmental concerns, including air emissions, potential groundwater and surface water contamination, disease spread, and soil contamination. The environmental consequences associated with each waste management option vary with regard to each material and waste stream. To help ensure optimal environmental protection, all applicable federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial laws and regulations should be followed. Additional environmental monitoring may be necessary. - Cost
The table below provides the relative costs for different waste management options. Actual costs depend upon many factors, including site conditions, transportation, the material and waste stream, and the waste management facility. As a result, actual costs can be highly variable.
|
Waste Management Option |
Relative Cost |
|---|---|
|
Landfill (Subtitle D) |
$$ |
|
Landfill (Subtitle C) |
$$$ |
|
Landfill (Construction and Demolition) |
$ |
|
Low-level Radioactive Waste Repository |
$$$$$ |
|
Trench Burial |
$ |
|
Mass Burial |
$$ |
|
Hazardous Waste Incinerator |
$$$$ |
|
Municipal Solid Waste Combustor |
$$$ |
|
Air Curtain Destructor |
$$ |
|
Mobile Incinerator |
$$$ |
|
Autoclave |
$$ |
|
Composting |
$ |
|
Rendering |
$$ |
|
Source: Lemieux, EPA’s National Homeland Security Research Center, 2007 |
|
- Capacity
A waste management facility’s available capacity (both daily and overall) is limited to a predetermined amount. A facility may continue to accept materials and wastes generated by daily activities not associated with the disaster, reducing available capacity for disaster-related materials and wastes. Also, a facility may have limitations on ingress and egress of vehicles that may impact daily capacity even if the facility has sufficient overall capacity. Therefore, a facility should be contacted to determine capacity before transporting materials or wastes there. Staging and storage areas may be needed to store the materials and wastes until capacity becomes available. Furthermore, multiple waste management options and facilities may be required to handle all the disaster-generated materials and wastes. - Permit Status
A facility may not have the authority to accept certain types of waste. The permit issued by the regulatory authority to a facility owner/operator defines the types of waste and allowable quantities that the facility can accept. For example, many facilities may not legally be allowed to accept problematic wastes like chemical-, biological-, or radiological-contaminated wastes. For these and other non-typical waste streams, permit modifications or waivers in accordance with applicable law may be necessary. - Compliance History
A facility’s compliance history should be reviewed before disaster-related materials and wastes are sent there. A facility with a poor compliance history may not be the best choice for disaster-related materials and wastes, which may already have a stigma associated with them. - Facility Acceptance
Even if an appropriate management option is found for a material or waste stream, privately owned facilities do not have to accept it. Once an appropriate facility is identified, working with the facility to gain its acceptance is advised before anything is transported to that facility during a disaster response. In addition, even if a facility agrees to accept disaster-related materials and wastes, the facility may have acceptance criteria that the material or waste stream needs to meet before it will be accepted, such as size or other restrictions. - Distance from Debris Generation Points
Transporting materials and wastes to an off-site facility may have cost, security, jurisdictional, and environmental consequences. Therefore, the further the material or waste has to travel to a facility, the more complicated the logistics become for managing it. In addition, managing the material or waste at a distant facility may take more time, which could extend the recovery timeline. - Preference of the Impacted Jurisdiction(s)
It is important to work with all affected state, local, tribal, and territorial jurisdictions when making material and waste management-related decisions. These jurisdictions may have a pre-incident waste (or debris) management plan that can help guide the response. If the material or waste is generated from a private business (e.g., animal carcasses from a poultry farm), the business may have its own waste management plan that can assist in the decision-making process. Check out some sample pre-incident waste management plans. - Community Concerns
Due to community concerns, like cumulative impacts, some management options or facilities may be less preferable than others for different material and waste streams. Some communities may not want certain materials and wastes treated or disposed of near them or may not want certain types of materials and wastes transported through their neighborhoods, which should impact where and how they are managed.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
As part of a community’s pre-incident planning, local officials, community leaders, and other interested parties should identify and discuss available options for anticipated material and waste streams. For example, uncontaminated vegetative debris, depending on the jurisdiction, could be composted, ground up for mulch or landfill cover, combusted as boiler fuel, or openly burned. While each of these options may vary in cost and environmental impact, each option has benefits and challenges that should be considered.
After available waste management options are determined, multiple waste management facilities should be pre-identified and documented in a pre-incident debris management plan. EPA’s Disaster Debris Recovery Tool and Incident Waste Decision Support Tool (I-WASTE DST) can be used to help communities find facilities. Communities should begin discussions and pre-negotiate agreements with other jurisdictions and facility owners and operators before a disaster occurs to help ensure their acceptance of materials and wastes generated during a disaster. FEMA’s Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide provides further information on contracted services. This preparation will facilitate a disaster response.
Should the materials or wastes be treated prior to reuse, recycling, composting, or disposal?
Treatment can be used to reduce the volume or toxicity of materials and wastes. If the material or waste is particularly bulky (thus making transportation to a facility very expensive or unfeasible), then on-site or off-site treatment to reduce its volume (e.g., grinding, soil washing, composting, combustion) may be appropriate to consider. Similarly, if the material or waste is toxic, treatment may be needed before it can be transported to a recycling or disposal facility to further protect human health and the environment or meet the facility’s waste acceptance criteria.
Treatment options generally create residues or byproducts that need to be tested and properly handled, transported, and managed. The decision to treat the material or waste should address how and where it, and any resulting residues or byproducts, will be further managed.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
By determining the requirements and preferences of transporters and waste management facilities before a disaster occurs, emergency planners and managers can begin planning how the materials and wastes should be handled and treated before being sent to a waste management facility. This planning should be documented in the pre-incident waste management plan to facilitate a disaster response.
Is it better to use multiple debris management options?
To determine if multiple management options are needed to handle generated materials and wastes, consider the type and severity of the disaster. If a disaster produces relatively small volumes of routine material and waste streams (e.g., construction and demolition debris, municipal solid waste), then one option may be sufficient. However, another disaster may generate great amounts of atypical material and waste streams over a wide area, which may require a comprehensive approach with many different material and waste management options and facilities.
The type of the material and waste streams, available reuse, recycling, and composting opportunities, level of contamination, lack of storage space or transport vehicles, limited capacity at accessible facilities, and a facility’s refusal to accept certain types of materials and wastes are just some of the reasons that may make choosing multiple waste management options necessary or preferable. Also, different management options may be better for various material and waste streams for public health, environmental, or economic reasons. In addition, the availability of alternate waste management options during a response provides flexibility in the event that the disaster adversely impacts one or more pre-selected facilities.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Before a disaster occurs, it is important to assess what different options are available for anticipated material and waste streams. This planning will help ensure that all disaster-generated materials and wastes are managed as efficiently as possible.
What if no permanent waste management options can be found?
Before selecting a material or waste management option, consider its health and environmental impacts, availability, feasibility, and cost effectiveness. Take into account the specific disaster, site, and material and waste streams involved. It may be possible that there is no effective option for a generated material or waste stream within a certain time frame. In this situation, the material or waste may have to be stored for an indefinite period of time while investments in needed facilities can be made. Contact the applicable state agency for assistance if permanent waste management options cannot be found.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Research possible options for different material and waste streams that meet environmental requirements prior to a disaster, including out-of-state or international options. If storage space may be needed, storage areas or guidelines for selecting storage locations should be pre-identified. It also is important to know the applicable storage regulations and requirements for each material and waste stream. This information can facilitate a disaster response.
Are there any barriers to the selected material and waste management approach?
Even if the decision-making process takes into account material and waste management considerations, there may be community and facility barriers to implementing the selected approach. For example, community concerns may exist with respect to the transportation of disaster-generated materials and wastes through communities or the management of them in communities. Additionally, worker safety concerns and lack of indemnification for material and waste management facilities are other possible barriers. These barriers, in addition to political concerns, may preempt all or part of a selected material and waste management approach.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Drafting a comprehensive pre-incident waste management plan prior to a disaster may mitigate or remove possible barriers. Pre-incident planning and preparation provide the whole community with the opportunity to work together to find acceptable material and waste management-related solutions before a disaster occurs.
How quickly should the materials and wastes be managed?
The timeline for debris management varies with the type of material and waste, the conditions at the site, and the community’s priorities and needs. Some materials and wastes may pose an immediate risk to human health and the environment and should be managed as quickly as possible, such as disease-contaminated carcasses, sewage, food, and leaking hazardous waste storage tanks. Other debris, such as scrap metal and vegetative debris, can be collected and stored for longer periods in accordance with applicable regulations and best practices, which provides additional time and space for segregation, processing, and other debris-related activities.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Pre-incident planning and preparation help ensure the most appropriate material and waste management options are implemented during the response to protect human health and the environment. Advanced identification or development of guidelines for selecting material and waste management sites and facilities can shorten the timeframe for material and waste management activities, which is especially important when managing time-sensitive debris streams.
What arrangements must be made to transport the materials and wastes to an off-site facility?
Arrangements must be made to transport materials and wastes to off-site waste management facilities. First, an appropriate off-site waste management facility for each material and waste stream should be identified and located. To be able to accept a material or waste stream, the facility must be properly permitted or licensed for it. Also, prior arrangements should be made with the facility to ensure that the material or waste stream will be accepted upon arrival. Sometimes, the facility needs advance notice before the material or waste arrives so that it can prepare for its delivery. The size of the material or waste may need to be reduced (e.g., ground, shredded) to facilitate its transportation or to meet facility requirements.
An alternate route to the facility should be planned in case the primary roads are affected by the disaster. Next, a sufficient number of transport vehicles should be acquired to transport each material and waste stream to its selected facility. Debris can be transported in trucks, railcars, and ships, for example, that meet the facility’s requirements. When necessary, these transport vehicles should have sufficient protection (e.g., liners) against accidental spillage into the environment. Transporters need a manifest when transporting hazardous waste, and they must adhere to applicable U.S. Department of Transportation, state, local, tribal, and territorial requirements, including placarding and possible additional security. Hazardous waste transporters also need EPA identification numbers, and some states require transporters to have permits or licenses. Finally, the materials and wastes must be packaged, handled, and labeled in accordance with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial requirements.
How Pre-Incident Debris Management Planning Can Help:
Note that pre-incident planning and preparation, such as pre-negotiated contracts with transporters, can help facilitate these arrangements and limit the time and resources needed for material and waste management activities during a disaster response. Additionally, planning can help mitigate concern from communities and waste management facilities that might turn away materials and wastes associated with a disaster.
Role of Waste Management Before and During a Disaster
View the text for the graphic above.
Interrelatedness of Pre-Incident Waste Management Activities
