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Hazardous Waste Management: Exercise 3.8

This document contains 3 practice problems related to hazardous waste management: 1. A problem calculating how long it would take for radon concentration in a building to decrease from 1500 pCi/m3 to the recommended level of 4-8 pCi/m3. 2. A problem analyzing PCB contamination in a stream from leaking transformers, and determining if cleanup of the site reduced PCB levels sufficiently. 3. A problem requiring the creation of a table summarizing the properties, sources, and effects of the "Dirty Dozen" hazardous chemicals.

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101 views1 page

Hazardous Waste Management: Exercise 3.8

This document contains 3 practice problems related to hazardous waste management: 1. A problem calculating how long it would take for radon concentration in a building to decrease from 1500 pCi/m3 to the recommended level of 4-8 pCi/m3. 2. A problem analyzing PCB contamination in a stream from leaking transformers, and determining if cleanup of the site reduced PCB levels sufficiently. 3. A problem requiring the creation of a table summarizing the properties, sources, and effects of the "Dirty Dozen" hazardous chemicals.

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Exercise 3.

8
HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT ENV111
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Name:
AND ENGINEERING
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Prepare clean and clear solutions to the following problems. Highlight the final answer.

1. Radon 222 is released from the earth and can become trapped in buildings. Suppose the concentration measured in a college
classroom building is 1500 pCi/m3, which is significantly above the recommended remedial action level of 4 to 8 pCi/m 3 if all leaks
into the building are sealed (i.e., no more radon enters the building), how long will it take for the concentration of radon to reach
the recommended level?

2. Some old electrical transformers were stored in the basement of a university maintenance building, and were “forgotten.” One
day a worker entered the basement and saw that some sticky, oily substance was oozing out of one of the transformers, and into
a floor drain. He notified the director of grounds, who immediately realized the severity of the problem. They called in hazardous
waste consulting engineers who first of all took out the transformers and eliminated the source of the polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) that were leaking into the storm drain. Then they traced the drain to a little stream, and started taking water samples and
soil samples in the stream. They discovered that the water was at 0.12 mg/L PCB, and the soil ranged from 32 mg PCB/kg (dry
soil) to 0.5 mg/kg. The state environmental management required that streams contaminated with PCBs be cleaned so that the
stream is “free” of PCBs. Recall that PCBs are very toxic and extremely stable in the environment, and will biodegrade very
slowly. If nothing was done, the contaminant in the soil would remain for perhaps hundreds of years. The cleanup resulted in the
PCB concentration in the water being at 0.000073 mg/L. Was the treatment sufficient?

3. Prepare a table that shows the properties, sources and effects of the “Dirty Dozen”.

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