National Academies Press: OpenBook

Hazards: Technology and Fairness (1986)

Chapter: Economic, Legal, and Practical Problems in Hazardous Waste Cleanup and Management

« Previous: PART 3 MANAGING TECHNOLOGICAL HAZARDS
Suggested Citation:"Economic, Legal, and Practical Problems in Hazardous Waste Cleanup and Management." National Academy of Engineering. 1986. Hazards: Technology and Fairness. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/650.
×
Page 167

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

ECONOMIC, LEGAL, AND PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN HAZARDOUS WASTE 167 CLEANUP AND MANAGEMENT original typesetting files. Page breaks are true to the original; line lengths, word breaks, heading styles, and other typesetting-specific formatting, however, cannot be About this PDF file: This new digital representation of the original work has been recomposed from XML files created from the original paper book, not from the retained, and some typographic errors may have been accidentally inserted. Please use the print version of this publication as the authoritative version for attribution. Economic, Legal, and Practical Problems in Hazardous Waste Cleanup and Management Victoria J. Tschinkel Vacationers in Florida usually do not think about the possibility of pollution in the Sunshine State. Instead, images of white sandy beaches, palm trees, oranges, and bountiful freshwater lakes come to mind. It is true that Florida is not highly industrialized. Instead, the state's problems originate from a large number of small-quantity generators of hazardous waste. Florida is among the top 20 hazardous-waste-producing states in the nation and produces 3.2 million tons of hazardous waste each year. The state's 37 Superfund sites place Florida sixth in the nation among states with Superfund sites. These sites, along with 70,000 gasoline tanks and 10,000 registered pesticides in the state, are threats to the groundwater, which provides more than 90 percent of the state's citizens with drinking water. Unfortunately, these supplies have proved vulnerable to contamination because of the high water table and the porosity of the soils. Obviously, long-term solutions are needed for the proper management of waste produced by all generators—but especially by the small-quantity generators. In addition, it is imperative to avoid problems such as those now being experienced, including 123 cases of confirmed groundwater contamination from toxic chemicals, and a similar number from gasoline-and diesel-storage facilities. There are many controversies surrounding toxic chemicals in the environment—from setting standards, to allocating responsibilities should something go wrong. A few examples of issues that we in Florida have faced in cleaning up hazardous waste sites will illustrate these dilemmas. As we have attempted to control pollution at these sites and to clean them

Next: HOW CLEAN IS CLEAN? »
Hazards: Technology and Fairness Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $55.00
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

"In the burgeoning literature on technological hazards, this volume is one of the best," states Choice in a three-part approach, it addresses the moral, scientific, social, and commercial questions inherent in hazards management. Part I discusses how best to regulate hazards arising from chronic, low-level exposures and from low-probability events when science is unable to assign causes or estimate consequences of such hazards; Part II examines fairness in the distribution of risks and benefits of potentially hazardous technologies; and Part III presents practical lessons and cautions about managing hazardous technologies. Together, the three sections put hazard management into perspective, providing a broad spectrum of views and information.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!