NCD980602163_19820111_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Atlanta Constitution article-OCR

THE ATLAlNTA
CONSTITUTION
For 113 Years the South's Standard Newspaper
A TI.ANTA, CA. 30302. MONDAY• JANUARYi 11. 1982
Atlanta Firm Has Solution
For Toxic PCB Problem
By Steve Johnso•
Co,ulilulioft SlaN Wrilll'
An Atlanta company i5 one of a hand•
ful of firms that have developed a
promising method for resolving•one of
the nalion's toughest environmental
problems: converting toxic polychlori-
nated biphenyls (better known as PCBs)
into hannless waste material.
The firm, PPM Inc., was founded last
year by Dr. Louis Centofanti, fonner
bead of the federal Energy Department's
Southeast regional office and the inven-
tor of a chemical process used to treat
lhe PCBs.
PCBs were widely used in the electric
utility industry, particularly in insulaling
fluids used in transformers, before being
banned by the federal government
several years ago. But the utility indus-
try now must find a way to dispose of an
estimated 750 million pounds of PCBs
contained in contaminated equipment
and oil.
Besides being tot¥=, PCBs are "e:r•
tremely oon-biodegtldable and will last
virtually forever," ➔d Centofanti, a for-
mer chemistry profes.wr at Emory
University. "There's po way the environ-
ment can handle PCBs."
Currently, lhe toxic suhstaDc:es are ei-
ther buried in one ,er eight hazardous
waste landfills certif'ed for PCB storage
or burned in lhree in~inerators operating
in lhe United St.ales. !The costs of either
method are high, ho\!ever, in the range
of $6 to $15 per gallon of liquid contaio-
ing PCBs.
Using such methods, utilities may
spend as much as $~ billion over the
next decade to clean pP all of lheir ~n-
t.aminated oil and eq¥ipment, accordin_g
to Dr. Ralph Pertac, director of the envi-
ronmental asseMment 1department at the
Electric Power R~rb Institute.
'But the chemical process used by
PPM and similar me ods used by com-
peting firms cost froni $3 to $6 per Jal·
See PCBs, Page 4-C
-----PCBs • CoAtla1ed From P11e 1-C
Ion, depending on the level of PCB con-
wnination.
"We'se glad to see the alternative
disposal methods," said Steve B~h. a
chemical engineer who reviews PCB-
handling applicatioaa for the EPA's
Kansas City office •
Wilh lhe cbemical process, "there is
DO PCB re3idue," said Roy Clark., chief
of the pesticide and toxic substance
br&DCb of EPA's AUanta office. "That's
lhe beautiful part of it."
Although the precise methods vary
from company to (ompany, most of the
chemical processes remove all trace of
thtrPCBs from oil or other fluids, allow-
ing it to be re-med. while converting the
PC'Bs into a lwmles.1 salt.
'rbus far, only one firm, Sunohio, a
partnership formed by lhe Sun Co. and
the Ohio Transformer Co., has been
awarded a permit by the EPA to begin
commercial operation with its chemical
treatment proct!SS. But half a dozen
other companies -includin1 PPM -
are near approval, according to Busch
and Clark.
In the largest test ever of the chemi-
cal method, Suoohio recently success-
fully cleaned %5,000 gallons of contami-
nated oil for Georgia Power Co. The
firm now bas five mobile PCB treatment
units in operation, located in the South-
east, Northeast and Midwest, according
to Gary Gibson, a spokesman for Suno-
hio.
PPM successfully demomtrated its
chemic.1l process for the EPA several
month., ago, cleaning 17,000 galloas of
contaminated transformer fluid for ~ Citv Power & Lwit Co. I A major attraction of both Sanohio abd PPM's approaches is that tbe equip-
ment used is mobile, eliminating the
need to move the toxic substances to a cimtral facility. PPM's cIWlSi.Dg unit.
for example, is mounted on a truckbed
i1 is accompanied by a mobile labora-
ry carried in a van.
iven the amount of PCBs to be
ted, lhere i5 room for a number of
films in lhe field, Centofanti said. PPM
plans to keep its first unit operating in
the Midwest, but will add a second uni\
thls year which will pr®ably be bead-
q~red in Atlanta or Texas, be said.
Over lhe next year and a half, the
fiddgllng firm plam to build five addi-tid,n.al units, ~ at a cost of approxi-
mately ,100.000, Cciito1uti said. I