NCD980602163_19820902_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Letter from Attorney Glenn Dunn to Mark E. Fogel-OCR

I
DIVISION OF HEAL TH SERVICES
P.O . Box 2091
Raleigh, N.C. 27602-2091
Mr. Mark E. Fogel
Attorney at Law
Capital Club Building
16 West Martin Street
Suite llOO
Raleigh, North Carolina 27604
Dear Mark:
Ronald H. Levine, M.D., M.P.H.
ST A TE HEAL TH DIRECTOR
September 2, 1982
This letter is in response to your letter of July 29, 1982, in which you
question this Branch's authority and reasons p~ohibiting disr,osal of Ful ler's
earth containing 25 parts per million or less of PCB's in a communit y l andfill.
The authority for PCB management, at concentrations above 50 ppm, lies
with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Toxic Substances Control
Act (TSCA). North Carolina has not adopted regulations pursuant to TSCA. Regula-
tory Control of PCB contaminated materials with a concentration of less than
50 ppm is under authority of the North Carolina Solid Waste Management Act,
and since such material is not a hazardous waste, it is controlled by the Solid
Waste regulations, not the hazardous waste regulations. The solid waste rules
are not inconsistent with the states uniform environmental policy (ie . statutory
provision) of having standards no more stringent than federal standards beca use
that provision expressly applies only to the hazardous waste rules. Fu~thermore
PCB at concentrations less than 50 ppm are not regula t ed as a hazardous waste
at all at the federal level.
We agree that this policy is expensive, but not that it does not r esult in
any compensating benefit to the environment or public health.
It has been demonstrated tha t some types of PCB interact with the normally
heterogenous chemical, physical and biological matrix of routine solid waste
and PCB and metabolites exfiltrate from landfill sites to groundwater and/or
surfacewater.
The sanitary landfills in North Carolina are not lined nor have they leachate
collection systems to prevent PCB infiltration. Once low levels of PCB enter
the groundwater or surfacewater it is technically impractical if not impos sible,
to perform remedial aciton. Remedial action would require that groundwater PCB
concentrations be restored to zero, which is essentially impossible. Surface
water standards are one part per billion;and, for remedial purposes, in an open
environment, makes remedial action prohibitively expensive. Therefore the
North Carolina Solid Waste policy is one of preventive management r a ther than
remedial management.
ST A TE OF NORTH CAROLINA J:Jm'); B Hunt, J~/• Soroh T Mor-row MD ,vi PH DEPARfME:NT OF HUMAN RESOURCES . ' GOVERNOR SECRET ARY
Mr. Mark E. Fogel
Page 2
September 2, 1982
This Agency's prevention management policy is supported by many other
factors. The human (public) health consequences of low levels chronic
exposure to PCB are not well documented. Current chemical inovations such
as chlorine stripping and PCB molecule distruction, biological treatment of
wastewaters with low levels of PCB, the volume of PCB material can be reduced
before disposal in Chemical Waste Landfills, thus greatly reducing the cost
of shipping and disposal.
This Agency has polled many counties for their policy ,concerning low
level PCB materials and the answers were all negative. In addition, the
Hazardous Waste Landfill operated by SCA refuses to accept PCB's and the
facility proposed in North Carolina by Chem Security will not accept PCB's
at any concentrations. It is clear that this Agency is in the majority view
in its reluctance to permit disposal of PCB's, particularly in routine Sanitary
Landfills. In fact, even if the state ruled that it was acceptable, it is
very doubtful that the counties would allow it:.
I hope that this response adequately sets out this agency's position
and the reasons for it. If I can be of further help to you, please let me
know.
GD:sms
Glenn Dunn, Attorney
Solid & Hazardous Waste Management Branch
Environmental Health Section