The Ambient Water Quality Criteria that were promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1980 included water concentration levels which, for many pollutants, were so low as to be unmeasurable by standard analytical methods. Criteria for controlling toxics in municipal sludge would likely pose similar problems of sampling and analysis. Risk assessment methodologies recently developed by the U.S. EPA provide criteria derivation procedures for each of the following sludge management practices: land application (including distribution and marketing), landfilling, incineration, and ocean disposal. These methodologies recommend that numerical limits on toxicant concentrations in sludge, or on rates of toxicant disposal, should be used to minimize risk to human health and the environment. Implementation of these numerical criteria would require refinement of sampling and analytical techniques for sludges, and various types of field validation studies would be needed to ensure that the criteria are appropriately protective.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing comprehensive technical regulations under the Clean Water Act Section 405(d) on the reuse and disposal of municipal wastewater sludge. The reuse and disposal options are land application (including distribution and marketing), landfilling, incineration, and ocean disposal. This paper identifies the key questions to be addressed by EPA and the tasks and major steps to pursue in answering these key questions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.