Browse all Channels
North Carolina Division of Air Quality
,
,

  2. Air Monitoring Information to Aid in the Assessment of Potential ...

Air Monitoring Information to Aid in the Assessment of Potential Human Health Risk from an Ongoing Landfill Fire

0

Courtesy of North Carolina Division of Air Quality

 Abstract

The North Carolina Division of Air Quality (DAQ) was asked by the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Section (OEES) of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to provide air monitoring information to aid in the assessment of potential human health risk from an ongoing landfill fire in Dare County. The Air Toxics Analytical Support Team (ATAST) arrived on site the evening of December 30, 1998. Air monitoring was conducted that evening and the following day for carbon monoxide, organic vapors and several toxic gases. Samples were collected at the source of the fire, on the perimeter of the landfill and in potentially impacted residential areas. Tests on the landfill fire smoke confirmed high levels of carbon monoxide and organic vapors. However, these constituents were not detected at significantly elevated levels at off-site or residential locations. Chemical characterization using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy methods identified several typical combustion byproducts at sub-part per million levels. Monitoring results were negative for toxic agents such as phosgene, mercury vapor, and acid and basic gases.

Download the full document in pdf format (86 Kb)

Related articles

  • Keeping APCr out of Landfill

    The CIWM have recently featured an article by our very own Dr David Deegan in the latest edition of their magazine. The article explains why Tetronics International were unhappy to be informed recently that Defra ministers had taken the decision not to remove the derogation that allows Air Pollution Control residues to be disposed of to landfill at three times the standard waste acceptance criteria (3xWAC) threshold for hazardous landfill. Chief technical officer, David Deegan, explains why below: The waste...

  • Tire Shredding: Alternatives to Landfills

    For many reasons, whole tires pose a major problem to landfills. The most obvious is the inefficient use of space. The actual rubber of a tire takes up only a small fraction of the space a tire occupies, and the rest of the space is wasted. A less obvious but far more serious problem is that tires may trap methane gasses when buried with other garbage in landfills. When this happens, the tires can float like balloons to the surface, sometimes rupturing the protective liners that keep contaminants from polluting...

  • MSW Management: Safely Countering the Rise of Landfill Odors

    One of the core challenges of landfill and compost site management is fighting the rise of foul odors. In addition, as communities expand further out from previous areas, they eventually become neighbors to landfills – calling for a comprehensive odor-control approach to countering odor complaints. In fact, compared to other industrial applications such as wastewater treatment and asphalt production, landfills face more challenges in fighting odors. Moisture, humidity, agitation, and summer temperature can...

  • Landfill pumps for Gas well dewatering - Case Study

    AutoPumps Keep the Power On for Thousands of Florida Homes Waste Management`s Springhill Regional Landfill near Campbellton, Florida generates "green" energy by extracting and burning the methane in landfill gas. Its $7 million landfill gas energy (LFGE) plant, with six large Caterpillar engines running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is capable of producing 4.8 million watts of power. Most of the energy goes to the Alabama Electric Cooperative for distribution to customers, enough to supply the electrical energy...

  • AutoPumps Manage Landfill Leachate to Keep Methane Flowing - Case Study

    Green Bay adds Gas-to-Energy Facility to 30-year-old Landfil Brown County East Landfill in Green Bay, Wisconsin recently completed a feasibility study that determined it would be economically sound to convert methane gas into electrical energy by electric generators to the site. Two new Cat 3516A+ engines are projected to come on line in December of this year, housed in a new 30 x 100 foot building that will also contain the other gas processing equipment. "We will be able to process 620 cfm through the system,...

Customer comments

No comments were found for Air Monitoring Information to Aid in the Assessment of Potential Human Health Risk from an Ongoing Landfill Fire. Be the first to comment!