Eliminating Hazardous Waste Op-ed

• Published in: The New York times
• Main Author: Warren R. Muir and Joanne D. Underwood
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, N.Y New York Times Company 01.08.1987
• Edition: Late Edition (East Coast)
• Subjects: HAZARDOUS AND TOXIC SUBSTANCES; MUIR, WARREN R; UNDERWOOD, JOANNA D; WASTE MATERIALS AND DISPOSAL; UNITED STATES
• ISSN: 0362-4331

LEAD: In the next two and one-half years, up to 56,000 companies producing hazardous wastes will be required by the Environmental Protection Agency to stop dumping some 570 billion pounds of such wastes a year into landfills. If past industrial practices persist, most of them will probably decide to invest in incinerators and other costly treatment methods to rid themselves of their toxic wastes. In the next two and one-half years, up to 56,000 companies producing hazardous wastes will be required by the Environmental Protection Agency to stop dumping some 570 billion pounds of such wastes a year into landfills. If past industrial practices persist, most of them will probably decide to invest in incinerators and other costly treatment methods to rid themselves of their toxic wastes. Unfortunately, in many cases these alternatives will be unnecessarily costly and will inevitably shift some of the polluting material from the land into the air or local waterways. One reason is that current laws designed to control wastes still have many loopholes that permit discharges of toxic wastes into landfills and waterways. Some of the biggest discharges of toxic wastes have been, and still are, wastes legally injected into deep wells, some of which have sprung leaks, contaminating local ground water sources.