Documents Artificial Reefs Coral Reefs Eco half yearly report of Kuwait Environment (Arabic) Eco monthly report of additive June 99 UVABC (Arabic) Electricity in Kuwait Hazardous Waste Disposal Kestrels of Kuwait PET Red Tide (English) Red Tide (Arabic) 1-Eco-Conditions-Information-Copyrights-Trademarks-V2-2002 2-Eco-How to use this CD-V2-2002 3-Eco-Kuwait Environmental Strategy-V2-2002 EIA Booklet Hazardous Waste Disposal Abstract In this report, ECO is shedding the light on the issue of hazardous waste disposal in Kuwait. Before November 1999 Kuwait lacked environmentally friendly methods to deal with and dispose of hazardous waste. By November 1999 the Public Authority for Industry requested from all industries in Kuwait to dispose of all their hazardous solid waste in a specially prepared waste disposal site located in Shuiba area. Although by it self is not an environmentally preferable option due to the long-term adverse environmental and health impact, however, on the short term it can temporarily solves ones of Kuwait's chronic environmental problems. The sound solution to waste problem whether domestic, hazardous or biomedical is to look at the problem of waste in a holistic approach. This means dealing with waste in an integrated management approach e.g. having a clear policy, reduction from sources, treatment, recycling and adopting technologies that are environmental friendly. Extensive scientific data and studies exist world-wide that indicate links between adverse health impacts e.g. cancer and the exposure to hazardous waste. In this report ECO is only shedding the light to illustrate past and current status of waste disposal sites and practices in Kuwait mainly in a pictorial form in order that the reader can observe the scale of the problem. And till the moment of writing this report there is no ensurance that such non-environmentally friendly practices will not be practised or controlled. Another important issue is the rehabilitation of decommissioned waste disposal sites. This is a necessity in order to prevent adverse health impacts, soil and ground water contamination and to safe guard the sites for future generations. Definition of hazardous waste According to Miller, (1997) the EPA legally define hazardous waste as: "Any discarded solid or liquid material that: Contains one or more of 39 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic compounds at levels that exceed established limits (including many solvents, pesticides, and paint strippers); Catches fire easily (gasoline, paints,, and solvents); Is reactive or instable enough to explode or release toxic fumes (acids, bases, ammonia, chlorine bleach); Is capable of corroding metal containers such as tanks, drums, and barrels industrial, cleaning agents and oven and drain cleaners". Methods used to deal with hazardous waste There are several methods used to deal with hazardous waste. These include: Surface impoundment. This method depends on two major factors. The first is containment and the second storage. The storage can be above the ground or in a multi-story building that is specifically designed for such purpose. The waste should be contained and put into drums, sealed and stored. Underground impoundment. This method is used to store hazardous waste in state of the art underground vaults. Deep-well injection. This method is used to deal with liquid hazardous waste. Sites to be chosen for deep well injection require detailed seismic, geological and environmental investigation. Incineration. Thermal treatment of hazardous waste. Landfill. One of the methods used to dispose of hazardous waste is by using specially designed landfill. More than 70% of hazardous waste generated by the OECD member states (UK, Germany, Australia, USA and Scandinavian Countries) dispose of their hazardous waste in land (Goldsmith and Hildyard, 1994). Health and environmental concerns One of the main concerns when disposing of hazardous waste is soil and surface and ground water contamination. Surface and ground water is considered polluted when it contains sufficient concentrations of a chemical or biological agents that do harm to humans or other living organisms (Lloyd(a), 1999). The severity and magnitude of such pollution can be massive or contained. This can be related to the toxicity level of the waste, soil porosity and whether the soil is clay, sand, gravel, sandstone, limestone and quartizite. The more porous the soil the more permeable it can be. In general the sources of toxins in groundwater can be from the following sources: Toxins released from natural toxic sources such as the presence of arsenic in the soil. Toxins that are introduced by external factor e.g. dumping of hazardous waste. Toxins that are induced in which the naturally occurring toxic sources such as arsenic are disturbed due to human activities. According to (Ibid.) there are 3 status for contaminants in terms of their fluid phases and densities that might be present in groundwater. These are: An aqueous condition in which the pollutant can exist as a solute in the groundwater phase without density. A non-aqueous condition in which the pollutant is lighter than the ground waters such as oil. A non-aqueous condition in which the pollutant is heavier than the ground water e.g. solvents. As indicated previously, groundwater pollutants might migrate. The pattern of migration is mainly related to the site and soil characteristics. These include: Site topography. Soil type e.g. sand. Soil profile properties e.g. pH, soil porosity, microbial population, temperature, organic and organic contents. Hydraulic properties and conditions e.g. permeability, runoff potential, flooding frequency. Geological and hydro-geological factors e.g. ground water flow and subsurface geological features. Lloyd(b), (1999) indicate that the UK have established 3 vulnerability classes for soil. These are: Soils of high leaching potential in these soils they have littler ability to attenuate diffuse source pollutants. Non-adsorbed diffuse source pollutants and liquid discharges will percolate rapidly through them. Soils of intermediate leaching potential. These soils which have a moderate ability to attenuate diffuse source pollutants or in which it is possible that some non-adsorbed diffuse source pollutants and liquid discharges could penetrate the soil layer. Soils of low leaching potential. These are soils in which pollutants are unlikely to penetrate the soil layer because water movement is largely horizontal, or which have a large ability to attenuate diffuse source pollutants. It is also indicated that the higher the permeability the greater the vulnerability particularly in fractured systems. And the deeper the unsaturated zone the greater the opportunity for pollutant to attenuate. Understanding the ground water system in terms of hydraulic characteristics and boundaries governing water flow and porosity. The health of the public can be impacted by exposure to air pollutants emitted from incinerators, liners leaking hazardous waste or leachate and subsequent soil and ground water contamination and risk associated with the transportation of hazardous waste and facility operation. Past and current practices for the disposal of hazardous waste in Kuwait: The past practice can be declared as non-environmentally friendly. This is based on site surveys of all Kuwait's waste disposal sites. There is no control over the disposal of hazardous waste (liquid, semi-solid and solid) as these can be dumped anywhere on domestic landfill sites e.g. on the surface or in the bottom of the landfill site. In certain industrial areas, like Shuaiba, a pit is used to exist to dispose of hazardous waste. However, neither any kind of segregation for the hazardous waste was being done nor the pit was lined or designed in a sound environmental way to handle such waste. Also, monitoring programmes did not exist to monitor, for example, leachate and its migration. However, such pit was decommissioned and is not in use. However, in the 22nd of June 1998 Kuwait Municipality Council came with a resolution that states, that the council: "Agreed to demand from all parties that generates or export all types of hazardous waste to transport it to the solid and liquid reception and treatment facility at Shuaiba Industrial Area in accordance with the regulations of the Department of Environment Protection". Based on this resolution the Public Authority for Industry demanded in 18th of August 1999 that all industries located in Shuaiba Industrial Area such as the areas of Shauiba, Al-Ahmadi Port Refinery, Mina Abdullah Port Refinery, and other areas to transport all their solid hazardous waste to the designated facility at Shuiaba. A side of hazardous solid waste, the Environment Public Authority announced in September 1999 the need for the construction of an incineration in Shauiba Industrial Area to deal with chemicals generated from various government sectors such as Kuwait University, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait's hospitals, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense. The site is not optimally environmentally designed although it is lined. There are no proper surface storage areas to store, temporary, hazardous waste. It is only designed to deal with solid hazardous waste and it will be difficult to justify it use for liquid or semi-solid hazardous waste. Also, the design, role and operation of the leachate collection system are not clearly obvious in this landfill site. There are certain factors that need to be taken into consideration to fulfil health, safety and environment standards. These include: Ensuring that hazardous waste facilities are working within stringent environmental standards and regulations and monitored from Kuwait's EPA. That only solid hazardous waste to be disposed of in this site. Waste should be contained and is properly stored in the ground. Ensuring that the concerned body dealing with waste is handling hazardous waste according to their level of toxicity and also being able to manage the waste disposal facility in a sound environmental way. This can be achieved, for example, by appointing qualified staff, training the staff, establishing monitoring programmes for air pollutants and leachate and conducting environmental auditing. Ensuring that hazardous waste is segregated at source and are well labelled. That the staff should be qualified to run such facilities and manage them at times of emergencies. Ensuring that ISO 14001, 9001 and 9002 standards are adopted and implemented to ensure quality of work and to protect the environment and public health. Conclusion Shuiaba hazardous solid waste land fill site is the first step towards better and environmentally sound hazardous waste management in Kuwait. However, in many countries the practice of hazardous waste landfill has been restricted e.g. Netherlands and France. It will be only used on the short term and only for low toxicity waste. Also, the incineration of hazardous waste is not becoming preferable option due to the type of air pollutants that might be released specially dioxins. Kuwait should works toward greener options for hazardous waste disposal in the near future.