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But the book didn't tell me, when they do a clean up of all those dangerous drums of dangerous chemicals, where does that waste end up? In a more remote area, far away from people?
New Mexico, American's dumping ground.
And not just 'toxic waste', but pretty much anything that needs to go away, like Atari's video game failure in 1983, when hundreds of thousands of unsold cartridges and equipment were entombed in a landfill near Alamogordo.
We have plenty of room for landfills. Out of our 19 million sq mi of area, over the next century only 1000 sq mi of it (to a depth of 100 ft) will be used for our refuse. The problem is that suitable (ie- remote) sites are no longer available near the high density population centers, so more time, money & fuel will be spent transporting the junk to dumps.
Well engineered Incinerators are available that would permanently get rid of a huge volume of the stuff that would otherwise be going into a dump and not pollute, but ignorance leads to the NIMBY mindset. Used as fuel in the incinerators, the waste could go into generating electricity or steam to be piped for heating buildings or keeping roads and sidewalks snow &ice free on a community wide basis. Many communities actually did this over a century ago when steam was widely used in factories.) Brief History of the Grand Rapids Steam Heating Operation | History Grand Rapids This sort of thing was also done in Oak Park, IL and other places.
With apologies to PETA, we could be killing three birds with one stone.
We have plenty of room for landfills. Out of our 19 million sq mi of area, over the next century only 1000 sq mi of it (to a depth of 100 ft) will be used for our refuse. The problem is that suitable (ie- remote) sites are no longer available near the high density population centers, so more time, money & fuel will be spent transporting the junk to dumps.
Well engineered Incinerators are available that would permanently get rid of a huge volume of the stuff that would otherwise be going into a dump and not pollute, but ignorance leads to the NIMBY mindset. Used as fuel in the incinerators, the waste could go into generating electricity or steam to be piped for heating buildings or keeping roads and sidewalks snow &ice free on a community wide basis. Many communities actually did this over a century ago when steam was widely used in factories.) Brief History of the Grand Rapids Steam Heating Operation | History Grand Rapids This sort of thing was also done in Oak Park, IL and other places.
With apologies to PETA, we could be killing three birds with one stone.
Used motor oil is used by large fleet managers to heat their shops. For example, I know of a school bus maintenance facility that burned it in a furnace to keep the mechanics warm. Something like these:
I just finished reading a book on the Love Canal, that toxic waste dump created by Hooker Chemical in the 50's, 60's, and the book also stated there were, before the EPA, 28,000 toxic waste dumps scattered across the country. But the book didn't tell me, when they do a clean up of all those dangerous drums of dangerous chemicals, where does that waste end up? In a more remote area, far away from people? What to do with a 5 gallon drum of Dioxin, the most dangerous chemical you could image?
It depends on what it is. Some is incinerated, some is reused/recycled, a lot goes into lined landfills with controls that keep it out of groundwater. Fuel will degrade naturally over time and so it might be left in place to naturally attenuate. Fuel and some other contaminants will breakdown if oxygen is available so you might pump air into the ground/groundwater to speed up the breakdown process. Some sites you can add activated carbon or another chemical to the subsurface that will make the contaminant immobile and it is just left in place with legal restrictions placed on the property so it is left alone.
I don't know the answer but I am wondering the same thing when it comes to used dirty oil buried in underground tanks. Gas stations have those tanks emptied or maybe just removed when they fill up with old oil but what happens to it after that? Where does it go? and when the larger tank the company that gets paid to take it away where do they put the oil they remove from underground tanks on property from old homes, gas stations?
If it's "clean" oil, then it can be re-refined. "Clean" meaning it's not loaded with chlorinated hydrocarbons or heavy metals. Or radio-active.
In the USA, every underground storage tank was to be pulled and replaced with new, In 1998. This is nation wide FED EPA regs. Any that were/are not retrofitted are deemed "out-of-compliance."
Not exactly toxic, but plastics have become a major constituent of the volume going into our landfills. Here's an interesting short film from WI PBS on the back story behind the plastics recycling codes we see on bottles and such. It all started out of concern that the Sauk County, WI landfill was about to be filled and closed. Unfortunately, recycled plastic is of lower quality and has little market demand.....It would make more sense to burn it for energy production. https://wisconsin.pbslearningmedia.o...media-gallery/
If it's "clean" oil, then it can be re-refined. "Clean" meaning it's not loaded with chlorinated hydrocarbons or heavy metals. Or radio-active.
In the USA, every underground storage tank was to be pulled and replaced with new, In 1998. This is nation wide FED EPA regs. Any that were/are not retrofitted are deemed "out-of-compliance."
The old black, yellow, red, white choo choo train oil tanks is what they pour into the underground dome they build. It seems to hook onto the top center similar to tanks that are outside the ground. That is what I see them doing. Also they took all the old oil drums they buried and removed them from the ground to make room to build the underground dome/tank and poured what was in them then crushed the old drums. Most of those old drums they dug up were really eroded.
So I am thinking it's used oil they are pouring in there. It's a company that goes to homes when they are sold and removes old drums. The smell is really strong everytime they pour more oil in there. One day if the family or son decides he doesn't want that job anymore people will wonder where the heck did that giant thing come from.
Going all electric won't hurt that company much since the automobiles will still need oil to run. At least that is how it looks to me. I might be wrong about that I'm still learning.
No, EVs don't need oil, just heavy grease for the bearings....
That's part of the foolish short-sightedness of The Green Agenda-- around 95% of a barrel of crude petroleum is gasoline, kerosene and lubricating oil. That will all become waste product (more problems) if we go to all EVs..,but we'll still need to pump & refine just as much crude because we still will need that other 5% (like grease) for other industrial uses.
No, EVs don't need oil, just heavy grease for the bearings....
That's part of the foolish short-sightedness of The Green Agenda-- around 95% of a barrel of crude petroleum is gasoline, kerosene and lubricating oil. That will all become waste product (more problems) if we go to all EVs..,but we'll still need to pump & refine just as much crude because we still will need that other 5% (like grease) for other industrial uses.
But would it cut down enough to not have so much of that stink permeating the areas when dumping into a gigantic underground dome tank? I am curious as to what maintenance would need to be done on EV's. It would be so much better if they let us ease into having all EV's and allow the hybrids first or both at the same time.
Either way I will be in my late 70's. I would be surprised to live that long.
One of the few advantages of EVs over ICE vehicles is the very much lower routine maintenance costs. Even the brake pads need less frequent replacement thanks to the regenerative braking function. OTOH-- an ICE can be used for several 100,000 miles without major repairs if given proper maintenance, while those very expensive battery packs may need replacement every few yrs if you run them down too often&/or charge them too quickly too often...
...which brings us to a major problem with disposal of EV battery packs-- toxic metals that are not recyclable at a cost effective level.
Most automotive engineers think the optimum way to go is with hybrids-- electric asstst of an ICE to give gas mileage in the 50mpg range, and avoiding the several drawbacks (weight, toxic pollution, long charge times &nasty fires) of big batteries.....Of course, the GM Geo was an ICE vehicle that got 50mpg 40 yrs ago, but the EPA put them out of business in the name of "saving the environment." Pretty stupid.
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