Hazardous Waste Contamination & Treatment Risk Assessment Geohydrology & Contaminant Transport - Essay Example

In 1981, it was discovered by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, that the company was disposing its waste inappropriately, through pouring the waste sludge on the parking lot, while also disposing the solvents into an a drain leading to an abandoned septic system (NPL, 2013). The health department of the state then tested the wells in the vicinity of the company and found them to be contaminated with Trichloroethylene (TCE). The company then installed carbon filters on its well system and those of some neighboring homes, but later closed down in 1985, without fulfilling the requirement for the waste and toxic contaminant cleanup (NPL, 2013). b. How it was contaminated The sludge dumped by this company on the drainage system and parking lot was found to contain a hazardous contaminant called Trichloroethylene (NPL, 2013).

The company found its way on the Superfund Site List in December 1982, after having dumped waste products in the form of sludge and solvents on its site, since 1968 to 1981 (NPL, 2013). c. The contaminants of concern Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a colorless liquid that is used as a solvent to remove grease from any metallic components, and is also used as a component in spot removers, paint removers and also adhesives (NPL, 2013). This colorless liquid has a sweet scented smell and is inflammable, and the sweet scent is even projected when the substance is burning.

Trichloroethylene as a contaminant dissolves in little water, but remains longer in ground water, especially in the water wells (NPL, 2013). However, considering that it is vaporizable, whenever it comes into the surface of soils or water, the chemical components vaporizes into the air, but it vaporizes slowly from the soil than surface waters, considering that it attaches to particles and can remain there for long. Despite the fact that it does not build-up easily in plants and animals, trichloroethylene sticks to water and soil particles, which eventually causes it to settle down at the lower sediment levels in a water body or a water wells (NPL, 2013).

The trichloroethylene exposure can occur through breathing in air that contains the vapors of the chemical, or even through drinking or swimming in the water that is already contaminated by the chemical (NPL, 2013). It can also be contacted through using showering water that is already contaminated with the trichloroethylene chemical component, this time through breathing in the vapors and also through skin contact. The health effects of trichloroethylene on humans depends on the amount that is ether ingested or breathed in.

when small amounts of trichloroethylene are breathed in, they may cause the individual to suffer from headaches, dizziness and lung irritations (NPL, 2013). However, when the amount of the trichloroethylene breathed increases, it may cause more fatal health conditions, such as unconsciousness and impaired heart functions and to the extreme, death (NPL, 2013). Additionally, whenever trichloroethylene is breathed for long, notwithstanding that it could be in small amounts, it can easily result to the damage of the nerves, as well as the damage and impairment of the kidney and the liver (NPL, 2013).

The same effects of breathing large amounts of trichloroethylene are also felt whenever large amounts of the same chemical compound is ingested through drinking, where impaired heart