Axios Report: Rising sea levels threaten hazardous waste facilities along U.S. coast

Many hazardous waste facilities are in areas with some risk of one or more climate change threats (e.g., sea level rise, increased storm surge, groundwater table rise, wildfires, and extreme heat). 

Legacy contaminated sites that have traditionally been placed near rivers, ports, and transport routes will face higher risks from climate change impacts.

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• Jared Whalen,
• Andrew Freedman

8 hours ago -Energy & Environment

Rising sea levels threaten hazardous waste facilities along U.S. coast

Data: Mapbox, NOAA, EPA; Map: Jared Whalen/Axios

Sea level rise due to climate change is threatening hazardous waste management infrastructure along U.S. coastlines, according to an EPA report released earlier this year.
Why it matters: 1.6 million tons of hazardous waste are stored at facilities that would be put at risk if sea levels rose by five or more feet compared to 2000 levels.

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Many hazardous waste facilities are in areas with some risk of one or more climate change threats (e.g., sea level rise, increased storm surge, groundwater table rise, wildfires, and extreme heat). Legacy contaminated sites that have traditionally been placed near rivers, ports, and transport routes will face higher risks from climate change impacts.

Rising sea levels will eventually expand the footprint of flooding; water from adjacent estuaries and bays will flood into communities and encounter previously unaffected urban infrastructure. While flooding is the principal concern, it's important to consider that the increasing temperatures and changes in water runoff can also adversely affect site identification, investigation, and cleanups. Unplanned, climate-driven conditions can also compromise facility equipment and site remediation. It is imperative that climate impacts are taken into consideration now.

Effects of Coastal Sea Level Rise on US Hazardous Waste

May 18, 2023  10 minute read

A slider map displaying coastal sea level rise scenarios across the United States. *Please note: The "2022 Interagency Sea Level Rise Technical Report" predicts relative sea level along the U.S. coastline to reach between 0.6-2.2 meters (almost 2 to about 7 feet) in 2100, compared to sea level in 2000. The Report also predicts that by 2050, the expected relative sea level will cause tide and storm surge heights to increase and will lead to major and moderate high tide flood events occurring as frequently as moderate and minor high tide flood events occur today. EPA is showing up to 10 feet on the slider for demonstration purposes only. Many factors can impact sea level rise, including greenhouse gas emissions, natural variability, melting glaciers, and actions taken by the U.S. and other countries could mitigate climate change.

Coastal flooding can increase the risk that hazardous waste management infrastructure or cleanup remedies will fail, putting people at risk of exposure to harmful chemicals. EPA developed this data visualization to educate and empower communities to better prepare and become more resilient to the potentially damaging effects of climate change.

EPA is committed to advancing the goals of environmental protection and environmental justice for all Americans. Vulnerable populations situated in coastal communities may be at even greater risk from climate change impacts. More than 40 percent of Americans live near the coast, and more than $1 trillion of property could be at risk as climate change intensifies, making it increasingly more important for communities to consider how facilities could be affected by a changing climate.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, population density is over five times greater in shoreline counties than the U.S. average. Consequently, coastal risks directly affect a large proportion of Americans. Coastal communities also face different issues than inland communities. These can include risks from high-tide flooding, hurricanes, erosion, and warming oceans.

Based on findings from the "2022 Interagency Sea Level Rise Technical Report," in a scenario with the lowest emissions, global mean sea level could rise about one foot above 2000 levels by 2100. On the pathway with the highest rates of emissions, global mean sea level could be as much as six and a half feet higher in 2100 than it was in 2000. Sea level rise in the U.S. is projected to be higher than the global average by about an extra foot in certain regions. The chart below of possible pathways for future sea level rise provides additional context on possible trajectories for sea level rise through 2100.

 Observed sea level from 2000-2018, with future sea level through 2100 for three future pathways (colored lines). The pathways differ based on different potential future rates of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and differences in the plausible rates of glacier and ice sheet loss. NOAA Climate.gov graph, adapted from Sweet, et al., 2022.

Effects on Hazardous Waste Facilities

Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities (TSDFs) are responsible for the safe management of the nation's hazardous waste as they provide temporary storage and final treatment or disposal for hazardous wastes. These hazardous wastes can come in the form of a liquid, solid, contained gaseous material, or sludge. Common examples of wastes that are managed by TSDFs include discarded solvents used for industrial cleaning, automotive paint waste, toxic metal-bearing dust from steel production, and tank sludges from chemical manufacturing.

As the name implies, the roles of TSDFs vary:

• Treatment facilities turn waste into forms that can be properly disposed of.
• Storage facilities protect the wastes by storing them in tanks, containers, or containment buildings.
• Disposal facilities like landfills deposit and cover treated hazardous wastes, and incinerators destroy toxic constituents in hazardous waste and reduce the volume of waste that needs to be disposed of.

For example, when a steel manufacturer uses an electric arc furnace, a dust is created which is a hazardous waste because it has high concentrations of dangerous metals, including zinc. This dust is then sent to a TSDF for treatment (i.e., metal recovery to recover the zinc) before the waste can then be safely disposed of.

Depending on the risk mitigation actions a TSDF may have already taken, potential impacts from sea level rise can lead to contaminant releases from landfills and the movement of these pollutants into groundwater supplies. Other climate impacts such as flooding and washout from extreme precipitation events could transport contaminants in surface waters/runoff to downstream populations. EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) is currently evaluating the vulnerability of certain solid waste management facilities and adaptation strategies to increase their resilience to climate change (ORD report).

As sea levels rise, so do the risks to infrastructure along the coasts. If risks are unaddressed, hazardous waste facilities like landfills along the coasts will remain vulnerable. It is critical to assess and plan for potential impacts on facilities from climate-related threats, including whether hazard mitigation is needed to protect nearby populations from risks associated with the release of pollutants.

According to EPA's "Biennial Report" data from 2019, approximately 460 TSDFs are in coastal counties, managing a total of 17 million tons of waste. In 2019, 1.6 million tons of hazardous waste were managed at facilities that would be affected by five or more feet of sea level rise. That includes waste from over 55 TSDFs. This height range falls in between the intermediate-low to intermediate-high scenarios of sea level rise (view image above). Please note we include several data considerations at the bottom of this web page.

Types of Waste Affected

There are hundreds of specific industrial sources of hazardous waste. EPA has applied listing criteria to identify these various waste streams. Hazardous waste listings are organized into four groups:

• The F list - The F list includes wastes from certain common industrial and manufacturing processes. Because the processes generating these wastes can occur in different sectors of industry, the F list wastes are known as wastes from nonspecific sources.
• The K list - The K list includes wastes from specific industries. As a result, K list wastes are known as wastes from specific sources.
• The P list and the U list - These two lists include pure or commercial grade formulations of specific unused chemicals. Chemicals are included on the P list if they are acutely toxic. A chemical is acutely toxic if it is fatal to humans in low doses, if scientific studies have shown that it has lethal effects on experimental organisms, or if it causes serious irreversible or incapacitating illness. The U list is generally comprised of chemicals that are toxic, but also includes chemicals that display other characteristics, such as ignitability or reactivity.

In addition, some wastes are considered hazardous because they exhibit hazardous characteristics. Characteristic wastes exhibit measurable properties which indicate that a waste poses enough of a threat to warrant regulation as hazardous waste. These hazardous characteristics are ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity. For example, some wastes may not meet any listing description because they do not originate from specific industrial or process sources, but the waste may still pose threats to human health and the environment. More information on these waste types can be found here.

Physical Impacts to Hazardous Waste Facilities

According to the 2019 ORD report, " Vulnerability of Waste Infrastructure to Climate Induced Impacts in Coastal Communities," the EPA notes that sea level rise "coupled with other climate-induced impacts such as more frequent and intense heavy precipitation events, hurricanes and resulting storm surges, and [an] increase in [the] number of tidal floods (nuisance floods), may increase recurring damage to municipal infrastructure, including waste management facilities." For example, rising sea levels could impact water tables, placing them in direct contact with landfills. Although landfills are constructed with liners to act as barriers between the waste inside the landfill and the soil surrounding it, the location of the water table would have been considered early in the permitting process, and changes to the level of the water table would not have been included in the landfill's approved engineering plans. A predicted increase in storm surges, also documented in the "2022 Interagency Sea Level Rise Technical Report," is an important reason to show up to 10 feet on the slider in the tool above. Temperature predictions in the Interagency Report come from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6; IPCC, 2021a), through the efforts of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Sea Level Change Team; updates include adjustments to the temporal trajectories and exceedance probabilities of these scenarios based upon end-of-century global temperatures.

A facility-by-facility analysis would be necessary to properly determine the specific risks for each facility to mitigate for the unforeseen threats to hazardous waste management units due to climate change. Measures that can be taken to help protect vulnerable hazardous waste facilities from damage due to climate change include:

• Constructing physical barriers (e.g., sand cap, retaining wall) to contain contaminants that are designed or constructed to withstand the identified climate threat (e.g., flooding, intense storms, fire);
• Placing engineering controls (e.g., pumps, electrical equipment) that are necessary for properly managing and containing wastes in locations that have a low likelihood of being affected by the identified climate threat;
• Designing containment, monitoring and treatment systems, and subgrade infrastructure to withstand changing conditions from the identified climate threat; and
• Designing caps that are resilient or resistant to the identified threat, e.g., use drought-resistant plants for a vegetated soil cap for long-term erosion control.

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