pollution prevention: a new approach for environmental improvement

Pollution Prevention: A New Approach tor Environmental lmprovement Harry Freeman Guest Editor Chief, Pollution Prevention Research Branch National Risk Management Research Laboratory, US Environmental Protection Agency Cincinnati, OH 45268 A person is travelling down the road one evening and sees a group of people gathered under a street light apparently searching for something. “What is going on?” he asks. “We are looking for Joe’s car keys,” a member of the group replies.” Our traveller asks, “ Did he lose them under this light.” “No,” the searcher replies, “He lost them over there in that dark place.” “Well, why aren’t you searching over there,” our traveller asks. “Because it is dark and we cannot see nearly as well over there as we can see over here.” A funny story, no doubt, but maybe not too unlike the real world when it may be necessary to find answers to problems in “dark“ areas in which we are not very comfortable searching. A case in point is environmental improvement in the 90’s and beyond. To date we have been very successful in obtaining answers from the comfortable well-lit area of new and better end-of-the-pipe control technologies. Tomorrow’s solutions to eliminating persistent pollution, at higher efficiencies than are being achieved today, may lie in pollution prevention. This means eliminating pollutants at the source, or even before they are created, an area that may be somewhat dark and unfamiliar to the environmental engineering profession. This special edition of Environmental Progress is devoted to several pollution prevention topics that may be of interest to today’s practicing engineer interested in venturing into the dark area. The articles were prepared by my EPA colleagues and myself to shed some small amount of light in the dark areas. Me hope you find the articles worthwhile and enjoyable. ACKNOWLFDGMENTS We wish to thank the individuals listed below for their excellent peer reviews of the articles appearing in this special issue. Mr. James White Environmental Protection Agency Mr. Terry Albrecht North Carolina Pollution Mr. Mike callahan Dr. Ann Rappaport Ms. Debbie Chenoweth US Army Corps of Engineers, Dr. James Fava Research Triangle Park, NC Jacobs Engineering, Pasadena, CA Tufts University, Medford, MA Prevention Program, Raleigh, NC USEPA, Washington, DC INFORM, Inc., New York, NY USEPA, Cincinnati, OH Mr. Reggie Cheatham Ms. Betty Fiihbeii Ms. El& Brady-Roberts Mr. Gamy Howell USEPA, Cincinnati, OH Cincinnati, O H Roy F. Weston, West Chester, PA Mr. Stephen Evanoff Lockheed Marietta Co. Litleton, C O University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA Dr. W. Reid Lea Dr. Joseph Swartzbaugh University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH Lawrence Associates, Inc., Dayton, OH Mr. Paul B. Hauwiller Mr. Frank Altmayer Scientific Control Laboratories, Inc., Chicago, IL American Institute for Pollution Prevention, Washington DC Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Livermore, CA University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH USEPA, Washington, DC Ms. Barbara Bush Mr. Michael Meltzer Mr. Jef€Stut.gill Dr. Peter Thompson Environmental Progress November 1995 (Vol. 14, No.4) N2

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Page 1: Pollution prevention: A new approach for environmental improvement

A person is travelling down the road one evening and sees a group of people gathered under a street light apparently searching for something. “What is going on?” he asks. “We are looking for Joe’s car keys,” a member of the group replies.” Our traveller asks, “ Did he lose them under this light.” “No,” the searcher replies, “He lost them over there in that

dark place.” “Well, why aren’t you searching over there,” our traveller asks. “Because it is dark and we cannot see nearly as well over there as we can see over here.” A funny story, no doubt, but maybe not too unlike the real world when it may be necessary to find answers to problems in “dark“ areas in which we are not very comfortable searching. A case in

point is environmental improvement in the 90’s and beyond. To date we have been very successful in obtaining answers from the comfortable well-lit area of new and better end-of-the-pipe control technologies. Tomorrow’s solutions to eliminating persistent pollution, at higher efficiencies than are being achieved today, may lie in pollution prevention. This means eliminating pollutants a t the source, or even before they are created, an area that may be somewhat dark and unfamiliar to the environmental engineering profession. This special edition of Environmental Progress is devoted to several pollution prevention topics that may be of interest to today’s practicing engineer interested in venturing into the dark area. The articles were prepared by my EPA colleagues and myself to shed some small amount of light in the dark areas. Me hope you find the articles worthwhile and enjoyable.

ACKNOWLFDGMENTS

We wish to thank the individuals listed below for their excellent peer reviews of the articles appearing in this special issue.

Mr. James White Environmental Protection Agency Mr. Terry Albrecht North Carolina Pollution

Mr. Mike callahan Dr. Ann Rappaport

Ms. Debbie Chenoweth US Army Corps of Engineers,

Dr. James Fava

Research Triangle Park, NC

Jacobs Engineering, Pasadena, CA

Tufts University, Medford, MA

Prevention Program, Raleigh, NC

USEPA, Washington, DC

INFORM, Inc., New York, NY USEPA, Cincinnati, OH