Treatment of Heavy Metal Contaminated Waste

Abstract : Heavy metal (HM) contaminated waste is a major concern to Army and Department of Defense (DoD) installations due to the total volume and number of sites with this type of waste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) strictly regulates the disposal and treatment of hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which classifies the HM-contaminated waste as hazardous by either definition (e.g., listed) or characteristic. By performing the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP), wastes are tested to determine the leachable contaminant content to decide whether the samples fall within the strict EPA requirements for treatment of hazardous wastes. The vendor products in this testing were used as received for stabilization of standard wastes with the generic procedure provided by the manufacturer. These tests showed that the stabilization can depend on a number of factors, including the initial amount of free metal available to leach, the form of the solid matrix, the total amount of all metals (co-contaminants), and the pH, stressing the need for complete testing of a stabilization product with a particular waste to evaluate the product's performance.