A socio-historical interpretation of toxic waste sites: the case of Greater Boston

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, Jan, 1995 by Eric J. Krieg

Notes

1. National Research Council. Environmental Epidemiology: Public Health and Hazardous Wastes, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1991, 114.

2. The validity of TRI data is questionable for a number of reasons. First, it is self-reported by producers. Second, a number of industries, including plastics, are exempt from reporting. Third, unless a certain amount of waste is produced annually, it does not have to be reported.

3. Charlier (1993), in his study of waste sites in Memphis, calls for future research in this area.

4. Because of the high costs of waste handling, most waste is currently disposed of illegally or in unregulated manners. Ophuls and Boyan (1992, 151) report that the petro-chemical industry would have to increase its profits nine-fold to cover the costs of incinerating the present tonnage of toxic wastes produced. Consequently, the most common modes of disposal are direct air releases, deep-well injection, and illegal dumping (the source of most waste sites).

5. According to The Statistical Abstract of the Environment (Arsen J. Darnay, ed.), 1991, 91, from C & EN, Feb. 25, 1991, 12, form Leading Edge Reports. about 761 billion pounds of waste were handled by waste-handling industries in 1990 at what are referred to as facilities (roughly 12% of the total tonnage of wastes produced that year). As the cost of "properly" handling wastes increases, producers are more likely to dispose of it in a more cost-efficient manner, i.e deep-well injection, storage, illegal dumping, and exporting to the third world (Hilz, Christoph. The International Hazardous Waste Trade. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992, 40.). Consequently, there are a rising number of sites that must be cleaned. Current estimates place the number of hazardous waste sites in the U.S. anywhere from 60,000 (Darnay, 1991) to 439,000 (Rachel's Hazardous Waste News, #332, Apr. 8, 1993, Environmental Research Foundation: Annapolis, MD. From the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), 1989.

6. There are exceptions to this. Woburn, 10 miles to the north of Boston, has experienced over 200 years of industrial activity; but this should be considered the exception and not the rule. Until the 1950s, most industrial activity was much closer to the city itself.

7. Operationalizing the number of waste sites as an indicator of the level of toxics crisis does not come without its problems. First, as in other studies dealing with toxics, there is no measure of degree of toxicity between different sites. It is possible that the risks posed by a single site in one town could far outweigh the risks posed by ten sites in another town. Second, data that actually represents the true number of waste sites in an area, cannot be obtained because new sites are constantly being added and removed from all lists of state and federal priorities lists.

8. 1) REMEDIAL - sites at which cleanup actions have been completed and no further actions are planned; 2) CONFIRMED - sites at which there has been a release of oil and/or hazardous substances and cleanup action is required; 3) WAIVER - non-priority confirmed sites that DEP has authorized a private party to clean up; 4) DELETED - sites that have been investigated and the state has determined that no further assessment or cleanup is needed; 5) TO BE INVESTIGATED - sites that have yet to be investigates, but are considered to be probable cleanup sites. These are the same sites listed as "PRE-CLASSIFICATION" on priority status.