Destruction Technologies for Polychlorinated Biphenyls

As of December 1981 the list of approved landfills is as follows:

• Cecos
  Niagara Falls, NY
  
• SCA Chemical Services
  Model City, NY
  
• Waste Management of Alabama*
  Livingston, AL
  
• Cecos*
  Williamsburg, OH
  
• Casmalia Disposal
  Santa Barbara County, CA
  
• US Ecology
  Hye County, NE
  
• Chemical Nuclear Systems*
  Arlington, OR
  
• Wescon*
  Grand View, ID
  
• Chemical Waste Company
  Calaman Hills, CA

* Landfill approved to accept liquid contaminated with 50-500 ppm PCBs. All others can accept only solids, such as drained transformers, and capacitors, soils, rags, etc., contaminated with low levels of PCBs.

3.3 Size of Current Canadian PCB Problem

The PCBs originally used in Canada, i.e. prior to controls implementation, amounted to approximately 35 000 tonnes. The inventory of PCBs currently in use or in storage in Canada was collected from the Regions of the Environmental Protection Service of Environment Canada. The totals by province are listed in Table 2 and are summarized below according to use:

* includes electromagnets

PCBs presently in storage for use or awaiting disposal are listed in Table 3. These are quantities which are not prohibited by government regulations. In addition there is a quantity in private storage by two companies in the PCB waste management business (Table 4). There is considerable uncertainty in the precise amount of PCB stored by these two companies as the wastes have been placed in storage tanks with other waste materials. The PCB content is estimated to be between 50% and 70%. Finally the distribution of PCBs by industry group is provided in Table 5.

The rate of disposal of PCBs in Canada will depend on the attrition of transformers. This can be expected to take in the order of at least 45 years.

* Actual PCB content in the liquids would be no higher than 70% and more likely 50% meaning 650 000 to 900 000 kg in storage. (Evans, G., pers., comm., 1981).