Contents | Agency Acronyms | Acknowledgements | Introduction | Executive Summary | State of the Air | State of the Water | State of the Land | Issues and Recommendations | Appendix A | Appendix B | Appendix C | Appendix D | Report Cover Page | About MCDEP | MCDEP Home Page
(Land Environmental Indicators)
The management of solid waste remains a complicated issue influenced by many factors including site feasibility, economics, and politics. Negative public health and environmental consequences such as surface and groundwater contamination, air pollution and disease transmission may result if solid waste is not properly managed or if excessive burdens are placed on existing management sites.
Because of the need to provide safeguards for public health, protect environmental resources and provide economic disposal options for generators, solid wastes have been grouped into categories which include Municipal Solid Waste, Construction and Demolition Waste, Land Clearing/Inert Debris/Yard Waste, Medical Waste, and Special Wastes including Household Hazardous Waste. Unless otherwise stated, the term "solid waste" when used in this report shall include all these categories. The facilities that manage or accept these waste types for disposal are regulated (sited, designed, permitted, operated and closed) based on the potential of the facility to impact negatively the health and safety of citizens, employees working at those facilities and the natural environment.
The accepted approach to effective solid waste management integrates source reduction of wastes, reuse, recycling, composting, waste to energy (incineration) and landfilling. This integrated method is accepted industry wide and is encouraged by the USEPA and the State of North Carolina. Integrated solid waste management allows for recovery of resources through reuse, recycling and/or the generation of electricity from waste incineration and conserves landfill space. Solid waste management in Mecklenburg County for 1997 included all of these methods except incineration. The county owned incinerator closed in 1995. Figures L-1 and L-2display the locations of open and closed solid waste management sites in Mecklenburg County. The BFI Speedway Landfill located in Cabarrus county on US Highway 29 near the Mecklenburg County line is also shown because of the role that facility plays in management of solid waste and the proximity to Mecklenburg County.
In 1997, staff conducted 297 inspections at twenty (20) permitted solid waste management sites. Inspectors documented four (4) violations of the North Carolina Solid Waste Management Rules at two facilities. This represents an average compliance rate of 98.7% up from an average compliance rate of 88.5% in 1995 when 237 inspections revealed 27 violations. The violations documented in 1997 were three (3) violations for excessive storage time for unprocessed waste at a land clearing waste recycling facility and one (1) violation for leachate discharge at a MSW transfer station.
Although violations at permitted facilities decreased significantly from 1995 the occurrence of violations outside of permitted facilities increased significantly. The rising cost of tipping fees, long hauling distances to some solid waste management sites and disregard for or lack of understanding of environmental regulations by some generators and transporters of solid waste has resulted in waste being disposed along roadsides and in unregulated landfills. In 1997, there were more than 366 county agency responses to incidents of illegal landfilling, open dumping and unlawful accumulations of solid waste in Mecklenburg County up 19% from the 307 responses in 1995. Few of the illegal landfills and dumps met siting requirements which would apply to a permitted site and none of the illegal sites had any environmental controls. Illegal accumulations, dumping and landfilling which occurred ranged from small and moderate quantities of household garbage, construction waste and sometimes hazardous waste along roadways and on public and private properties to multi-acre landfills accepting large quantities of land clearing and inert debris waste and construction and demolition waste. There have been few occurrences of illegal municipal solid waste landfills in recent years.
Municipal Solid Waste
Municipal solid waste ("MSW") is garbage, refuse and similar nonhazardous solid waste material discarded from residential, commercial, institutional and industrial sources, and community activities including solid residue after recyclables have been separated. MSW is the largest component of the total solid waste stream and poses the greatest risk for negative impact to public health and the environment (Figure L-3).
Mecklenburg County's residents, industry, businesses and institutions generated 692,283 tons of municipal solid waste in 1997 down 6.0% from the 736,300 tons generated in 1995. Govern-ment recycling increased 10.5% from 77,571 tons in 1995 to 85,755 tons in 1997. The generation figure includes recyclables and yard waste removed from the waste stream as waste generated. Based on the most recent population estimate by the Chamber of Commerce of 612,095 persons, this translates into a waste generation rate of approximately 6.2 pounds/person/day down from the 6.9 pounds/person/day generation rate reported in 1995. (Figure L-4). Our per capita generation rate remains above the state average of 5.9 pounds/person/day and the national average of 4.3 lbs/capita/day. This is due in part to the continued robust local economy combined with the absence of significant commercial recycling which has resulted in a large amount of commercial MSW being generated in Mecklenburg County and landfilled. It is however important to note that the trend over the last seven years has been towards a lower per capita generation rate.
The use of the terms generation rate and disposal rate can be confusing. It is important to note that the generation rate calculated in this report includes curbside and convenience center recycling and yard waste since those wastes were actually generated. The term disposal represents wastes which were landfilled. Therefore, a reduction in disposal rates represents a reduction of wastes entering landfills not necessarily a reduction in the generation rate. The difference between the generation rate and the disposal rate represents that quantity of waste which was either recycled or diverted for reuse or resource recovery. In 1997 Mecklenburg County disposed of 606,488 tons of MSW representing a per capita disposal rate of 5.4 pounds/person/day slightly lower than the 5.9 pounds/person/day average for North Carolina but higher than the 3.2 pounds/person/day average for the United States.
House Bill 859 entitled "An act to revise the solid waste management act of 1989 and related statutes" was passed into law in 1996 by the North Carolina General Assembly. The bill required in part that each unit of local government develop a 10-year comprehensive solid waste management plan by July 1997. This was in response to the 1996 report by NCDEHNR that no reduction in solid waste disposal statewide had occurred since the base year 1991/92. In 1997, Mecklenburg County began implementation of a comprehensive 10-year solid waste management plan which aggressively seeks to increase commercial (especially industrial and manufacturing segments) and residential waste reduction and recycling. The plan sets a goal of reducing residential and commercial waste disposal to 5.04 pounds/person/day from the current disposal rate of 5.75 pounds/person/day by June 30, 2001 through source reduction, recycling and composting and a further reduction to 4.60 pounds/person/day by June 30, 2006. This is estimated to be a 20% per capita disposal reduction from fiscal year 1996/97 and is a 41% reduction in disposal from the base year 1989/90.
In 1997, municipal solid waste was managed as follows: 541,118 tons were landfilled at the BFI/Charlotte Motor Speedway landfill in Cabarrus County; 65,370 tons were exported out of the county for landfilling; 48,749 tons of yard waste were composted; and 37,006 tons were recycled (Figure L-5).
Facilities landfilling municipal solid waste (formerly referred to as sanitary landfills now referred to as MSW landfills) are required to measure the weight of waste entering the landfill and perform routine methane gas monitoring and groundwater sampling. Methane monitoring is used to determine whether methane gas is present in facility structures or has migrated onto adjacent properties and structures or to determine the efficiency of any methane abatement systems which may be in operation at the landfill. Methane monitoring and abatement may also be required by federal air regulations. Groundwater samples results help landfill regulators and operators determine whether leachate which is generated when precipitation percolates through the waste has affected the quality of groundwater beneath and adjacent the disposal site.
The State of North Carolina began requiring groundwater monitoring for sanitary landfills in 1989. According to the 1996 NCDEHNR Solid Waste Management Annual Report groundwater monitoring at unlined landfills has shown evidence of degraded water quality at more than 90 percent of those sites statewide. MSW landfills accepting more than 100 tons per day of municipal solid waste after April 1994 were required to install composite liner systems including synthetic liners and leachate collection and treatment systems to prevent leachate from entering groundwater or surface waters of the state. All municipal solid waste landfills will be required to install liner systems by 1998. Prior to April 1994, all municipal solid waste disposed in Mecklenburg County was either at unlined landfills or by incineration. Except for Duke Power Company's McGuire Nuclear Station private lined landfill used for disposal of non-radioactive solid waste generated during outages, all municipal solid waste disposal since April 1994 has been at landfills outside Mecklenburg County.
In 1997, there were two (2) open MSW management facilities in Mecklenburg County: a lined landfill owned and operated by Duke Power Company at the McGuire Nuclear Station for disposal of its own waste and a MSW transfer station operated by a private waste hauling company. Mecklenburg County was given site approval by NCDEHNR for a lined MSW landfill to be sited on US Highway 521 in the southern portion of the County. The landfill is projected to be operational by January 1999 and full by year 2015.
In 1996 the Mecklenburg County Commission and the Charlotte City Council each imposed moratoriums on the establishment or expansion of all landfills and transfer stations until such time that the zoning ordinances could be amended to better regulate the siting and operation of these facilities. As of the date of this report the moratorium had not been lifted.
There are seven (7) known closed, unlined, sanitary landfills in Mecklenburg County. Samples collected from groundwater monitoring wells at two (2) sites, the York Road Landfill and the Harrisburg Road Landfill, indicate that contaminants are present in the groundwater. The York Road landfill is undergoing additional assessment per NCDEHNR requirements. One (1) site, the York Road Landfill, is operating a methane collection system because of methane migration onto adjacent properties. Another site, the Statesville Road Landfill located near I-85 and Statesville Avenue has been placed on the NCDEHNR, Superfund Section Sites Priority List for future assessment.
Inactive Landfills Status
Mecklenburg County
Landfill Site Dates of Operation Known Groundwater Contamination
Tyvola Road Landfill
1935 until 1965
No
Statesville Road Landfill
1940 until 1970
No
York Road Landfill
1968 until 1986
Yes
Holbrooks Road Landfill
1968 until 1986
No
Harrisburg Park Landfill
1972 until 1994
Yes
McAlpine Landfill
1968 until 1972
No
McGuire Nuclear Plant landfill 1981 until 1994
No
Records for solid waste landfilled prior to the existence of regulated sanitary landfills are nonexistent. Since these sites operated and closed prior to the requirements for ground-water and surface-water monitoring at sanitary landfills, it is not known whether these sites have affected the quality of surface waters or groundwater. In 1996 and 1997 MCDEP conducted private potable well searches and sampling around the three landfills known or suspected to have impacted the groundwater. At the time of sampling, none of the potable wells sampled were found to have been impacted by the landfills.
Recycling and waste reduction programs are conducted and promoted by both government and private entities in an effort to meet waste reduction goals and to reduce the cost of conducting business. Accurate data for the amount of solid waste recycled and reduced by government is readily available. However, since there was no requirement for private entities to report recycling or waste reduction, data is not available for comparison or inclusion. Government recycling programs, including curbside collection, drop-off centers and yard waste composting, accounted for approximately 85,775 tons or approximately 12.4% of the total municipal solid waste generated.
Construction And Demolition Waste
Construction and demolition ("C&D") wastes are solid wastes resulting solely from construction, remodeling, repair, or demolition operations on pavement, buildings, or other structures but does not include inert waste, land clearing waste, yard waste, hazardous or liquid wastes, friable asbestos or appliances. Permitted C&D landfills are required by law to measure the weight of waste entering the landfill and conduct groundwater monitoring. However, liner and leachate collection systems have not been required at C&D waste landfills in North Carolina and surface-water and/or ground-water contamination may occur as leachate resulting from precipitation events is discharged onto the ground surface or percolates through the waste and into the water table later.
Demolition contractors disposed 281,168 tons of C&D waste at the only permitted C&D landfill operating in Mecklenburg County in 1997, the privately owned and operated North Mecklenburg Landfill in Huntersville. This represents an increase of 44% from the 194,699 tons disposed at this facility in 1995 and approximates 40% of the total amount of C&D waste (709,718 tons) reported disposed in C&D landfills statewide for 1996. An additional 34,000 tons of C&D waste generated in Mecklenburg County were disposed at the BFI Speedway Landfill in Cabarrus County. The disposal tonnage figures do not accurately represent the total quantity of waste generated in Mecklenburg County since waste from construction and demolition projects in the County is disposed in landfills located in surrounding counties and vice versa. Additionally, an unquantified amount of inert waste resulting from building and roadway demolition and repair operations was disposed at land clearing/inert debris landfills and beneficial fill sites in and around Mecklenburg County. There is no known groundwater contamination resulting from the North Mecklenburg C&D Landfill to date. The zoning permit issued to this landfill requires the facility to close by years end 2001. However, a recent capacity study conducted by the operator determined that the landfill would be full before then at current disposal rates.
The increase in C&D disposal is a direct result of the aggressive development and revitalization occurring in Mecklenburg County combined with the lack of C&D waste source reduction and recycling. In 1997 the Mecklenburg County Department of Engineering and Building Standards issued 68,657 building permits for construction of over 4.5 million square feet valued at slightly over three billion dollars. Demolition permits were also issued for the dismantling of 102 existing buildings. To address the lack of C&D waste recycling, Mecklenburg County has contracted with a private C&D waste recycling company to operate a C&D waste recycling facility. The proposed facility will be co-located with Compost Central, a County operated yard waste compost facility near Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and is scheduled to open some time in 1998. Additionally, C&D wastes are targeted for reduction in the 10-Year comprehensive solid waste management plan. The plan calls for a reduction of 30 % from current disposal tonnage by 2001 and 40% reduction by 2006.
Mecklenburg County operated one C&D landfill located adjacent to the Harrisburg Park Sanitary Landfill from April 1992 until April 1994. Prior to April 1992, C&D waste disposed in Mecklenburg County was either co-disposed with municipal solid waste in sanitary landfills or disposed in demolition landfills. Demolition landfills ceased receiving C&D waste in 1991.
Land Clearing/ InertDebris/Yard Waste
Land clearing and inert debris ("LCID") wastes are those wastes generated during land clearing and structural demolition activities and include trees, stumps and other vegetative matter and virtually inert debris such as brick, concrete, concrete block, uncontaminated soil, rock and gravel which is likely to retain its chemical and physical structure. Yard waste is vegetative matter resulting from landscape management including leaves, grass, limbs, etc.
Unlike MSW and C&D disposal sites, landfills permitted to accept LCID and yard wastes are not required to weigh wastes entering the disposal sites nor provide groundwater monitoring because of the benign nature of wastes the landfills are permitted to receive. In comparison with MSW and C&D landfills, land clearing/inert debris and yard waste landfills pose minimal public health and environmental risks with the exception of those risks due to increased truck traffic on nearby roads.
An unmeasured amount of LCID and yard wastes were disposed at fourteen (14) permitted LCID landfills in Mecklenburg County down from sixteen (16) permitted landfills in 1995. Additionally, 48,749 tons of yard waste were recycled by local government into compost and mulch for landscape and gardening use at two compost sites. Thirty-three (33) small (less than 2 acre) landfills for the on-site disposal of land clearing waste were recorded in 1996 and 1997. The total number of recorded on-site landfills in Mecklenburg County since 1981 has risen to 2,045. One large permitted LCID landfill located in Pineville closed in 1997. This was the only permitted LCID landfill in Mecklenburg County south of US Highway 74. A privately owned and operated facility which is permitted to recycle land clearing waste into mulch to be used as landscaping materials and boiler fuel simultaneously opened near the closed landfill but to date has not approached replacing the annual disposal capacity of the landfill provided. The lack of disposal capacity in south Mecklenburg where the largest development in the state, Ballantyne, is being built has resulted in waste generated in south Mecklenburg either being managed by alternative techniques such as on-site grinding and pit burning or being transported to disposal facilities located in South Carolina. The use of on-site landfills for the disposal of land clearing waste has declined significantly in the last four years while the use of alternative on-site management and off-site permitted landfills has increased.
In Mecklenburg County, an unknown quantity of inert waste generated from structure and roadway demolition was disposed in the more than twenty (20) privately-owned beneficial fill sites. Beneficial fill sites are small (less than 2-acre) disposal sites strictly limited to receiving only inert wastes (concrete, brick, block, uncontaminated soil, rock and gravel) and operated to improve land use potential by increasing land elevations. Generally these sites are parcels of land containing ravines, dried ponds or other depressions the owner would like to fill for future development of the land. Beneficial fill sites do not require a solid waste permit but are periodically inspected by MCDEP. Because of the proliferation of beneficial fill sites in the county and concerns by citizens and regulators about negative impacts to the communities where some of these sites have been located, the Zoning Division of the Mecklenburg County Engineering and Building Standards Department implemented a new ordinance in 1996 which regulates the siting, operation and roadway access to these sites in 1996.
According to the comprehensive 10-year solid waste management plan for Mecklenburg County, there are no plans by local government to address reducing or recycling privately generated LCID wastes since House Bill 859 does not require planning for LCID wastes.
Medical Waste
Medical waste, according to the General Statutes of North Carolina, is any solid waste that is "generated in the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the testing of biologicals." Medical waste poses a special concern because of the potential for transmission of disease and infection if not properly handled, stored, transported and disposed. Common sources of medical waste generated in Mecklenburg County include hospitals, clinics, indigent care facilities, university and private clinical research institutions and veterinary clinics. Treatment of medical waste can occur at the generating facility through thermal treatment (autoclaving, micro waving, and incineration) or by similar technologies at regulated off-site facilities permitted to treat medical waste. After adequate treatment has occurred, nonhazardous ash and remnants rendered noninfectious may be disposed by landfilling at a permitted MSW landfill. The use of mobile microwave treatment has become a preferred method of treatment because of reduced packaging, shipping and disposal costs. There were two (2) types of facilities, mobile and stationary treatment facilities, permitted to treat medical waste in Mecklenburg County in 1997.
The amount of total medical waste generated in Mecklenburg County in 1997 is near impossible to quantify. In 1997, there were ten (10) hospitals and more than eight hundred and fifty (850) clinics and other health-related services operating in Mecklenburg County. Not all of these facilities are required to maintain and submit records of the quantities generated, shipped or treated on-site. Best estimates based on reports submitted by treatment facilities indicates that approximately 4,472 tons of medical waste were generated by facilities in Mecklenburg County. Permitted or approved treatment facilities located in Mecklenburg County treated a total of 12,602 tons.
Based on data provided by SafeWaste Corporation, a disposal service using mobile thermal treatment technology, 2,206 tons of medical waste generated by the major hospitals in the county were treated using that technology. An additional 10,396 tons were incinerated at the Bio-Medical Waste of North Carolina, Inc. facility (the only permitted medical waste incinerator located in Mecklenburg County) of which 1,947 tons was generated in Mecklenburg County. Another 319 tons of medical waste generated by Mecklenburg County facilities in 1997 was treated at the BFI medical waste incinerator in Haw River, North Carolina.
Special Wastes And White Goods
Special wastes are wastes that due to unique hazards or disposal problems must be managed as individual waste streams. A white good is an item for which a tax paid at the time of purchase is allocated to be used for the disposal of that item or of similar items at a later date. White goods and special wastes include (appliances, including those containing chlorfluorocarbons or "CFCs" and capacitors potentially containing polychlorinated biphenyls or "PCBs"), pneumatic tires, bulky metal-containing waste items, and asbestos. Because of the ozone-depleting effects on the earth's stratosphere, CFCs must be reclaimed before appliances are crushed for recycling. Electrical capacitors and motors must also be removed because they may contain PCBs. PCBs are listed as hazardous waste and therefore prohibited from disposal in MSW landfills.
Collection of white goods occurred at three County convenience drop off recycling "supercenters" and via. curbside collection by City Sanitation. In 1997, 1,990 tons of appliances and bulky metal items were recycled by County government or 4.3% of the 46,358 tons reported recycled statewide.
Tires present a difficult management problem. Disposal of whole tires by landfilling has proven to be unsuccessful. Compaction is impossible and tires which have been landfilled tend to float up through the waste and landfill cap as settlement occurs. Water collecting in exposed tires at illegal tire disposal or accumulation sites has the potential to breed thousands of mosquitos per tire creating a health hazard. In 1997, approximately 416,400 tires were accepted at the county operated collection points and transported to scrap tire management facilities outside of Mecklenburg County. In addition, approximately 490,000 tires were sent directly from tire handling facilities to disposal sites outside of the County making the total number of tires collected approximately 906,400 (9% of the total generated in the state or about 1.5 tires per person per year for each county resident). All disposal of tires occurred outside of Mecklenburg County in 1997. No cleanup of any illegal tire dumps in Mecklenburg County occurred in 1997.
The state reported that in 1996 approximately 10.6 million scrap tires were managed statewide. The majority (55%) were landfilled. The remaining 45% were beneficially reused in civil engineering applications, tire remanufacturing and retreading, tire derived fuel, and agricultural uses.
An advanced disposal fee for tire disposal was instituted by the State of North Carolina in 1990 and an advance disposal tax on the sale of appliances and tires was imposed on January 1, 1994. In accordance with the North Carolina General Statutes, counties are required to use these funds for the management and/or disposal of white goods and tires. Additionally, advance tire disposal fees returned to counties which exceeded the disposal cost for tires presented to that county for disposal in any one year could be used locally to cleanup illegal tire dumps. The General Assembly in the 1997 session passed Senate Bill 153 which in part extends the current scrap tire management program for five additional years and allocates monies to encourage markets for processed scrap tires. Senate Bill 124 which is proposed to similarly extend the white goods tax and rebate program was passed in the senate and will be eligible for consideration next session. In 1997, Mecklenburg County received $472,863 from the white goods rebate program. No tire dumps were identified for cleanup.
Asbestos poses an occupational exposure hazard to workers at solid waste management facilities. Asbestosis and mesothelioma are two lung diseases directly linked to inhalation of asbestos fibers. Friable asbestos and asbestos-containing waste must be wetted, double bagged and is permitted to be landfilled in a MSW landfill separate from municipal solid waste. If however asbestos-containing waste is co-disposed at a municipal solid waste landfill, its location must be mapped horizontally and vertically for future reference should any excavation in the landfill be required. Because there were no permitted disposal locations, no friable asbestos was landfilled in Mecklenburg County during 1996 or 97.
Wastewater Treatment Sludge
Wastewater treatment sludge, also called biosolids, are generated when solids are removed from domestic and industrial sewer water during the primary phase of waste water treatment. Nonhazardous untreated wastewater sludge are approved for disposal with municipal solid waste lined MSW landfills and may be added to the final soil cover layer of unlined landfills during closure as an amendment to promote vegetative growth on the landfill cap. High quality sludge resulting from improved wastewater treatment methods and sludge which have been treated with lime and composted are approved for direct application to agricultural fields.
The Charlotte Mecklenburg Utility Department composts biosolids (a process that eliminates pathogens) and adds agricultural lime stabilizer to produce a product suitable for agricultural application as a soil amendment. In 1997, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Utility Department removed 17,356 tons of biosolids from wastewater up 6% from the 16,308 tons reported generated in 1995. Of this total, 2,160 tons were stabilized with lime and applied to agricultural fields and 15,196 tons of high quality sludge were applied directly to fields in Mecklenburg and surrounding counties as soil amendment. An additional 5,508 tons generated during clean out of several abandoned sludge drying pits were determined to be unsuitable for agricultural use and landfilled at the BFI, Inc. MSW landfill in Cabarrus County.
Radioactive Waste
Radioactive materials are both naturally occurring and synthetically produced and are used for a variety of purposes such as nuclear electric power generation, weapons construction, cancer treatment and scientific and medical research. Radiation is a naturally-occurring phenomenon resulting from the constant decay and emission of atomic particles or electromagnetic radiation (energy) from the nucleus of unstable atoms. A radioactive material never ceases producing radiation; rather, the intensity of radiation produced by the material is reduced to half of its original intensity within a time frame called half life. The half life varies by atomic element from less than a second to millions of years.
Radiation is said to be ionizing radiation when the ejected particles or electromagnetic energy produced causes other materials which the radiation contacts to become ionized or electrically charged. Three (3) types of ionizing radiation are alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays. Alpha particles are relatively large, slow-moving particles. Alpha particles do not penetrate skin but pose a significant health risk if inhaled or ingested. Beta particles can penetrate clothing and skin and cause direct tissue and DNA damage. Gamma rays have great penetrating and ionizing properties and pose a significant exposure hazard if proper shielding is not utilized. Materials in contact with radioactive substances can become radioactively contaminated and must be managed properly to limit human exposure.
Spent radioactive materials and materials contaminated by radioactive substances are regulated as radioactive waste. Radioactive wastes are categorized into four (4) distinct groups based on radiation exposure hazard: high level, transuranic (radioactive elements with atomic weight less than uranium), uranium mine and mill tailings (by-products of mining and uranium enrichment for weapons and nuclear fuel production) and, low level waste. Only high-level and low-level radioactive wastes were generated in Mecklenburg County in 1996 and 1997.
High-level radioactive waste generated in Mecklenburg County comes from a single source, Duke Power Company's McGuire Nuclear Power Plant, which began operation in December 1981. Periodically, portions of 193 fuel rod assemblies contained in the reactors are replaced with new fuel rod assemblies. This procedure is commonly referred to as a refueling outage since the reactor must be taken off line to complete the refueling. A fuel rod assembly consists of 200 hollow tubes each filled with 264 uranium oxide fuel pellets each approximately one-quarter of an inch long. According to Duke Power Company, 136 fuel rod assemblies were replaced during two refueling outages at the McGuire Nuclear Plant in 1997 (Table L-1). All high level radioactive waste generated at McGuire Nuclear Plant to date has been stored on-site. The total storage capacity at McGuire is 2,926 spent fuel rod assemblies. Currently 1,828 are stored on-site (62.5% of storage capacity).
North Carolina along with Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have entered into an agreement (the Southeast Compact) to share low-level radioactive waste disposal sites. North Carolina was selected to site and open a low-level disposal site by 1992. The State of North Carolina is currently reevaluating construction plans and a site characterization study for the proposed low-level disposal site in Wake County. Because of the delay in selecting a disposal site, South Carolina stopped receiving low-level waste from North Carolina on June 30, 1995. Low-level radioactive waste generated in North Carolina after June 30, 1995 has been stored at each generating facility.
According to a 1995 report from the State of North Carolina, low-level radioactive waste generated in Mecklenburg County came from only one source: Duke Power Company's McGuire Nuclear Station. The report indicates that 1725.8 cubic feet generated by Duke Power at this facility was disposed at the Barnwell low level landfill in South Carolina which correlates closely with the 1,888 cubic feet of low level radioactive waste Duke Power Company reported generated in 1995. According to Duke Power Company, 30,342 cubic feet of low level radioactive waste were generated in 1997 during the two refueling outages. Duke Power Company shipped the waste to a treatment facility in Tennessee which through incineration and compaction reduced the volume to 2,751 cubic feet and returned the reduced volume of waste to McGuire for storage in a new low level storage facility built at the McGuire plant in 1997. The storage facility was designed to handle 5 years of waste storage with expansion to ten years available.
Generators
Because of environmental and public health concerns, federal and state regulations govern the generation, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste in the United States.
Hazardous wastes have either been specifically listed by the USEPA as hazardous or they exhibit one or more hazardous characteristics related to ignitability, corrosivity, reactiveness with other chemicals, and toxicity on human or animal life.
Hazardous waste generators are categorized by the quantity of waste generated in one month:
Large Quantity Generators
More than 1000 kilograms (2200 pounds)/month or one kilogram of acutely hazardous waste. Allowed to store waste up to 90 days from the date accumulation began.
Small Quantity Generators
More than 100 kilograms (220 pounds)/month but less than 1000 kilograms (2200 pounds)/month. Allowed to store waste for 180 days from the date accumulation began.
Conditionally Exempt Generators
Less than 100 kilograms (220 pounds)/month. Allowed to store waste up to 270 days from the date of accumulation.
Facilities generating hazardous waste as large, small or conditionally-exempt generators are required to report their status to the State of North Carolina annually. In 1997, there were 848 handlers of hazardous waste in Mecklenburg County (Figure L-6) down 14% from 987 reported in 1995. The most significant reduction was for large quantity generators down 59% from the 144 reported in 1995 to 59 in 1997.The number of small quantity generator declined 21% from 397 in 1995 to 313 in 1997 and conditionally exempt generators increased 17.5% from 376 in 1995 to 442 in 1997. The number of transporters declined 61% from 31 in 1995 to 12 in 1997 as well as treaters which declined 55% from 31 in 1995 to 14 in 1997. The number of burners/blenders remained unchanged at 8. The decline in the number of large and small quantity generators and the increase in conditionally exempt generators is partially attributable to waste minimization procedures which many generators implemented since 1995. Additionally, few large scale environmental cleanups of hazardous waste contaminated sites were performed in 1996 and 1997 in Mecklenburg County.
Small and large quantity generators are required to report the to State the quantity of waste generated annually. Based on the most recent data available, 19,001,994 pounds of concentrated hazardous waste was generated in 1995 down 39% from the 31,105,563 pounds generated in 1994 (Figure L-7). Industries in Mecklenburg County accounted for approximately 26% of all hazardous waste generated in North Carolina. The 39% decrease in hazardous waste generation from 1994 to 1995 is directly attributable to several large scale environmental remediations of land contaminated with hazardous waste which occurred in 1994. The net increase between 1994 and 1995 discounting environmental cleanups performed in 1994 is only 1.5%.
Contaminated Sites
The USEPA assesses the number of potential hazardous waste contaminated sites, prioritizes them for investigation and determines the extent of contamination. Sites requiring remediation are prioritized and addressed as funds are available. Emergency responses to imminent hazards of hazardous waste releases are also conducted on an as-needed basis. In 1987, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the North Carolina Inactive Hazardous Sites Response Act.
In 1997 there were 121 Inactive Hazardous Sites in Mecklenburg County or approximately 11% of the state's total. Mecklenburg County was followed by Guilford County with 77 and Wake County with 49 sites. Hazardous sites are grouped into four (4) categories including a federal National Priority List (NPL or "Superfund"), a state Sites Priority List (SPL), sites with pending investigations, or sites having been cleaned. Currently there is one (1) site on the NPL list, twenty (21) sites on the SPL list, forty-eight (48) sites with investigations pending, five (5) sites with voluntary cleanup occurring and thirty-four (34) sites with no further action required. A net increase of three (3) sites was added to the SPL list in 1997. Five (5) emergency responses to imminent hazards were conducted or continued from 1996. Only one site was removed from the list in 1997. Action at two manufactured coal gas facilities is pending signed agreements from responsible parties. A complete list of the 1997 Inactive Hazardous Sites is found in Appendix C.
