THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 13, 1996 TAG: 9605130036
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
The Navy plans to build a $4 million hazardous-waste incinerator at the Norfolk Naval Base, designed to convert tons of old chemicals, paints and tainted drums into harmless clumps of glass.
The project, if approved, will test an environmental technology that creates lightning bolt-like energy in the belly of the incinerator and then breaks down toxic materials with super-intense heat reaching 30,000 degrees.
If successful in Norfolk, this so-called ``plasma arc torch'' burner could be built at military yards nationwide as a cleaner, cheaper alternative for disposing of chemical wastes, Navy researchers and federal officials said.
``The Department of Defense is very interested in this technology,'' said Bruce Sartwell, a physicist and environmental programs manager at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. ``A lot of people are watching how this demonstration project performs.''
Plenty of local residents are watching and wondering, too. Incinerators are not usually welcome additions to a community, given their potential for toxic air emissions and contaminated ash.
But this system is different - indeed, the Navy refrains from even calling it ``an incinerator,'' preferring ``a hazardous waste treatment facility.'' It produces no ash, would not burn medical waste or ordinary base trash, and would capture most troublesome emissions through a separate filtering system.
A public hearing on the project last month at Sewells Point Elementary School drew about 40 citizens, including a member of the Norfolk Environmental Commission. Most came away satisfied with what they heard.
``I think the concept is excellent,'' said commission member Randy Lassiter. ``But we still have some outstanding questions we'd like answers to. If we can get those, I think this could be a go.'' Chiefly, Lassiter wonders how the incinerator would cope with unauthorized wastes being dumped into its innards.
The Navy hopes to obtain all necessary hazardous-waste and air-pollution permits from state and federal regulators later this year after completing an environmental impact study. Installation at an existing base building is expected by the fall of 1997, Sartwell said.
During its yearlong trial, the incinerator would gobble between 400 and 700 pounds of oily rags, paint cans and chemical drums per hour. Now, those materials are collected by Navy crews and trucked by private haulers to out-of-state landfills, incinerators and recycling centers, at an annual cost of about $3 million, according to Navy figures.
But if the new incinerator causes few problems and, most important, saves money - officials estimate it should save about $1.5 million a year, if all goes well - the Navy would crank up the burner 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday.
At full tilt, it would handle about 175,000 pounds of hazardous waste a month, or about 2.1 million pounds a year, Navy officials said.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the incinerator is its own colorful waste, called slag.
Resembling chunks of lava, slag comes from old drums, glass, rags and containers melting together under intense heat. When the molten mess cools, it forms a hard cocoon that effectively seals hazardous liquids.
The slag is advertised as leak-proof. The material has been tested under extreme conditions, Sartwell said, even by dunking it in an acid bath, where it proved durable.
But experts admit they do not know how long slag will keep its structure, although they suggest decades. ``Nobody has established a life span of slag,'' Sartwell said. ``No one has really checked that.''
Slag created at the Norfolk incinerator would be turned over to Defense Department staff and shipped off the base for disposal elsewhere, Navy officials said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued just one permit in the mid-Atlantic region for such an incinerator, at a site near Pittsburgh, said Gary Gross, an EPA environmental engineer specializing in hazardous waste.
A similar burner was once proposed under a cleanup strategy for Love Canal, a notorious toxic waste site in upstate New York. But its manufacturer never put the incinerator into operation.
``We've seen increased interest in the technology, but I don't see this in any widespread use,'' Gross said. ``Costs have held it back. . . . Conventional incineration and landfilling still are cheaper.''
That's what worries the Navy most: expense - not any possible environmental fallout. Navy officials figure they will pay less in the long run for their own system than they currently spend on private haulers.
``It is necessary to show that the cost would be less than the current method of disposal,'' Sartwell said.
Most of the money for the incinerator comes from a special fund created by Congress to push the Pentagon to experiment with new, cleaner technologies.
For the EPA, which will soon meet with Navy experts to discuss the project, the big concern is heavy metals.
As Gross explained, metals exposed to such high temperatures tend to become ``extremely volatilized,'' meaning they become more unstable.
``Hopefully, air pollution controls will catch whatever metal emissions would result,'' Gross said, ``but that's something we'll want to look at.''
The Navy said its system is completely sealed and would produce ``only benign gases.''
While its experts still are determining how much and what types of gases would exit the incinerator, Sartwell said the primary release will be carbon monoxide. However, levels of the noxious gas still must meet federal and state health requirements.
``Really, we think this technology is well-proven,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: MIKE HEFFNER
The Virginian-Pilot
A plant at Norfolk Naval Base would produce glasslike chunks like
these from paint cans, oil rags and other hazardous wastes. The
method would be cleaner and cheaper than others, the Navy hopes.
INCINERATOR SLAG
It resembles chunks of lava
It comes from old drums, glass, rags and containers melting
together under intense heat. When the molten mess cools, it forms a
hard cocoon that seals hazardous liquids.
Its lifespan - and safety - are uncertain.
Slag from the Norfolk incinerator would be turned over to Defense
Department staff and disposed elsewhere.
KEYWORDS: INCINERATOR HAZARDOUS WASTE by CNB