SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1980
STP27154S

Disposal of Oily Waste from Oil Spills by Land Farming

Source

The Vector Control Division of the California State Department Health Services issues the guidelines and regulations that classify the industrial waste into hazardous and extremely hazardous [1]. California State law requires that the hazardous and extremely hazardous waste must be disposed of in Class 1 disposal sites. Oily waste generated from oil spills is considered hazardous to the environment and must be disposed of in Class 1 disposal sites. A Class 1 disposal site has to meet certain requirements [2] set by the State Water Resources Control Board and other regulatory agencies.

Sometimes the recovery and recycling of oily waste from oil spills is uneconomical, and our experience so far has proved that land farming of oily waste is one of the most economical methods to dispose of this type of waste. The decomposition of petroleum products by microorganisms is an established fact, and the top layer of the soil is heavily populated with these microorganisms such as Pseudomonas and Nocardia. Climatic conditions such as temperature, type of soil, and rainfall determine the design and operating conditions of the land farming operations. The use of the proper mixing equipment to provide adequate aeration for the biodegradation process is of prime importance.

IT Corporation has 30 years of experience in the field of disposal and treatment of chemically hazardous waste. In the past seven years, the company has acquired two large disposal sites that facilitated the acceptance of large volumes of petroleum waste that contains unrecoverable hydrocarbons.

After two years of experimental work in small lots, based on information obtained from published literature [3–11], the company decided to adopt a large-scale land farming operation.

Author Information

Wahbeh, N
Hazardous Materials Management Inc., Castro Valley, Calif.
Price: $25.00
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Details
Developed by Committee: F20
Pages: 29–35
DOI: 10.1520/STP27154S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-4772-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-0324-5