Definition: This indicator shows the generation of regulated hazardous waste. A “hazardous waste” is one of a large number of substances that are regulated because they may pose a risk of adverse effects on human health and the environment. They typically are produced through manufacturing, mining, or other industrial or commercial activities. In order to protect public health and the environment, federal and state laws place strict controls on the treatment, storage, and disposal of these wastes.

Significance: Hazardous waste generation can result in significant pollution of the land, air, and water, as well as significant adverse health effects for humans and wildlife. Both the amounts of hazardous waste generated and the number of hazardous waste generating facilities, provide insight into the potential for environmental contamination that may have adverse effects on a state’s human health and the environment.

Data reflect South Carolina (SC) total, United States (US) average, and Southeast (SE) average. The southeast region consists of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Selected State Rankings, Tons of Hazardous Waste Generated, 2005, (“1” represents state with the highest quantity of hazardous waste generated, as measured in tons)

Definition: The Superfund Program, or the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, Liability Act of 1980, was created as a program to identify and prioritize the clean up of dangerous hazardous waste sites. Sites identified are placed on the National Priorities List. Sites may be eligible to be cleaned up using federal money located in a dedicated trust fund or the Superfund. Many of these sites are abandoned, or their ownership is unclear. Use of the Superfund allows the government to begin cleanup of the sites as expeditiously as possible, while the government seeks to determine who is responsible for the continuation at the site.

Significance: The number of Superfund sites contained in a state provides a measure of the potential exposure of humans, wildlife, and the natural environment to hazardous substances.

Selected State Rankings, Number of Superfund Sites, 2006 (“1” represents state with the highest number of superfund sites)

Definition: This indicator shows the amounts of releases of toxic chemicals for which federal law requires reporting. Data is found in the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which was established by Congress in the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)[2] and the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990.[3] As of August 2005, the TRI consists of a list of 666 chemicals and chemical categories. EPA adds and deletes chemicals to the TRI reporting requirements on an annual basis.

Significance: The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act mandates the disclosure of the uses and releases of a list of toxic chemicals. The TRI is designed to make information regarding the use and release of these chemicals available to regulators, industries, the general public, and other interested parties. One of its main effects has been significant reductions by industries in the amounts of toxic chemicals released to the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency cautions, however, that “users of TRI data should be aware that TRI data reflect disposal or other releases and other waste management activities for chemicals, not whether (or to what degree) the public has been exposed to them. Both the toxicity of a chemical and exposure should be taken into account when using the data.”[4]

Selected State Rankings, Toxic Chemicals Released in 100,000 pounds, 2006 (“1” represents state with the highest total on-site and off-site disposal and other releases in pounds)

In 2006, the EPA issued the TRI Burden Reduction Rule, which took effect in the reporting of calendar year 2006 data. Prior to calendar year 2006, facilities that released or managed under 500 pounds of a not-persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic chemical, (PBT) could use a shorter form (Form-A) to report information about TRI-chemical usage. Form-A contains information about facility location, chemical use, and the parent company. Facilities releasing more than 500 pounds of non-PBT TRI-chemicals had to report more detailed information in Form-R. Form-R contains information about total chemical releases and disposal, while Form-A does not. The Rule raises the Form-A reporting threshold to 2,000 pounds on non-PBT chemical release or management. Thus, it is possible that a slight decrease in TRI chemical releases could be the result of the rule change and not a real reduction.[5][6]

Definition: This indicator shows the amount of non-hazardous municipal solid waste generated. Municipal solid waste (MSW) typically consists of items such as yard trimmings; food scraps; paper; wood; rubber, leather, and textiles; plastics; metals; and glass. In many instances there are significant opportunities to conduct reduction and/or recycling of these wastes.

Significance: One of the key indicators of progress in reducing solid waste generation is the amount of MSW generated per person per day. This database will show generic recycling rates and pounds of trash generated per person per day for the U.S. and SC.

Sources: SC Solid Waste Management Annual Report, FY 2003, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control; and Municipal Solid Waste in the United States 2003: Facts and Figures,

Source: SC Solid Waste Management Annual Reports, 2001-2005, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control; and Municipal Solid Waste in the United States 2005: Facts and Figures, United States Environmental Protection Agency

Definition: This indicator shows the overall rate of recycling of a variety of commonly used materials. According to the U.S. EPA, “recycling” is “a series of activities that includes collecting recyclable materials that would otherwise be considered waste, sorting and processing recyclables into raw materials such as fibers, and manufacturing raw materials into new products.”[7] Some of the materials included in these recycling rates are auto batteries, steel cans, yard trimmings, paper and paperboard, aluminum, tires, glass, corrugated cardboard, newsprint, and plastics, scrap metals, wood products, yard debris, and other materials.

Significance: Increases in a state’s recycling rate can mean several things. First, they can indicate a diversion of materials from municipal solid waste landfills and incinerators. This diversion saves precious landfill resources and can lead to the reuse of the recyclable materials. Second, these increases can translate into economic benefits for the region in which they occur. These benefits include reduced costs for manufacturing new products through utilization of recyclables and reduced impacts to natural resources (i.e., reduced depletion of natural resources such as forests and minerals obtained through land mining.

Source : SC Solid Waste Management Annual Reports, 2001-2005, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control, and Municipal Solid Waste in the United States 2005: Facts and Figures, United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Definition: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes five general categories of radioactive waste: (1) high-level waste, which is spent nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors and high-level waste from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel; (2) transuranic waste,[8] mainly from defense programs; (3) uranium mill tailings from the mining and milling of uranium ore; (4) low-level radioactive waste[9], and (5) naturally occurring and accelerator-produced radioactive materials.[10] Radioactive waste is placed in one of these categories based on its origin, not on the extent of its radioactivity. Thus, it is possible that some “low-level” waste may have the same level of radioactivity as some high-level waste.”[11] There currently are just three low-level radioactive waste disposal sites licensed in the United States. Two of the low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities are operated by EnergySolutions, and are located in Barnwell, SC and Clive, UT; a third facility, operated by U.S. Ecology, is located in Richland, WA.[12]

A curie (Ci) is “the basic unit used to describe the intensity of radioactivity in a sample of material. The curie is equal to 37 billion disintegrations per second, which is approximately the activity of 1 gram of radium. A curie is also a quantity of any radionuclide that decays at a rate of 37 billion disintegrations per second. It is named for Marie and Pierre Curie, who discovered radium in 1898.”[13] Humans are continually exposed to radiation from natural and man-made sources. For example, the body produces approximately 10.53 nCi a year, and a chest x-ray produces approximately 2.7 nCi.[14] The measure, nCi refers to a nanocurie, or one billionth of one curie.

Significance: The U.S. Department of Energy reports low level waste transport in curies. The indicator below reports the radioactivity of the annual transport of low-level waste to the three active disposal sites. It is important to note that the indicator does not show human exposure to the radioactive waste. It does represent a risk to future public exposure, either from an accident in transportation or an accidental release from the disposal site.

The data reflects the total radioactivity of annual waste shipments to Clive, UT, Richland, WA, and Barnwell, SC.

Definition: Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) consists of highly radioactive elements (mainly uranium and plutonium) remaining after used fuel rods are removed from commercial nuclear reactors (those reactors used to generate electricity). SNF also is a by-product of the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons program. SNF remains highly radioactive, and thus highly toxic and dangerous, for many thousands of years.

Significance: Because nuclear fuel remains extremely hazardous for thousands of years; it therefore must be stored carefully to avoid exposure to humans or the environment. The federal government was required to take title to spent nuclear fuel at commercial reactors, and begin moving this fuel to a central storage or disposal facility, commencing on 31 January 1998; however, lack of a single storage facility has delayed this action. Because of this fact, spent nuclear fuel remains in storage at the reactors in which it was used. This storage typically is accomplished either by immersing the spent fuel rod assemblies in a pool of water (“spent fuel pools”), or by placing the assemblies in a radiation-proof cask (“dry-cask storage”). The United States Department of Energy is in the process of preparing to operate a permanent, long-term storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and other nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

The Energy Information Administration does not currently publish information related to the amount of spent nuclear fuel derived from commercial electricity generation. However, information is available on the web site of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. Because data for commercial SNF is restricted, we have decided to post SNF data that has been generated by the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons production program. This SNF is in storage at a number of sites scattered across the country, including the Savannah River Site in Aiken, SC.

[1] “Hazardous waste sites” refers to sites listed on the National Priorities List pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA or “Superfund”), as amended. See 42 U.S.C.§§9601 to 9675 (2000).

ii 42 U.S.C. §§11001 to 11050 (2000).

[3] 42 U.S.C. §§ 13101 to 13109 (2000).

[4] For more information regarding the limits of TRI data’s usefulness, please see U.S. EPA, 2003, TRI Public Data Release Brochure.

[5] United States Government Accountability Office. (2007, October) Environmental Right to Know: EPA’s Recent Rule Could Reduce Availability of Toxic Chemical Information Used to Assess Environmental Justice. (Pub. No. GAO-08-115T). Retrieved from: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08115t.pdf

[6] “Toxic Release Inventory Burden Reduction, Final Rule.” Federal Register 40:372 (December 22, 2006) P. 76932

[7] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Municipal Solid Waste: Recycling.

[8] A transuranic element is one that has an atomic number of 93 or more – that is, it has a greater number of protons in its nucleus than does uranium. “All of them are radioactive.” Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

[9] Low-level radioactive waste is “radioactively contaminated industrial or research waste such as paper, rags, plastic bags, water-treatment residues. It is waste that does not meet the criteria for (the) other categories of radioactive waste; spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste; transuranic radioactive waste; or uranium mill tailings. Its categorization does not depend on the level of radioactivity it contains.” U.S. EPA Radiation Information, “Radiation Glossary J-M”

[10] U.S. EPA, Radiactive Waste Disposal: An Environmental Perspective.

[11] U.S. EPA, “Radiactive Waste Disposal: An Environmental Perspective.

[12] U.S. NRC, Locations of Low Level Waste Disposal Facilities.

[13] U.S. NRC. About Nuclear Energy: Glossary Electronic Reading Room.. Taken on 3/30/07.

[14] Nebel, Bernard J. and Wright, Richard T. Environmental Science: 7^th Ed. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ. 2000.