Environmental Management: Principles and practice

Public health-related pollution
Pesticides are widely used by city health authorities to control mosquitoes, flies,
lice, ticks, rats, etc. There are safer alternatives that might be used more widely to
reduce pesticide applications: net screens on windows, application of small quantities
of oil or kerosene to standing water to prevent mosquitoes reaching maturity, stocking
water bodies with mosquito- or snail-eating fish, trapping rodents, enforcing laws
that prevent pest-breeding sites.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN
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Industrial waste and pollution (non-radioactive)
Pollution and wastes are produced during extraction and processing of raw materials,
transportation, manufacture, product use and disposal. The pollution or waste may
be gaseous, particulate, liquid, debris, radiation, heat, light or noise (see Figure 11.2).
Fine particles and gas, radiation and noise are difficult to counter once released
and dispersed (and are better managed before release); water-borne waste and solid
waste (large particles) are more easily intercepted and managed. Effluent may be
moved via pipes and sewers, by road or rail tanker or ship to chemical treatment
plant, recycling plant, incinerator, landfill site, deep underground repository, injection
borehole, or the ocean.
FIGURE 11.2 Sungai Besi tin mine, south of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is one of the
world’s largest holes in the ground (a large lorry mid photo gives an idea of scale). Once
worked out, the pit will flood. Spoil (sandy tin tailings) from mines in this region has caused
considerable nuisance, choking streams and lying as an infertile layer over large areas

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POLLUTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT
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Management should be an ongoing process: landfill may contaminate
groundwater or streams years after burial, through poor site choice, inadequate sealing,
bad management, disturbance by burrowing animals, erosion, earth movements, acid
deposition, or human interference.
Wastes and pollutants are often disposed of in the sea, in the hope that dilution
will neutralize them. Unfortunately, in shallow marine environments (estuaries,
enclosed seas and continental shelf shallows) this may not happen. These waters
also receive pollution from rivers and atmospheric fallout (dust, acid deposition,
etc.). Waste sealed into containers and dumped in ocean deeps may escape through
corrosion, the activities of marine organisms, trawlers, anchors or undersea landslides.
Once it has been dumped into the deep ocean, inspection and remedial action is
difficult (Clark, 1989).
Waste motor-tyres are abundant and, if they are dumped, waste space, may
accidentally ignite to cause air pollution, or be leached, releasing effluent to
groundwater and streams. The best treatments are: remoulding (only possible for
some worn tyres); combustion in district combined heat and power plants and cement
kilns, provided these are designed to minimize pollution; or dumping at sea. Tyre
‘reefs’ reportedly attract fish, become encrusted with marine organisms, do not leak
pollutants, and could offer storm protection and sites for wildlife conservation (Mason,
1993:5). Another possibility is to shred waste tyres for road-surfacing material.
A lot of land contaminated by industry is abandoned or resold, and could cause
serious health problems (Syms, 1997). Known contaminated land presents a
rehabilitation challenge. However, in many countries unknown contamination has
been built upon. Infamous cases include: Love Canal (USA) and Lekkerkirk (The
Netherlands). The solution is legislation, adequate record-keeping, rehabilitation and
land-use restrictions.