The Liberec Municipal Waste Incinerator – a Significant Source of Pops
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International POPs Elimination Project Fostering Active and Efficient Civil Society Participation in Preparation for Implementation of the Stockholm Convention The Liberec Municipal Waste Incinerator – A significant source of POPs Jindrich Petrlik and Milan Havel, Arnika Association - Toxics and Waste Programme Martin Skalsky, Arnika Association - Center for Citizens Support Czech Republic April 2006 Arnika - Toxics and Waste Programme, Chlumova 17, CZ-130 00 Praha 3, Czech Republic, tel. + fax: +420.222 781 471, e-mail: [email protected], http://english.arnika.org About the International POPs Elimination Project On May 1, 2004, the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN http://www.ipen.org) began a global NGO project called the International POPs Elimination Project (IPEP) in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The Global Environment Facility (GEF) provided core funding for the project. IPEP has three principal objectives: • Encourage and enable NGOs in 40 developing and transitional countries to engage in activities that provide concrete and immediate contributions to country efforts in preparing for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention; • Enhance the skills and knowledge of NGOs to help build their capacity as effective stakeholders in the Convention implementation process; • Help establish regional and national NGO coordination and capacity in all regions of the world in support of longer term efforts to achieve chemical safety. IPEP will support preparation of reports on country situation, hotspots, policy briefs, and regional activities. Three principal types of activities will be supported by IPEP: participation in the National Implementation Plan, training and awareness workshops, and public information and awareness campaigns. For more information, please see http://www.ipen.org IPEN gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Global Environment Facility, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Swiss Agency for the Environment Forests and Landscape, the Canada POPs Fund, the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM), Mitchell Kapor Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust, New York Community Trust and others. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the institutions providing management and/or financial support. This report is available in the following languages: English International POPs Elimination Project – IPEP 2 Website- www.ipen.org Table of contents ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL POPS ELIMINATION PROJECT.................................................. 2 1. GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT HOTSPOT .............................................................................. 4 1.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 MORE DETAILS ABOUT HOT SPOT ........................................................................................................ 4 2. POPS RELEASES.................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 AIR RELEASES ...................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 RELEASES TO LAND AND/OR IN PRODUCTS FROM RESIDUES - WASTES PRODUCED BY MWI LIBEREC THAT CONTAIN POPS ................................................................................................................................. 6 2.3 POPS RELEASES TO WATER BY MWI LIBEREC................................................................................... 7 3. POTENTIAL POLLUTION PATHWAYS............................................................................................ 7 3.1 AIR POLLUTION DISPERSION AND OTHER PATHWAYS .......................................................................... 7 3.2 OTHER POTENTIAL SOURCES OF POPS RELEASES? .............................................................. 8 4. POPS MEASUREMENTS IN THE LIBEREC ENVIRONMENT ..................................................... 9 4.1 AMBIENT AIR POPS MEASUREMENTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT IN LIBEREC ........................................... 9 5. TOTAL PCDD/FS RELEASES ESTIMATES FROM MWI TERMIZO LIBEREC...................... 11 5.1 BALANCE OF DIOXIN FLOWS............................................................................................................... 11 5.2 CALCULATION OF RELEASES OF PCDD/FS CONTAINED IN WASTES PRODUCED BY THE INCINERATOR INTO THE ENVIRONMENT........................................................................................................................... 12 6. PROBLEMATIC USE OF MIXED SLAG AND FLY ASH FROM MWI TERMIZO LIBEREC 14 6.1 HISTORY OF USE OF WASTE INCINERATION RESIDUES FROM MWI TERMIZO LIBEREC .................... 14 6.2 NEW FINDINGS ................................................................................................................................... 15 7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................ 21 7.1 CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................................................... 21 7.1 RECOMMENDATION REGARDING DIOXIN TOOLKIT: ........................................................................... 22 ANNEX 1. MAPS, TABLES, GRAPHS ................................................................................................... 23 ANNEX 2: ARNIKA PRESS RELEASE ................................................................................................. 39 The European Union paid for contamination of a protected landscape area by fly ash ....................................................................................... 39 ANNEX 3: FINAL PARTS OF THE EXEPERTISE DONE ON ARNIKA - TOXICS AND WASTE PROGRAMME REQUEST BY HOLOUBEK, I. ET AL. 2005 ............................................................ 40 EVALUATION OF ANALYSIS RESULTS FOR CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL SAMPLES ..................................... 40 CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................................................... 41 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 43 International POPs Elimination Project – IPEP 3 Website- www.ipen.org The Liberec Municipal Waste Incinerator – A significant source of POPs Jindrich Petrlik and Milan Havel, Arnika Association - Toxics and Waste Programme Martin Skalsky, Arnika Association - Center for Citizens Support 1. General information about hotspot 1.1 Description of the site The municipal waste incinerator in Liberec is located 50o45´50´´ north latitude and 15o03´75´´ east longitude (see detailed map in Picture 1 in the Annexes). Liberec with its 97 400 inhabitants is the sixth largest city in the Czech Republic located on the north side of the country approximately 10 km from the Polish border and about 20 km from the German border (see map in Picture 1 in the Annexes). This city is located in the valley of the river Lužická Nisa, which after leaving Czech Republic flows along the border between Poland and Germany. The city is surrounded by mountains – the Jizera Mountains on the north-eastern side and Jested Mountain (1071,6 m above sea level) lie to the south- west of the city. The municipal waste incinerator (MWI) is located almost in the middle of the city, in an area called Rochlice next to the central heating station and about 50 - 100 meters from the bank of the Lužická Photo No. 1: Municipal Waste Incinerator Nisa River. (MWI) Termizo Liberec. 1.1 More details about the hot spot The municipal waste incinerator in Liberec has operated since 1999. It was built by the companies Skoda TS Plzen (Czech Republic) and Von Roll (Switzerland) between 1997 and the middle of 1999 and trial operations started in mid-1999. It is operated by the Termizo Company. The capacity of the incinerator, which is almost fully utilised (see Table 1), is 96,000 tons of municipal solid waste per annum. It is a mass burn incinerator with single chamber and after-burner furnace. Municipal solid waste is loaded onto a grate that moves it through Comment [AW1]: Is the original correct? - most grates are rocker grates the combustor. rather than moving grates. Adding moves 'it' covers this anyway. Until 2003 the incinerator was equipped with filters to reduce dust, sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen emissions. Activated carbon injection was used from 2002-2003 in an attempt to reduce PCDD/Fs emissions but this was only partly effective. Since 2003 GORE-TEX Remedia catalytic filter bags have been used to further reduce dioxin emissions into air. During the Integrated Pollution Prevention Control permit procedure this year the operating company has asked for permission to increase the annual waste throughput to 117,600 tons per year without any additional changes to the plant. Table 1: Overview about amounts of burned municipal solid waste in MWI Termizo Liberec. Source: Dvorakova, I. 2004.i Year 2001 2002 2003 Amount of waste in t/year 82,860 96,000 91,200 2. POPs releases 2.1 Air releases Over the period from 1999 - 2003 PCDD/Fs emissions ranged between 0.185 and 7.3 ng I-TEQ/m3. Since the catalytic filter bags were installed