This report compares the costs and environmental impacts associated with the disposal of liquid organochlorine wastes by land-based incineration, at-sea incineration, and chlorolysis at a Houston, Texas location. All three methods are viable options for the disposal of these wastes. At typical unit disposal costs of $80 to $91 per metric ton, at-sea incineration is the least costly option. Comparable costs are $181 to $212 per metric ton at a centralized land-based incinerator, and $134 to $158 per metric ton by the Hoechst-Uhde chlorolysis process if suitable feedstocks are available. Environmentally, maximum ground level concentrations of inorganic chlorine and organochlorine species and particulates emitted from land-based incinerators and chlorolysis are all several orders of magnitude lower than their respective Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) or are within air quality standards. The only wastewater problem identified for both disposal processes is discharges with high total dissolved solids. For at-sea incineration, the maximum sea level concentration of hydrogen chloride is 4.4 mg/cu m and below its TLV of 7 mg/cu m. The maximum sea level concentration of unburned wastes is several orders of magnitude lower than the TLV of most organochlorine compounds. Water quality is not measurably impacted by at-sea incineration.

Contract no. 68-02-2613, task no. 12, program element no. 1AB606. Issued Aug. 1978. Includes bibliographical references (pages 94-96).