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AnCOR- Development of CONOPS for On-Site Waste Treatment
Citation:
Lemieux, P. AnCOR- Development of CONOPS for On-Site Waste Treatment. Quarterly EPA Region 10 MSW All-States Hot Topics Call, Virtual, OH, July 18, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation discusses a series of bench-scale experiments examining the use of semi-permeable non-woven materials as bag material for packaging waste at the point of generation, movement of the waste to a nearby staging site, and subsequent fumigation with chlorine dioxide gas. Results demonstrate that efficacious fumigant concentrations with appropriate levels of relative humidity can be achieved inside of bags fabricated using such materials, with a demonstrated 6-Log reduction of surrogate spores mimicking the behavior of Bacillus anthracis. Results also demonstrate that the surrogate spores do not penetrate to the outside of the non-woven barrier.
Description:
Clean up activities following wide-area release of a persistent biological agent has the potential to generate significant quantities of waste materials. Management of these large quantities of waste typically would involve movement of the materials from the point of generation to a nearby site where activities would occur including staging, handling, packaging, and shipment of the waste to an off-site treatment or disposal facility. If the waste contains residual levels of the biological contaminant, then depending on the contaminant, the waste may require off-site shipment as a Category A infectious agent via a special permit from the US Department of Transportation. Shipment of waste as Category A infectious agent-containing materials not only limits the universe of potential treatment/disposal facilities due to the size of the Category A packaging but could create political and policy issues due to the stigma associated with management of bio-contaminated waste materials. If the waste could be treated on-site to inactivate the bio-contaminants contained therein, then the waste could potentially be categorized as conventional solid waste, with similar shipping requirements as found in managing conventional municipal garbage. This presentationdiscusses a series of bench-scale experiments examining the use of semi-permeable non-woven materials as bag material for packaging waste at the point of generation, movement of the waste to a nearby staging site, and subsequent fumigation with chlorine dioxide gas. Results demonstrate that efficacious fumigant concentrations with appropriate levels of relative humidity can be achieved inside of bags fabricated using such materials, with a demonstrated 6-Log reduction of surrogate spores mimicking the behavior of Bacillus anthracis. Results also demonstrate that the surrogate spores do not penetrate to the outside of the non-woven barrier.