THE MANAGEMENT OF POPS WASTES IN JAMAICA. Prepared by: Office of the Prime Minister, Pesticides Control Authority and the Jamaica Public Service

Transcription

1 THE MANAGEMENT OF POPS WASTES IN JAMAICA Prepared by: Office of the Prime Minister, Pesticides Control Authority and the Jamaica Public Service

2 Multilateral Environmental Agreements: Chemicals Management MEA Date of Accession Legislation (and other related to documents) Basel Convention Rotterdam Convention Stockholm Convention Montreal Protocol on ODS January 23, 2003 August 20, 2002 June 1, March 31, 1993 Natural Resources (Hazardous Waste)(Control of Transboundary Movement) Regulations Pesticides Act Chemicals Act (draft) Pesticides Act National Implementation Plan for POPs (draft) PCB Management Guidance document (draft) Ozone Act (draft) Permits and Licences Regulations permits for storage, transportation and disposal of hazardous wastes Occupational Health and Safety Act (draft) requirement for health and safety of workers

3 PCB Wastes Exports Exporter(s)/year Several private sector companies (1996) 1 Several private sector companies (1998) 1 Goodyear (Ja.) Ltd. 1 Quantity of wastes 100,000 kgs 370,000 kgs Final Destination France France France JPS (2003) (de-chlorination) 5,700 litres France Footnote: 1 shipments completed under a bilateral agreement between the Gov ts of Jamaica and France

4 - All POPs pesticides are presently banned under the Pesticides Act Status of POPs Pesticide Wastes - 30 litres of a mixture containing heptaclor and 1 litre of chlordane are the only POPs pesticides identified to date and are located at 2 different storage sites. Obsolete pesticides stored in St.Catherine, Jamaica

5 PCDDs, PCDFs Emissions (2003 data) Main sources Waste incineration (hospital incinerators) Burning of household wastes burning of agricultural residues (primarily sugar cane) clearing of agricultural lands by burning Estimated Emissions g TEQ/y g TEQ to air}; g TEQ residues} 32.7 g TEQ (279,000 ha of canefields) 3.6 x 10-5 g TEQ/y (biomass) Landfill leachates Power Generation and Heating (fossil fuel power plants) Cement kilns g TEQ (water); 4.22 g TEQ (residues) [703,137t of solid wastes) g TEQ/y 1.72 g TEQ (air) g TEQ (residues)

6 Legislative/Regulatory Framework governing PCDDs, PCDFs, HCB, PCB Emissions Air Quality Regulations and amendments Country Fires Act National Solid Wastes Management Act

7 THE JAMAICA PUBLIC SERVICE (JPS) EXPERIENCE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF PCB WASTES

8 STATUS OF PCBs in JPS JPS is an integrated electric utility company and the sole distributor of electricity in the island of Jamaica. JPS established an in-house PCB Management Program in 1993/4 Under the PCB Program, the identification, stockpiling and disposal of PCB oil and PCB containing equipment retired from service have been addressed. Retired PCB equipment are replaced by non-pcb ones.

9 STATUS OF PCBs IN JPS PCB oil containing equipment identified include capacitors, circuit breakers, transformers (both pole-mounted and Substation/pad-mounted ) Identification is achieved by screening of oil using CHLO-N-OIL Test Kits. Labels are affixed with a PCB concentration > 50 ppm the equipment tested

10 STATUS OF PCBs IN JPS Storage Facility with restricted access exists for PCB equipment removed from the Transmission and Distribution System prior to their disposal. PCB equipment and oil are shipped overseas for disposal Disposal options are selected based on environmentally sound practices & economics. The PCB Management Program speaks to a disposal frequency of two (2) years.

11 STATUS OF PCBs IN JPS Since 1996, JPS has shipped PCB waste three (3) times to France at costs of ~US$126K, US$1.1 M & US$ 2.5M Methods of handling the wastes include: De-chlorination - oil to a concentration of 2 ppm. Oil, Caustic Wastes and Carcasses from the process are shipped, separately Packing and shipping the equipment and its untreated oil as a unit.

12 Before Storage/Handling After

13 Disposal 2003/4

14 CHALLENGES FOR JPS Unavailability of local avenues of facilitating disposal hence accumulation for longer periods. Disposal options are expensive. Maintaining an accurate inventory of polemounted transformers

15 THE WAY FORWARD FOR JPS Plans are currently in progress to ship another batch of obsolete PCB-equipment in Disposal of PCB wastes has been included in the company s ten (10)-year budget.

16 MANAGEMENT OF POPS WASTES GOALS establish suitable sites for the safe storage of all out-of-service PCB equipment; eliminate all in-service PCB equipment in the transmission system and distribution system by 2020; dispose of all in-storage PCB equipment and other PCB materials by 2020; identify all PCB and pesticide contaminated sites and isolate any such sites and devise means for their decontamination eliminate the risks to human health posed by the burning of wastes such as hospital wastes and other materials in fireboxes and other quasi- incinerators;

17 Goals (cont d) provide environmentally sound and economically sustainable means to minimize or eliminate the risks posed by burning of garbage and sugar cane fields and by the burning of land in preparation for farming; upgrade the management of all sites where pesticides are stored by upgrading specifications for such sites and establishing documented routine inspections; establish means to avoid the importation of unwanted pesticides and other hazardous materials and establish means to periodically dispose of any such pesticides and other hazardous materials

18 Action Plan: Management of POPs Pesticides Wastes Establish secure storage site for POPs pesticides and other unwanted or obsolete pesticides Establish a database for stocks of unwanted and unknown pesticides Destroy stocks of POPs and unwanted or unidentified pesticides

19 Action Plan for PCBs: Towards the 2020 target PCB Wastes Re-convene the PCB Management WG Complete the identification, labelling, storage and disposal of PCBs and PCB equipment Test all out-of-service transformers manufactured before 1980 for PCBs Test all in service pad mounted transformers manufactured before 1980 for PCBs Eliminate remaining PCBs in 2.3 kv and 6.9 kv distribution systems Eliminate PCBs in electricity transmission system Establish secure PCB storage sites Establishment of a facility for the cleaning of PCB oils of concentrations between ppm (University of the West Indies Initiative) Develop projects/programmes for shipments for PCB (multi-agency to defray costs) Annual reporting on progress towards the 2020 target (including monitoring programme)

20 Issues/Challenges Policy Finalization of the Hazardous Substances and Hazardous Wastes Management Policy Legislation Finalize the Occupational Health and Safety Act Finalize the Chemicals Act Amend the Country Fires Act and develop guidelines for municipal/parish council by-laws regarding trash and slash burning Infrastructure Establishment of a centralized facility for the storage of specific categories of hazardous wastes, including POPs, wastes prior to shipment