Where Will All That Gunk Go?

Even as the demand for waste disposal increases, disposal sites close due to public outcry and tougher standards.

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Beginning this month, as many as 175,000 businesses from dry-cleaning establishments to metal shops will be covered by the new regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), requiring them to dispose of their hazardous wastes at licensed facilities. Almost all businesses that choose to comply will find it expensive. Some may find it impossible. For as the demand for licensed disposal capacity increases, the supply is going down.

Consider:

* Last year there were around 140 commercial facilities licensed to handle hazardous wastes. This year it's down to 106. There are now no facilities at all in 21 of the 50 states, increasing shipping costs to waste generators.

* Only three new commercial disposal facilities have been licensed and are under construction nationwide, largely because of community opposition that has reached near hysteria in some places. Even existing facilities that meet Environmental Protection Agency standards are in jeopardy as a nationwide relicensing program begins. Residents of Black Hawk County, Iowa, are not atypical in the depth of their concern. They convinced the county government to buy up the state's only commercial treatment plant -- and then shut it down. "Public opposition can't get much stronger," warned The Hazardous Waste Consultant, a trade newsletter. In the industry, they call it "nimbyitis" -- the not-in-my-back-yard syndrome.

"We've boxed ourselves in," says Barry Stoll, an EPA official who admits that environmental groups probably went overboard in scaring the public about the dangers of hazardous waste. "Just when we need more sites, we have fewer."

* Outmoded disposal sites are closing fast. Approximately two-thirds of the nation's 1,500 landfills are shutting down, unable to meet RCRA's tougher restrictions or the requirements of insurance companies. And a crackdown on the nation's 180,000 so-called surface impoundments -- those pits, ponds, and lagoons found at industrial sites -- means that a tremendous amount of new gunk will have to be sent elsewhere, competing with small-generator waste for capacity at licensed facilities.

* By 1991, landfills will be banned altogether, save for certain highly specific waste materials. Incineration, the best but also the most costly way to handle the waste, is the preferred alternative, but there are only seven major commercial incinerators in the entire country.

Environmental officials complain that RCRA puts them in a difficult spot. Without adequate and affordable facilities in place to handle all the hazardous waste from generators large and small, these officials say they will be reluctant to enforce tough new regulations and impose those heavy penalties of $25,000 to $50,000 a day. And yet, without strong enforcement, there won't be the pressure in the marketplace or the political arena for building and licensing the needed new facilities. Catch-22.