Govt plan for dangerous materials

Press, 3 November 1986, Page 18

Govt plan for dangerous materials

The Environment Minister,

Mr PHIL GOFF, explains why

the Government is planning a comprehensive strategy on hazardous substances, including how to manage dangerous wastes, how to manage, transport, and store hazardous materials, and what the emergency response should be if something goes wrong.

Accidents, manufacturing malfunctions, and mismanagement of hazardous chemicals happen every week in New Zealand. Hundreds of household products as well as industrial processes use chemicals that are potentially dangerous both to people and to the environment. Any damage to the environment eventually comes full circle and affects people. Chlorine used in bleaches, polyurethane used in furnishings, mercury used in camera batteries, and arsenic used to treat timber are just a few examples of hazardous substances.

Some chemicals are inherently dangerous, others are dangerous only if handled or disposed of wrongly. , Either way, New Zealand needs a management strategy that ensures these chemicals are transported, stored and disposed of safely. The country does not yet have one. The risk of having a disaster will grow if we do not take more care.

So far New Zealand has been lucky. No disaster has yet happened, but people have been injured and even killed and the environment has been endangered by accidents with chemicals.

What are we doing to make sure these accidents do not continue to happen? We have the information and we have the expertise. Often, however, this expertise is available only to a few people and the information has not been widely disseminated.

There is a pressing need for information about disposal of hazardous substances. Some can be disposed of safely in managed landfills. But how many landfills in the country are suitable, and for what wastes? And how many local authorities know what hazardous substances go into their landfills? In Christchurch, three workers at a refuse transfer station were admitted to hospital after breath-

ing fumes from a ruptured drum of teargas. This leaking drum and three others had been brought into the transfer station even though hazardous wastes were not allowed to be collected there.

The proposed strategy for ensuring the correct disposal of hazardous substances will work towards a system that will identify the substances entering landfills and those of them which can be disposed of safely. There is a need also to identify alternative suitable disposal sites for those chemicals that cannot be disposed of in a local landfill. The management strategy will also look at the problem of what to do with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs are used in lubricating oils in transformers and capacitors throughout industry. PCBs become hazardous if they are not disposed of properly because they are very slow to break down.

They have been found in the New Zealand food chain. We need to decide on the best ways to store and then dispose of them and other potentially harmful wastes.

Storage of different types of chemicals in the same warehouse needs careful management to reduce the risk of accident or fire. Companies need to know where every chemical is located so that information can be readily available and contingency plans developed that will be effective.

Fires at warehouses and factories that store and use hazardous substances- need many and varied resources to control and extinguish them. Eighty-six firemen used six million litres of water to put out the fire at the ICI Auckland warehouse' in December, 1984. Technical people advised on and monitored the impacts of the fire.

A fire in a chemicals warehouse can produce thick smoke mixed with chemical fumes which presents a danger to the

people attending the fire and to nearby residents.

A serious fire at an Avondale factory in November, 1985, took firemen about two hours to control. Workers from 12 adjacent factories and a family living nearby were evacuated. The burning polyurethane foam produced hazardous fumes, but fortunately the wind blew the pollution away from nearby houses.

Hazardous substances can be used safely in manufacturing processes for years, but the possibility of an accident is always present. This was the case in a central Auckland factory recently when chemicals for silvering mirrors caused an explosion which injured two people. An error in mixing the chemicals in the right order is thought to have been the cause of the explosion. Such incidents point to the need for effective contingency planning for accidents and the need for adequate emergency response procedures. Transport of hazardous substances is constantly in the news with drums falling off trucks, rail wagons derailing and tankers crashing. When these incidents occur the emergency services need to liaise to prevent further accidents, and to contain arid; clean up the mess. The emergency services need, access to information about the substances involved, how to stabilise them and how to get' rid of them without damaging either people or the environment.

The kind of situation faced by the emergency services is illustrated by the fuel tanker that overturned on the Southern Motorway in Auckland in August. One hundred fire service and police personnel and 12 appliances were involved. Nearby houses were evacuated, part of the motorway was closed, and manhole covers were lifted in the surrounding area in case of underground explosions from leaking petrol. Just one month later 10,000 litres of ah arsenic-based chemical spilled from a tanker which collided with a car on State highway 1 near Hunteryille. The chemical: ponded in a nearby paddock, but had to be collected and disposed of. Cars passing on

the highway had to be washed down and the contaminated earth had to be removed.

Information and expertise on hazardous substances does exist in Netv Zealand. But often this expertise is only available to a few people or the information has not been widely disseminated.

Part of the management strategy will involve looking critically at the relevant laws to see if there is scope for revision and clarification of the responsibilities of all the interested agencies and groups. Training and educating people who handle or man-

age hazardous substances is a vital area for further work.

Planning for the siting of hazardous substances and activities also needs to be co-ordinated so that guidelines are available to local authorities and industry to ensure that the incremental effects of siting more than one hazardous activity in any one place are recognised. With all this work being coordinated through one agency, New Zealand has a good chance of avoiding the dangers to people and the environment caused by incorrect management of hazardous substances.