| Summary
of Combustion Sources and Emissions Listed and/or Described in the
USEPA Inventory of Sources of Dioxin in the United States |
|||||||||||
| No. of Facilities a | Mass processed or production in Kilograms b | Cc | Air | Cd | Water | Cd | Land | Cd | Product | Cd | |
| Release, gm TEQ/yr | |||||||||||
| Municipal waste incinerators | 130 | 28,800,000,000 | H | 1,100 | M | 1,800e | NA | ||||
| Open burning of household trash | 8,040,000,000 | (1,125) | NA | NA | |||||||
| Medical waste incinerators | 2,375 | 1,200,000,000 | L | 477 | L | NA | |||||
| Hazardous waste incinerators | |||||||||||
| Dedicated (commercial & on-site) | 162 | 1,500,000,000 | H | 5.7 | M | NA | |||||
| Industrial boilers/furnaces | 600,000,000 | H | 0.38 | L | NA | ||||||
| Cement Kilns f | |||||||||||
| Fuels-conventional | 178 | 61,300,000,000 g | H | 17.8 | L | (0.1)h | NA | ||||
| Fuels-hazardous | 34 | 6,300,000,000 g | H | 153 | L | (24) i | NA | ||||
| Sewage sludge incinerators | 199 j | 865,000 | H | 6.0 | M | NA | |||||
| Pulp & Paper mill- kraft black liquor recovery boilers | 80,800,000,000 | H | 2.3 | M | NA | ||||||
| Combustion of landfill gas | 4,700,000,000 m3 k | (6.6) | NA | NA | NA | ||||||
| Waste tire combustion | 1l | 500,000 | M | (0.14) | L | NA | |||||
| Biogas combustion m | 467,000,000 m3 n | (0.2) | NA | NA | NA | ||||||
| Pulp & Paper mill sludge incineration | o | NA | |||||||||
| Asphalt mixing plants p | 500,000,000,000 | (7) | NA | ||||||||
| Crematoria | 1,155 | 488,224 q | H | 0.24 | L | NA | |||||
| Petroleum refining catalyst regeneration r | 3,380,000 s | NEG | NA | ||||||||
| Carbon reactivation furnaces t | |||||||||||
| Industrial spent carbon | 32,500,000 | L | (0.097) | L | NA | NA | NA | ||||
| Municipal water treatment | 32,500,000 | L | (0.056) | L | NA | NA | NA | ||||
| Accidental fires | |||||||||||
| Structural fires | 574,000 fires | [20]u | NA | ||||||||
| Vehicle fires | 406,000 fires | (28.3) | NA | ||||||||
| PCB fires | [15]v | NA | |||||||||
| Landfill fires | (1,050)w | NA | NA | ||||||||
| Forest and brush fires | |||||||||||
| Wild fires | 66,000,000,000 | M | 132 | L | NA | NA | |||||
| Prescribed burns | 38,000,000,000 | M | 76 | L | NA | NA | |||||
| Cigarette smoking | 487,000,000,000
cigarettes |
H | 0.81 | L | NA | NA | NA | ||||
| Candles | 270,000,000 | (0.004) | |||||||||
| Total | 1971 | -- | 1800 | -- | |||||||
| Total with preliminary and other estimates | 4224 | 1824 | |||||||||
Notes:
1) Values in parentheses are preliminary estimates presented in the text of the EPA report but not included in the national inventory.
2) Values in brackets are estimates from other sources in those cases where such data were available and EPA presented no estimates.
3) Shaded areas are those for which EPA found evidence suggesting dioxin releases to the specific environmental media but had insufficient data to make quantitative or
qualitative estimates of these releases.
4) NEG = negligible, defined by EPA as less than 1 g TEQ/yr.
5) NA = not applicable.
a When available in the EPA report, the number of facilities in each source category is presented below.
b Except where otherwise noted.
c Confidence rating of activity level: H = high; M = medium; and L= low.
d Confidence rating of emission factor: H = high; M = medium; and L = low.
e This estimate is based on 7,000,000,000 kg of ash (1992 estimate) with a mean dioxin content of 258 ng TEQ/kg in ash samples from five facilities sampled in 1990.
f EPA noted in their report, "Lightweight aggregate kilns are not addressed in the EPA report. Lime kilns are discussed but not listed as a source in the National Inventory. No U.S. data exist on lime kilns, however data from Belgium, the U.K., and Germany show measurable but low dioxin emissions from these sources.
g Mass in kilograms of cement clinker produced.
h EPA estimated this quantity of dioxin is contained in the 3,500,000,000 kg of cement kiln dust buried in landfills.
i EPA estimated this quantity of dioxin is contained in 170,000,000 kg of cement kiln dust buried in landfills.
j Number of facilities in 1992.
k Cubic meters per year of landfill gas currently burned in flares. EPA expects this volume to increase by three-fold under new regulations.
l EPA reported only one dedicated tire incinerator that burned 19 percent of all tires burned. Of the remaining tires, 46 percent were burned at pulp and paper mills and
23 percent at cement kilns.
m According to EPA, this category is combustion in flares of exhaust gases from anaeraobic sewage sludge digestors.
n Volume of gas generated from the anaerobic digestion of 2 billion kg of sewage sludge.
o EPA assumed emissions from this activity to be included in the category of industrial wood burning.
p Due to lack of U.S.-specific data, EPA made a preliminary estimate of air releases using German data.
q Number of bodies cremated in 1995.
r EPA offered no estimate of dioxin releases for this source category, although they note data describing dioxin concentrations in untreated wastewater and spent caustics from U.S. catalytic reforming regeneration operations, some 90 percent of which are deposited in wastewater treatment sludge. Dioxin concentrations were also reported in
stack gas samples from a Canadian operation.
s Kilograms of spent reformer catalyst that is regenerated.
t EPA relied on data from 1990 in the absence of data for 1995.
u EPA offered no estimate for dioxin emissions from structural fires. This estimate by Thomas (1995) was based on 688,000 structural fires per year.
v EPA listed this source but offered no estimate of releases. This value was estimated by Thomas (1995) based on the assumption that 74,000,000 kg of PCBs are still in use and 1 percent of this is burned during the course of structural fires annually.
w EPA's preliminary estimate was based on Swedish data.