ARCHIVED REPORTS_1993_1 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

III. Environmental Setting, Impacts,and Nti ations g P g L. Public Health and Safety IMPACTS AND MITIGATION Significance Criteria To perform this analysis,project plans,descriptions of existing conditions,and appropriate regulations and guidelines were examined to determine how current conditions within the project area involve handling of potentially hazardous wastes,how proposed project activities would compare with current conditions, and how those proposed uses would comply with applicable policies and guidelines. (The area to be developed was not inspected for hazards nor has it been surveyed by an environmental audit for this EIR.) Significance criteria are as follows: • A project impact would be considered significant if future activities at the landfill would involve unmitigated generation,handling,or release of hazardous substance that posed a threat to public health or safety. • A project impact would be considered significant if waste handling activities at the expanded landfill would violate State or Federal laws or County policies. For the most part,the Public Health and Safety impacts identified for the project currently exist with the current operation of the landfill. The expansion would increase the duration and possibly the magnitude of the impacts. Impact L.1. Worker exposure to chemical contaminants and particulates during landfill operation may exceed levels protective of health or safety. (SIGNIFICANT) Workers and the general public can be exposed to hazardous materials through four principal routes: inhalation,direct skin and eye contact,ingestion,and injections or cuts(NIOSH, 1985). Inhalation is an important exposure route of concern in most waste-handling situations,because the lungs are extremely vulnerable to chemical agents. Even substances that do not affect the lungs directly may pass through lung tissue into the bloodstream where they are transported to other vulnerable areas of the body. Some toxic chemicals present in the atmosphere could be colorless or odorless,and their toxic effects may not produce any immediate symptoms. Some chemicals injure the skin directly through contact. Others pass through the skin into the bloodstream,where they are transported to vulnerable organs. Heat and moisture may enhance skin absorption. The eye is particularly vulnerable because airborne chemicals can dissolve in its moist surface membrane and be carried to the rest of the body through the bloodstream, as capillaries are very close to the surface of the eye. III.L.13