Control of Dioxins From the Pulp and Paper Industry Under the Clean Water Act and Lead in Soil at Superfund Mining Sites: Two Case Studies in EPA's Use of Science

This paper discusses EPA's acquisition and use of science in addressing dioxins (and other organochlorines) from the pulp and paper industry under the Clean Water Act and lead in soil at large Superfund mining sites. The common thread between both cases is the challenge posed by administering national pollution control programs while considering site-by-site variability in factors that influence environmental risks. In the first case study, high levels of dioxin in fish downstream of pulp and paper mills were inadvertently detected in 1983 as part of an EPA effort to determine background levels of dioxin in areas presumed to be relatively uncontaminated. These findings quickly got the release of dioxins from pulp and paper mills on EPA's research agenda. News reports beginning in 1987 elevated the issue onto the regulatory agenda, but more than a decade has passed without EPA taking final regulatory action. Meanwhile, the pulp and paper industry has dramatically reduced, but not eliminated, dioxin discharges from mills. The key scientific issue now confronting EPA decisionmakers is how much weight to give to a water quality indicator called AOX. AOX is not statistically related to dioxin at the levels under consideration. Environmentalists justify using AOX because it serves as a surrogate measure for the entire toxicologically uncharacterized "soup" of organocholorines discharged from bleaching mills. Additionally, EPA estimates that discharges of dioxin from plants at levels below the analytical detection limits will continue to result in exceedances of stringent federal ambient water quality criteria under some local conditions. Industry counters that reductions in AOX do not achieve any measurable or monetizable environmental benefits. This case illustrates EPA's use of science to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of nominally technology-based water pollution controls. In the second case study, the Superfund program does not have the option of following its standard operating procedures for evaluating risks and determining Preliminary Remediation Goals for lead-contaminated sites because EPA has no numerical health-based standard for ingested lead (the agency's goal for lead is based on the level of lead in children's bloodstream). The study, therefore, illuminates the challenges and opportunities posed by developing and using rigorous site-specific scientific information. Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) generated rodent bioassay data which suggested that the bioavailability of lead in soil at mining sites would be much lower than EPA's default assumption. However, the agency disputed the validity of using mature rodents as animals models for the population of concern, children. In response, EPA conducted experiments with juvenile swine. The results indicated considerable variability in the bioavailability of lead in soil among the sites tested, with some higher, some lower, and some about the same as the agency's default assumption. Consequently, EPA cannot generalize across sites where similar mining activities occurred or draw any general distinctions between different types of mining sites, as had been presumed. This case illustrates that selection of the most appropriate animal model for toxicological studies involves tradeoffs between cost, experimental power and control, fidelity to human physiology, and the value of information for decision-making. Determination of the "optimal" animal model depends on the evaluative criterion being used. Although the new scientific data generated by EPA suggests higher bioavailability of lead in soil at some sites than the agency's default assumption, in terms of the final remedy selection, it appears that all of the results will be either beneficial or essentially neutral to Large Area Lead Site PRPs because EPA deems the cost of removing the contaminated soil to be excessive.

Big Data and the Internet of Things

Advances in sensing and computing capabilities are making it possible to embed increasing computing power in small devices. This has enabled the sensing devices not just to passively capture data at very high resolution but also to take sophisticated actions in response. Combined with advances in communication, this is resulting in an ecosystem of highly interconnected devices referred to as the Internet of Things - IoT. In conjunction, the advances in machine learning have allowed building models on this ever increasing amounts of data. Consequently, devices all the way from heavy assets such as aircraft engines to wearables such as health monitors can all now not only generate massive amounts of data but can draw back on aggregate analytics to "improve" their performance over time. Big data analytics has been identified as a key enabler for the IoT. In this chapter, we discuss various avenues of the IoT where big data analytics either is already making a significant impact or is on the cusp of doing so. We also discuss social implications and areas of concern.Comment: 33 pages. draft of upcoming book chapter in Japkowicz and Stefanowski (eds.) Big Data Analysis: New algorithms for a new society, Springer Series on Studies in Big Data, to appea

Sustainable seabed mining: guidelines and a new concept for Atlantis II Deep

The feasibility of exploiting seabed resources is subject to the engineering solutions, and economic prospects. Due to rising metal prices, predicted mineral scarcities and unequal allocations of resources in the world, vast research programmes on the exploration and exploitation of seabed minerals are presented in 1970s. Very few studies have been published after the 1980s, when predictions were not fulfilled. The attention grew back in the last decade with marine mineral mining being in research and commercial focus again and the first seabed mining license for massive sulphides being granted in Papua New Guinea’s Exclusive Economic Zone.Research on seabed exploitation and seabed mining is a complex transdisciplinary field that demands for further attention and development. Since the field links engineering, economics, environmental, legal and supply chain research, it demands for research from a systems point of view. This implies the application of a holistic sustainability framework of to analyse the feasibility of engineering systems. The research at hand aims to close this gap by developing such a framework and providing a review of seabed resources. Based on this review it identifies a significant potential for massive sulphides in inactive hydrothermal vents and sediments to solve global resource scarcities. The research aims to provide background on seabed exploitation and to apply a holistic systems engineering approach to develop general guidelines for sustainable seabed mining of polymetallic sulphides and a new concept and solutions for the Atlantis II Deep deposit in the Red Sea.The research methodology will start with acquiring a broader academic and industrial view on sustainable seabed mining through an online survey and expert interviews on seabed mining. In addition, the Nautilus Minerals case is reviewed for lessons learned and identification of challenges. Thereafter, a new concept for Atlantis II Deep is developed that based on a site specific assessment.The research undertaken in this study provides a new perspective regarding sustainable seabed mining. The main contributions of this research are the development of extensive guidelines for key issues in sustainable seabed mining as well as a new concept for seabed mining involving engineering systems, environmental risk mitigation, economic feasibility, logistics and legal aspects

Environmental Risk Analysis: Problems and Perspectives in Different Countries

The authors discuss various industrial accidents, which have led to growing concerns about the potential hazards and risks involved in chemical process industries

An Intelligent Data Mining System to Detect Health Care Fraud

The chapter begins with an overview of the types of healthcare fraud. Next, there is a brief discussion of issues with the current fraud detection approaches. The chapter then develops information technology based approaches and illustrates how these technologies can improve current practice. Finally, there is a summary of the major findings and the implications for healthcare practice

Adapting to climate risks and extreme weather: guide for mining - minerals industry professionals

AbstractExtreme weather events in Australia over recent years have highlighted the costs for Australian mining and mineral processing operations of being under-prepared for adapting to climate risk. For example, the 2010/2011 Queensland floods closed or restricted production of about forty out of Queensland’s fifty coal mines costing more than $2 billion in lost production.Whilst mining and mineral professionals have experience with risk management and managing workplace health and safety, changes to patterns of extreme weather events and future climate impacts are unpredictable. Responding to these challenges requires planning and preparation for events that many people have never experienced before. With increasing investor and public concern for the impact of such events, this guide is aimed at assisting a wide range of mining and mineral industry professionals to incorporate planning and management of extreme weather events and impacts from climate change into pre-development, development and construction, mining and processing operations and post-mining phases. The guide should be read in conjunction with the research  final report which describes the research process for developing the guide and reflects on challenges and lessons for adaptation research from the project.The Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) led the development of the guide with input from the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, University of Queensland and a Steering Committee from the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s Sustainability Committee and individual AusIMM members, who volunteered their time and experience. As the situation of every mining and mineral production operation is going to be different, this guide has been designed to provide general information about the nature of extreme weather events, and some specific examples of how unexpectedly severe flooding, storm, drought, high temperature and bushfire events have affected mining and mineral processing operations. A number of case studies used throughout the guide also illustrate the ways forward thinking operations have tackled dramatically changing climatic conditions.Each section of the guide outlines a range of direct and indirect impacts from a different type of extreme weather, and provides a starting point for identifying potential risks and adaptation options that can be applied in different situations. The impacts and adaptation sections provide guidance on putting the key steps into practice by detailing specific case examples of leading practice and how a risk management approach can be linked to adaptive planning. More information about specific aspects of extreme weather, planning and preparation for the risks presented by these events, and tools for undertaking climate related adaptation is provided in the ‘Additional Resources’ section

The Ethical Implications of Personal Health Monitoring

Personal Health Monitoring (PHM) uses electronic devices which monitor and record health-related data outside a hospital, usually within the home. This paper examines the ethical issues raised by PHM. Eight themes describing the ethical implications of PHM are identified through a review of 68 academic articles concerning PHM. The identified themes include privacy, autonomy, obtrusiveness and visibility, stigma and identity, medicalisation, social isolation, delivery of care, and safety and technological need. The issues around each of these are discussed. The system / lifeworld perspective of Habermas is applied to develop an understanding of the role of PHMs as mediators of communication between the institutional and the domestic environment. Furthermore, links are established between the ethical issues to demonstrate that the ethics of PHM involves a complex network of ethical interactions. The paper extends the discussion of the critical effect PHMs have on the patient’s identity and concludes that a holistic understanding of the ethical issues surrounding PHMs will help both researchers and practitioners in developing effective PHM implementations

A comparison of processing techniques for producing prototype injection moulding inserts.

This project involves the investigation of processing techniques for producing low-cost moulding inserts used in the particulate injection moulding (PIM) process. Prototype moulds were made from both additive and subtractive processes as well as a combination of the two. The general motivation for this was to reduce the entry cost of users when considering PIM. PIM cavity inserts were first made by conventional machining from a polymer block using the pocket NC desktop mill. PIM cavity inserts were also made by fused filament deposition modelling using the Tiertime UP plus 3D printer. The injection moulding trials manifested in surface finish and part removal defects. The feedstock was a titanium metal blend which is brittle in comparison to commodity polymers. That in combination with the mesoscale features, small cross-sections and complex geometries were considered the main problems. For both processing methods, fixes were identified and made to test the theory. These consisted of a blended approach that saw a combination of both the additive and subtractive processes being used. The parts produced from the three processing methods are investigated and their respective merits and issues are discussed

“Utilization, Development and Conservation” of Natural Resources for the Maximum Benefit of Alaskans: Scrutinizing Alaska’s Permitting Regime for Large Mines

This Article disputes analyses and conclusions presented in an article about Pebble Mine published in the Alaska Law Review’s June 2008 issue. This Article discusses the history of mining in Alaska and the Pebble Project and describes the permitting regime applicable to mining exploration or development projects as it has been developed by the Alaska Legislature and the United States Congress, implemented by state and federal administrative agencies, and interpreted by federal and state courts. The Authors argue that the mining industry in Alaska has not historically proved detrimental to the fishing industry and that numerous and adequate legal safeguards are provided by the existing permitting regime. They also dispute the previous article’s conclusion that development of the Pebble resource would harm fisheries. This Article concludes that a change in state law by which the owners of the Pebble resource are barred from developing the known deposit would effect a compensable regulatory taking