Case Study on the Environmental Impact of C&D Waste Facility

When environmental regulations were not strict, waste treatment facilities quipped with poor prevention of environmental pollution did often site in the outskirts of urban areas. However, due to concentration of population, industry, and culture, those facilities are surrounded by residential and commercial buildings, and have been emerging as a cause of social conflict. There is such a C&D facility in Seoul which has been asked to move out from residents. The local district issued permission is demanded by the residents to take measures about that facility as well. This study surveyed what kind of environmental damages to surrounding area are caused by the facility using resident questionnaire survey, environmental pollutants measurement, and atmospheric dispersion modeling. Residents questionnaire survey revealed that residents living within 1 km from the facility could have been negatively affected by picking answer to be damaged much more than residents living over 1 km. Residents also mentioned dust as main pollutants, and field survey illustrated that dusts were coming from C&D crusher, yard stock of crushed aggregate, sediments on the road surface dropped from C&D transportation vehicles, and so on. According to environmental pollutants measurement, the concentration of fine dust exceeded limitedly the environmental standard in the facility site, in the area of neighboring the facility site and in the residential area closest to the facility site. Atmospheric dispersion modeling resulted that the facility is causing 20~39% of fine dusts, 56~92% of nitrogen dioxide and 72~88% of noise to the closest residential area. As a short-term measure to reduce damage to surrounding areas, it is desirable to confine crushers in the building and purify pollutants, and to wash away dusts on the surface of site and surrounding roads. If not, closure of the facility or move out to other area should be considered.