Metals emitted today from existing incinerators total 2.2 billion pounds each year from the stack, 1.85 billion pounds discarded with scrubber water, and another 7.3 billion pounds discarded with the ash. One year's worth of ash weighs 68.3 billion pounds. This estimate assumes that the incinerator operates perfectly every minute of every day for 20 years. Sixty-nine percent of the inspections resulted in citations for violations. A hazardous waste incinerator is set up to burn wastes continuously.
Wastes enter the combustion chamber through a pipe or a conveyor.
When the flow in the pipe stops, this is evidence that something is out of adjustment. The machine is not being operated as well as it could be. EPA says it does not know what the effects of waste-feed cutoffs might be on emissions from the incinerator. Meanwhile, we must conclude, the operators of the vast majority of hazardous waste incinerators checked by EPA are conducting their own research on this matter, using local people as guinea pigs. Thus our cumulative total emissions, given above, are also too low.