Emergency Data for Hazardous Substances
GEORGE J. MOEIN, Oceanographer
Division of Oil and Hazardous Materials
C. HUGH THOMPSON, Chief
Hazardous Materials Branch
Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
GAYNOR DAWSON, Project Manager
Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs.
Richland, Washington 99352
INTRODUCTION
As the American style of life has become more sophisticated and complicated in terms
of essentials and non-essentials, the materials employed to fulfill the demands of the society
have become concomitantly complex. Modern U.S. technology has developed numerous
new plastics, alloys, fuels, and fibers from improved chemical compounds whose properties
range far beyond those of similar substances in use only a few years ago. Today's
component material is often of such a dynamic nature, and in such a volatile state, that
traditional methods of coping with hazards of the materials have had to be reconsidered.
Such contemporary materials include compressed gases, oxidizing agents,
poisons, flammable substances, explosives, radioactive matter, cryogenic material, molten
metals, corrosive mediums, etc., which when released into the environment in other than the
prescribed manner, are extremely hazardous to the constituents of the environment.
It is conservatively estimated that nearly 4,000 incidents of the release of hazardous
material into the navigable waters of the United States occur annually. The amount of
discharge in 1972 alone was over a million tons. These incidents known as spills, transpire
primarily as the result of accidents, equipment malfunctions, and human error in and
around areas where hazardous materials are used, stored, produced, and transported. In
size they range from small minute quantities to, all to frequently, volumes over millions of
gallons. Unfortunately, with the perilous properties of many of the materials, even a small
spill in volume does not necessarily protend a small spill in consequence.
For example, a mere gallon of Parathion accidentally spilled into the water source of a
small town, could severely threaten the lives of the population. Or, a container of elemental
sodium opened inadvertently to the elements, could, upon contact with water, set off a
series of violent explosions.
The hazardous spill problem is even more frightening when one realizes that the
substances are often water soluble, making them difficult to locate and nearly impossible to
remove. That is the reason why costs and expenses associated with spills are habitually
astronomical, even before totaling the results of the actual physical damage. This is also the
reason why the Federal program, and most State and industrial programs, are designed
around spill prevention.
Therefore, it is crucial that a discharge of hazardous material be rendered innocuous as
quickly as possible after its occurrence through mitigating action.
Prior to the 1960's, only a few systems were devised to respond to the emergency spill of
hazardous materials. It was thought that such systems could, through the use of data banks,
alleviate much of the confusion surrounding the non-continuous discharge.
Nothing is more important in the first minutes following the occurrence of a spill than
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