TREATMENT OF OILY REFINERY WASTES BY LANDFARMING
Jeffrey D. Meyers, Research Engineer
Robert L. Huddleston, Research Group Leader
Research and Development Department
Continental Oil Company
Ponca City, Oklahoma 74601
INTRODUCTION
Industrial ody wastes have been disposed of on land for many years. Practices have
included landspreading, landfdling, road surfacing, burial and placement in pits and
lagoons. In many cases responsible disposal methods were used, but in others little
care was provided. With the increasing environmental awareness of recent years, all
sectors of society have been forced to re-evaluate traditional methods of disposal. In
so doing many of the customary methods have been recognized to be unacceptable,
whde acceptable alternatives have become increasingly regulated. The alternative showing the greatest promise for the disposal of refinery ody wastes, both environmentally
and economically, is landfarming, also referred to as landspreading, land application,
land disposal, sod cultivation, sod farming and sludge farming.
Operationady landfarming of oily wastes is now recognized to include: (a) careful
site selection; (b) site preparation; (c) establishment of background sod and subsod
conditions and pertinent compositions; (d) on-going disposal management; (e) proper
site closure; and (f) post-closure monitoring. Untd recently, however, most landfarm
research dealt incompletely, and sometimes not at all, with these factors. Such research
has established credibdity for the decomposition of oil in the sod environment and
therefore demonstrated the technical feasibdity of the method. In 1972, Conoco's
Refining Department began to look for a cost effective and environmentally acceptable
method for the disposal of ody wastes. Landfarming was chosen as a possible option,
and research into the subject was begun. In a short period of time the viabdity of the
method was recognized. Shortly thereafter a smad-scale study was also begun to evaluate the disposal of produced ody sands, a material sometimes resulting as petroleum
is produced. These investigations led directly to a pdot-scale landfarm project, which
is the top of this chapter.
During this same period, federal legislation was issued to regulate the disposal of
wastes into or onto water, air and land. That legislation regulating the disposal of
solid wastes is The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976. Although the EPA was to have promulgated the regulations and guidelines for this Act
by April 21, 1978, they were unable to do so. Since that time the United States
District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the EPA to promulgate its final
solid waste regulations by July 31, 1979, and its hazardous wastes regulations by
December 31, 1979. The most recent draft, dated December 18, 1978, provides at
least the framework of what will likely be required for landfarms. Table I contains a
tabulation of the salient points.
While many of these are unnecessarily stringent as stated, most are accompanied by
"Notes" that allow less restrictive requirements to be applied if the operator can show
that no environmental hazard wdl be created. Two, however, have no such "Notes."
First, it is conceivable that the uptake and accumulation of hazardous constituents in
food-chain or other crops could be beneficial, since it could "detoxify" the land area.
The harvested material could subsequently be placed in a secure landfill. It is therefore
urged that a "Note" be included that allows the growth of any cover crops, but not for
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