Section 1.    OIL WASTES
DISPOSAL OF OILY WASTES BY LAND TREATMENT
Raymond C. Loehr, Professor
John H. Martin Jr., Research Associate
Edward F. Neuhauser, Research Associate
Department of Agricultural Engineering
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853
INTRODUCTION
Factors such as process simplicity and reduced cost have made land treatment an attractive
method for the treatment and disposal of oily wastes such as those from the petroleum refining industry. It has been estimated that about one-third of all U.S. refineries have full scale or pilot scale land
treatment facilities. In addition, 26 of 38 Canadian refineries and at least 10 refineries in Europe use
land treatment as an environmentally sound and cost effective waste disposal technology [1].
The performance of many petroleum industry land treatment systems in the United States has
been assessed. The results of this assessment [1] provide information on the degradation and immobilization that occurs when oily wastes are land treated. Oil removal efficiencies at these sites ranged
from 60 to 95% with a mean of 78%. Oil reduction ranged from 0.09 to 0.86 lbs. of oil/ft Vdegrada-
tion month and were directly related to oil loading rates.
Certain metals, notably lead and chromium, were above background concentrations in the surface
soils at some land treatment sites. The metals were attenuated with depth, rarely moved beyond the
zone of incorporation, and generally were similar to background concentrations within 1 to 3 feet
below the zone of incorporation.
None of the sites was found to have impacted ground water quality. The degradation and immobilization processes that occurred in the surface soils limited the migration of waste constituents. The
data indicate that land treatment has been an effective treatment and disposal technology for petroleum industry wastes.
Land treatment management practices such as rates and frequencies of waste application can vary
considerably and are based on: (1) operator and field experience; (2) waste characteristics; (3) physical
and chemical soil characteristics; and (4) the degradation rate of the waste components. A field study
is underway to acquire additional information on the degradation rates of oil wastes, the effect of
intermittent applications of such wastes, and the impact that the wastes may have on the soil biota,
especially the bioaccumulation of waste constituents by earthworms.
The study was initiated in 1982 and is planned to continue through the summer of 1984. The information in this paper was obtained in the initial nine months of the study (June 1982 to March 1983).
The data and conclusions in this paper may be modified by subsequent data.
Thus, this paper presents the preliminary results from a field study that is evaluating: (1) the intermittent application of oily wastes to land in the cool and humid northeast; (2) the degradation rates of
the oil in the wastes as a function of time and temperature; and (3) the impact of oily waste on the
native soil biota, particularly the earthworms.
BACKGROUND
The project, a cooperative agreement between Cornell University and the Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory (RSKERL) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is being