Abstract
ABSTRACT
The injection of hazardous waste into subsurface rock formations is at once both the predominant form of liquid hazardous waste disposal in the United States and one of the least understood. Despite the considerable reliance on underground injection for disposing of hazardous wastes, neither the effective injection of fluids nor their safe containment can presently be assured. This article analyzes the practice of underground injection as a hazardous waste disposal method and evaluates the limits to its use and the degree of protection against groundwater contamination current injection methods can ensure. It identifies specific research needs necessary to determine the technical and environmental constraints associated with underground injection and its potential for assuring complete containment of waste. Also examined is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Underground Injection Control Program in terms of its adequacy in preventing and remedying groundwater contamination and other environmental damage due to migration of hazardous wastes. The article recommends specific regulatory changes that could result in more protective underground injection operations.
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