The coming storm

Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in September 2022, created a mess for municipalities and waste management firms to clean up. Because my family owns a condo unit in Naples, I heard firsthand about some of the destruction.

More than a year after the storm hit, the first floor of the building has not been restored, and, more relevantly, numerous cars, as well as their batteries, antifreeze, gas, oil and other automotive chemicals, were washed into the Gulf of Mexico, bays and waterways hugging the coast.

That’s one small example of some of the hazardous wastes created by natural disasters, and we’re likely to continue seeing more natural disasters based on trends reported by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA NCEI).

In 2022, reported costs from natural disasters ballooned to $178.8 billion.

In addition to hazardous substances found in automobiles, manufacturers that use chemicals in their production processes can have hazardous materials on-site, and building debris comes with its own set of hazardous materials that could include asbestos, lead, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). During a hurricane, wildfire or flood, some of those materials could become hazardous waste if they’re released into the environment.

While regulations have been established under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) that industrial generators of hazardous waste and waste management facilities are required to follow in normal times, natural disasters throw a wrench into the routine.

One key strategy to prepare for a natural disaster is moving stored hazardous materials to another location, Indianapolis-based Envita Solutions Director of Strategic Solutions J.R. Brooks says. If a company owns another facility, it could transfer material to that facility in advance to minimize the material on-site when a hurricane hits.

To transfer hazardous material stored at their facilities, facility managers must identify a destination and obtain permission for the transfer. While some locales could grant companies extensions to routine 10-day temporary storage options, it’s not always wise to rely on that. Having a plan for where and how to manage the hazardous materials released during natural disasters seems critical for any facility, whether it’s a manufacturing plant or a waste site.

As natural disasters increase in frequency and occur in more parts of the country, it’s going to become more important for companies such as Envita, Clean Harbors, Norwell, Massachusetts; France-based Veolia and others that handle hazardous waste to fine-tune their plans ahead of a natural disaster and help their commercial customers plan, too.