Alaska backhaul program: carriers, Yukon River Villages partner.

AuthorBohi, Heidi
PositionTRANSPORTATION

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After 50 years of statewide barge, trucking and airline companies delivering millions of pounds of freight to rural Alaska villages, several of these transportation leaders have decided it's now time to do their part to haul out the scraps and remains of these same products seen littering the landscape and front yards, and spilling out from local landfills.

Removing this waste from these remote villages is almost as costly--and cost prohibitive--as it is to ship it in, especially in light of the recent fuel crisis. As a result, these hazardous materials pile up for years. Broken-down cars and construction equipment, computers, lead acid batteries, electronics, used oil and glycol, fluorescent light bulbs and kitchen appliances are some of the items taking up space in landfills and polluting the air, soil and water, eventually harming fish and wildlife that locals rely on for their subsistence lifestyle.

INCENDIARY BURNING

Many villages use a wide variety of combustion methods to rid of these materials, ranging from less expensive open burning to more costly high temperature, multiple-chambered incinerators and thermal oxidation methods. Although the higher temperature combustion systems cause less pollution, they are often more cost prohibitive than burn-barrel, burn-cage and burn-box methods, which cause more pollution.

The environmental and health issues associated with incineration are air pollution from gases, particulates (smoke) released during combustion, and contaminants in the bottom ash. Pollutants in air emissions include acid gases, trace metals, trace organic compounds, particulates, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.

Acid gases such as hydrogen chloride and sulfur dioxide result from burning waste that has high levels of chlorine and sulfur (e.g., plastics and paper). Lead and cadmium (typically from batteries) are trace metals that are found in both fly ash and bottom ash. The contaminant dioxin has drawn the greatest controversy because it is known to cause cancer at high doses and is known for persisting in the environment and the food chain.

YUKON RIVER WATERSHED

Although most of what is backhauled is fairly typical, in Nenana, while working with the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC) backhaul program, Solid Waste Director Stephen Price says while taking Freon out of broken-down refrigerators, he opened the top freezer of one of the units and it was full of wet VHS tapes dating...

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