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<br />B) Nonha~ardous Waste Management <br /> <br />..... <br />...:t <br />1\;.. <br />C:.il <br /> <br />In Colorado, municipal wastes are generated at the rate of approximately 2.7 <br />million tons per year and are increasing proportionally as population and <br />generation rates increase. These wastes include nonha~ardous industrial <br />wastes. Liquid and sludge wastes are increasing as municipal waste water <br />treatment plants enforce restrictions on discharges into sewage collection <br />systems. Hazardous wastes from small quantity generators are excluded from <br />the requirements for disposal at designated hazardous waste disposal sites <br />under RCRA (the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) and <br />contribute significantly to disposal problems at designated landfills. <br />Other liquids and brine wastes are disposed in approximately 2,000 pits, <br />ponds, and lagoons which may not be designed to prevent the contamination of <br />surface and groundwater. <br /> <br />Sludges from municipally operated waste water treatment plants, when <br />disposed of in landfills can cause environmental contamination. The burial <br />of this waste can present a high potential for chemical and bacteriological <br />contamination of surface and groundwater, especially when sludge and otber <br />wastes are intermittently or continously in contact witb groundwater. <br /> <br />Another potential problem related to landfills is the generation of <br />explosive methane gas as the wastes decompose. It is necessary to provide <br />venting and systems to control the generation and migration of dangerous <br />mixtures of gases from landfills. <br /> <br />Finally, energy and mineral development in Colorado will result in <br />increasing amounts of both solid and hazardous waste. Tbe Waste Management <br />Division provides technical assistance and support to the Mined Land <br />Reclamation Board in their permitting of energy and mineral facilities. <br /> <br />4. Environmental Health Protection <br /> <br />Despite the research time and money invested in environmentsl pollution <br />control during the past decade, environmentally-related diseases remain a <br />l <br />troubling reality. Periodic outbreaks. of water-borne disease, the hazards to <br />human health associated with the introduction of toxic substances into the food <br />chain, and the poorly understood hazar.ds of low level radiation, are all <br />examples of environmental health situations which continue to pose real <br />problems. <br /> <br />The environment in Colorado presents a number of rather unique environmental <br />health challenges. Of particular. concern is protecting the public from the <br />chemical, physical and biological hazards associated with past and present <br />energy and mineral development. Future energy and mineral development, <br />particularly oil shale and uranium, may pose new threats to the public health <br />about which relatively little is known. <br /> <br />The National Cancer Institute <br />are environmentally induced. <br />environment are thought to be <br /> <br />estiwates that some 80 percent of human <br />Several elements present in Colorado's <br />associated witb cancer as well as other <br /> <br />cancers <br /> <br />chronic <br /> <br />-10- <br />