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GUEST EDITORIAL
Environmental legacies It is a challenge to identify those areas that will place the greatest demands on environmental science and chemical engineering during the next decade. The effort of those in industry and in academic research in the area of waste reduction or elimination is one of two major frontiers in the environmental field. There will be a transition in the toxicity and fate of wastes or emissions from industry, which will parallel earlier profound changes in the pesticides manufacturing field. Over a period of a decade the production of major agricultural chemicals changed from highly chlorinated, persistent products to more readily degradable, direct-acting chemicals. Agricultural science is now moving toward integrated pest management. The multiplication of the resources, research, field testing, and scientific manpower devoted to all manufacturing industrial categories is a clear reflection of the magnitude of this national transition. Rising environmental costs, either as direct charges or as perceived indirect liability, will be the driving force for industrial transition, which is likely to have philosophical and technical consequences alike. We must face the question of “how clean is clean enough,” if the scientific community is to avoid a quixotic pursuit of the unattainable. Critical to this engineering challenge is investment in experimental studies rather than in theoretical exercises. The second major frontier for environmental science concerns the means by which society will clean up the legacy of hazardous waste that we as a nation are now discovering. This will be as critical in providing solutions to past practices and past mistakes as it will be to reducing the likelihood of generating a legacy for future generations to clean up. The economic outlook demands innovation in the means of detecting problems and in providing remedies. The cleanup cost for a single site, such as an abandoned landfill or an underground drinking-water W13-936W871W21011~01.~/0 0 1987American Chemical Society
source, is now between $1 million and $100 million. There are currently nearly 5000 sites that require attention, and the total cost is somewhere between $ I billion and $500 billion. It is on this stage that the intellectual and social frontiers for the remediation of past practices is set. The need for innovation and a strong understanding of which actions will lead to the required clean conditions is paramount when such large financial commitments are involved. The environmental community’s awareness of the magnitude of the national effort-and of the cost involved with managing the problem-is growing. The need for remediation is so massive that compromise, as well as innovation, is vital. The time requirements also are formidable and warrant much heavier research investments. Yet while realizing a huge financial legacy, our society, like Prometheus, must invest heavily in the prevention of future legacies.
Michael R. Overcash is professor of chemical engineering ai Norrh Carolina Stare Universiry in Raleigh, N.C. He is an EPA Disringuished Scienrisr and a member of the Norrh Carolina Governorb Wasre Managemmr Board. Enviran. Sci. Technol., Vol. 21.
No. 2. 1987
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