Wealth Creation without Pollution - Designing for Industry, Ecobusiness Parks and Industrial Estates

Brian D' Arcy, Lee-Hyung Kim, Marla Maniquiz-Redillas

• Publisher: IWA Publishing
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781780408804
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Applied Sciences
• Index: Biological Sciences

The development of eco-industrial parks and associated 'ecological industry' concepts offer progressive integrated approaches to resolve pollution problems from effluents and wastes of all kinds. Most industry however is now located in business parks and industrial estates, with relatively few industries having direct discharges of process effluents to the water environment. But that does not mean no pollution. Many of these estates are very large, with many companies of all kinds spread over extensive areas. All have surface water drainage and stormwater runoff is often contaminated by many diffuse sources. Wealth Creation without Pollution is the culmination of several years of deliberations by academics and regulators, engaging with industrial and commercial sectors to characterise and quantify environmental problems and identify best practice solutions. Equally important have been efforts to explore sufficiently flexible regulatory regimes that offer effective means to prevent pollution and achieve good working environments in which industry and commerce can flourish. This book explores how modern industries are striving towards more sustainable practices, with case studies of impacts and of greener industry practices, as well as philosophical and policy papers. The role of regulators, planners and government in fostering a greener industrial base is also examined. Wealth Creation without Pollution is a valuable text book for environmental science and engineering students, and a useful resource for industrial architects, developers and practitioners.

© IWA Publishing 2018. Wealth Creation without Pollution: Designing for Industry, Ecobusiness Parks and Industrial Estates

Brian D’Arcy, Lee-Hyung Kim, Marla Maniquiz-Redillas

doi: 10.2166/9781780408347_001

Chapter 1

Industrial pollution and the water environment: a historical perspective

B. J. D’Arcy*, L.-H. Kim and Peter Morrison

*Corresponding author: [email protected]

1.1 INTRODUCTION

In the UK and much of Western Europe, the traditional image of smoke stack industries polluting the air, with oily and toxic effluent streams ruining rivers and coasts, is increasingly a historical one. As the home of the Industrial Revolution, many of the rivers and estuaries of the United Kingdom (Britain) were severely impacted by industrial waste streams. Heavily coloured with dyes, process effluents from textiles had high biological oxygen demand (BOD; also a characteristic of food industry and paper making effluents), whilst toxic metals and other pollutants were characteristic of tanneries, engineering, metal finishing and associated industries. Kay (1832) described the environmental conditions in Manchester during the Industrial Revolution:

•‘The (River) Irk, black with the refuse of dye-works erected on its banks, receives… (drainage from)… the gas works, and filth of the most pernicious character from bone-works, tanneries, size manufacturers, etc.

•(There is) no common slaughter house in Manchester, and those which exist are chiefly in (the) narrowest and most filthy streets in the town. The drainage from these houses, deeply tinged with blood, and impregnated with other animal matters, frequently flows down the common surface drain of the street…’

Similar conditions prevailed in the other industrialising cities, prior to development of proper sewer systems and treatment works, and before modern techniques for recovering value from waste and adequately treating trade effluents were available. In the UK and Germany a whole spectrum of organic pollutants were discharged from the developing chemical industry, which – whilst revolutionising technology and products available for humanity – destroyed many miles of watercourses. Porter (1973) reviewed the impact of industry in four industrialised estuaries in Britain, making the case for government actions to reduce the pollution problems. Table 1.1 gives a quantitative idea of the contribution of local industries to the polluted condition of one of those estuaries, the Mersey.

Table 1.1 The main industrial pollution loads discharging to the Mersey Estuary, UK, in 1971, prior to the Control of Pollution Act, 1974.

Type of Industry	No. of Dischargers	BOD Pollution Load in kg/day
Inorganic chemicals, metals	20	12,725
Organic chemicals	5	11,550
Mineral oil refining & petrochemicals	4	42,850
Detergents, vegetable oil refining	3	4841
Food industries (excluding vegetable oil refining)	4	1331
Animal waste processing	3	6625
Paper mills	2	12,693
Total	41	92,615
Source: Modified from Porter (1973).

A decade later and great improvements had been made on the Mersey (D’Arcy, 1988), and by the mid-1990s the impacts of industrial effluent discharges were in decline in many of the initially industrialising countries. In the UK, for example, in 1995 the Forth River Purification Board (FRPB) reported that only about 10% of its polluted waters were caused by industrial effluent discharges to the freshwater reaches of the river system (FRPB, 1995). Although the basis of the reporting system was changed on implementation of the European Water Framework Directive, to give a broader indication of good ecological status, the adverse impact of industry in relation to process effluent discharges, has continued to decline in Scotland.

Table 1.2 lists the relative importance of industrial impacts compared with other water pollution sources currently in the USA (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2014). Evidence for industrial pollution impacts is reported in the USA as impairments – actual or threatened impairment of potential use. Only a proportion of States reported data to the USEPA, so the figures do not necessarily represent a national picture. For assessed rivers and streams, industry ranked 12th as a pollution cause. When the miles of impairment due to industry are expressed as a percentage of impaired rivers and streams, industry accounts for only 2.2% of total reported impairments.

Table 1.2 National summary of probable sources of impairments in assessed rivers and streams in the USA.

Ranking	Probable Source Category	Miles Threatened or Impaired
1	Agriculture	125,180
2	Unknown	101,903
3	Atmospheric deposition	99,622
4	Hydromodification	57,997
5	Urban-related runoff/stormwater	56,068
6	Municipal discharges/sewage	53,860
7	Natural/wildlife	52,365
8	Unspecified nonpoint source	48,270
9	Habitat alterations (not directly related to hydromodification)	33,732
10	Resource extraction	28,835
11	Silviculture (Forestry)	19,558
12	Industrial	16,022
13	Construction	12,668
14	Other	9231
15	Land application/waste sites/tanks	8168
16–22	Sum of additional 7 minor categories, including legacy pollutants, aquaculture, recreation, military bases, etc.	10,115
Source:USEPA accessed March 14, 2014, in http://iaspub.epa.gov/waters10/attains_nation_cy.control#total_assessed_waters.

In many industrialised countries there was a shift of industry to the coast, to areas closer for supply of raw materials and for export of products. Some large industries perhaps also sought locations where large volumes of difficult effluent could be discharge...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Primum non nocere
• Sponsors
• List of Chemical Symbols and Standard Acronyms
• Preface
• Foreword from Vince Cable
• Foreword from South Korea
• Chapter 1: Industrial pollution and the water environment: a historical perspective
• Chapter 2: Accidents and pollution: industry impacts
• Chapter 3: Industrial estates as sources of water pollution
• Chapter 4: Risk assessments – trader activities and water pollution
• Chapter 5: Green industry concept and practices
• Chapter 6: The restructuring of industrial estates in the Netherlands: The use of a new decision support model for a process analysis of the inner harbor area of Enschede
• Chapter 7: Eco-innovation opportunities in the waste management sector in Scotland
• Chapter 8: Green industrial park practice: A case study of green infrastructure in Wenling, China
• Chapter 9: Drainage infrastructure for industrial and commercial premises, estates and business parks
• Chapter 10: Low impact development features: hydrological and environmental effects
• Chapter 11: The application of sustainable drainage technology: challenges and solutions
• Chapter 12: Maintenance requirements for stormwater management facilities
• Chapter 13: The Interaction between the EU Industrial Emissions and Water Framework Directives with particular emphasis on industrial estates
• Chapter 14: The regulatory regime for bringing SUDS into routine use for industrial estates and business parks in Scotland, UK
• Chapter 15: Regulatory regimes for diffuse pollution and industrial estates in Korea
• Chapter 16: Evaluating performance of proprietary and conventional urban stormwater management systems
• Chapter 17: An integrated approach for pollution prevention on industrial premises
• Chapter 18: Product substitution – addressing the challenge of hazardous priority pollutants
• Chapter 19: Taking a more holistic approach to reduce diffuse industrial stormwater pollution: The Kingston Case Study (Australia)
• Chapter 20: Beyond legislation – working together to protect the water environment
• Index