vvEPA
                                United States
                                Environmental Protection
                                Agency
                                Office of Exploratory
                                Research
                                Washington DC 20460
                                Research and Development
                                EPA-600/S9-82-011  Oct. 1982
Project Summary
                                Nineteenth Century Technology-
                                Twentieth  Century Problems:
                                A Retrospective
                                Mini-Assessment

                                Vary T. Coates, Thecla Fabian, and Margaret McDonald
                                 The systematic attempt to antici-
                                pate future environmental problems
                                has usually been associated with the
                                assessment of new  or emerging
                                technologies.  In recent years, how-
                                ever, it has become clear that environ-
                                mental problems may suddenly come
                                to light,  stemming from aging or
                                obsolescent technological systems, or
                                from industrial practices that have
                                already been discounted or superseded
                                by improved methods.
                                 This retrospective mini-assessment
                                of nineteenth-century technology has
                                identified  industrial and urban tech-
                                nologies of the pre-World War I era
                                which may be the sources of present-
                                day environmental problems or threats
                                to public health and safety. Four case
                                studies were given particular attention
                                in the assessment: (1) arsenic, which
                                was  used widely in a number of
                                industries  during the last century; (2)
                                coal, which is being reintroduced as a
                                major energy  source;  (3) iron and
                                steel, the major heavy industries of the
                                nineteenth-century; and (4) old dams,
                                which potentially contain hazardous
                                materials in the trapped sediments.
                                 This Project Summary was devel-
                                oped by EPA's Office of Exploratory
                                Research, Washington. DC, to an-
                                nounce key findings of  the research
                                project that is fully documented in a
                                separate report of the same title (see
                                Project Report ordering information at
                                back).
                                Introduction

                                  The systematic attempt to anticipate
                                future environmental  problems has
                                usually been  associated with the
                                assessment of new or emerging tech-
                                nologies. In recent years, however, it
                                has become clear that environmental
                                problems may suddenly come to light,
                                stemming from aging  or obsolescent
                                technological systems, or from industrial
                                practices that have already been dis-
                                counted or superseded by improved
                                methods. Examples of  such  problems
                                are subsidence or acid drainage from
                                abandoned mines,  unsafe  bridges,
                                leaking waste depositories, and eroded
                                earthen dams.
                                  The  nineteenth-century was the
                                period when burgeoning technology
                                and industry transformed America from
                                an agrarian, developing country to an
                                industrial, urbanized nation.  In 1800,
                                only 6 percent  of the U.S. population
                                lived in urban areas; by 1900, the figure
                                had grown to  40 percent,  and two
                                decades later the 50-percent mark had
                                been passed.
                                  Industries that have spanned the last
                                100 years are now subjected to environ-
                                mental, health,  and safety regulations
                                that did not exist in their early days.
                                Some of the residues of earlier, unregu-
                                lated  practices,  such as dumping
                                wastes on the site or inflowing streams,
                                have never  been cleaned up. Some of
                                the materials that were freely used in

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consumer products or  in construction
are now (and in some cases, were even
then) known to be hazardous. These
materials may exist today in items that
are still used  or that are collected, in
buildings that are used  or uninhabited;
and  in  materials  in "latent  storage"
(dust and debris in abandoned buildings,
refuse  piles  and  pits, or  built-up
sediments at the bottom of bodies of
water).
  The residual  contaminants  from the
last century are undoubtedly dwarfed by
the detrimental  by-products of the
chemical revolution in American in-
dustry during  and after the Second
World War.  But in some  local areas,
there may  well be a  serious — and
unrecognized  —  problem. There  are
recurring episodes of the discovery of
old waste dumps and  resulting public
alarms.
  Hazardous materials such as arsenic,
lead and mercury  were used in  many
consumer products in the  past. Today,
Victorian houses  and  furnishings  are
much sought  after for restoration. If
some of the  materials or components of
these items  entail  even low-level risks
of chronic or acute toxicity, either during
their rehabilitation and  restoration or to
eventual users, warning to the public or
instructions for careful handling may be
needed.
  This mini-assessment was developed
to probe the  likelihood that as  yet
unidentified environmental problems
may derive and arise from events far in
the past. The  major criterion for  the
selection of case studies was  that they
be related to  nineteenth-century industry
and  that  they have  a potential  for
environmental effects that could have
survived or endured for many decades.
  This retrospective assessment was
approached  from two viewpoints. First,
prominent nineteenth-century indus-
tries were  surveyed to find  potential
hazards. Second, twentieth-century
concerns (especially the List of Toxic
Substances) were reviewed  and con-
sidered  for their historical antecedents.
In both exercises, historians and techni-
cal experts  were consulted.  The lists
that emerged  from these  exercises
included industries, technological sys-
tems or clusters or  systems, raw
materials and other inputs, and products
or by-products.
  Items were then examined in terms of
the following criteria:
  Risk:  Does the  subject  involve  the
  possibility of risk to health and safety,
  or environmental damage?
Persistence: Could the source of risk
have survived over time? Could it be
generating detrimental impacts today?
Could it be capable of generating such
impacts in  the future,  if the source
were  brought out  of storage, either
deliberately  by restoration or  inad-
vertently by excavation or dredging?
In this assessment, the emphasis was
on  only  present and  future risk  or
problems, not historical ones.

Dispersion  and Scale: If a risk  or
problem exists, would  it be of impor-
tance? A risk was considered impor-
tant if it met any of the following
criteria:  (1)  Widespread, affecting
many people or large parts  of the
country;  (2)  Highly concentrated  in
one or more regions or localities  in
which  it  might present severe prob-
lems;  (3) Capable of exposing cate-
gories of people,  segments of the
population, or special environments
to special risks.

Portability,   Transport:  Could the
problem  have expanded  over  time?
Could the surviving sources of risk
spread? Could they have been relo-
cated? For example, toxic substances
can be transported by natural forces
— leaching, erosion, or water currents;
contaminated soil  might  be  used
elsewhere as a landfill. This  would
make  any hazard doubly unsuspected
and hard to identify.

Historical Unawareness: Was the risk
or problem  recognized in the  nine-
teenth-century? The toxicity of some
materials has been recognized only
recently due  to advances in medical
science and biological science and in
measurement capabilities, or because
the detrimental impacts are very slow
to mature  or are cumulative. The
hypothesis was that fnaterials whose
risk was well recognized would have
been  handled more carefully.  How-
ever,  research indicates  that even
when dangers were well known (for
example, arsenic) disposal was not
necessarily handled so as to protect
either nineteenth-century workers or
future generations.

Current Understanding: Is the  prob-
lem well-known today? Is research
underway or have remedial programs
been  initiated? Since the purpose of
the mini-assessment was to identify
unforeseen  problems, the emphasis
was on identifying possible problems
whose existence  is not proven and
  where the probability of occurrence,
  in fact, may be quite low.
  Using these criteria, eleven  topics
were selected as being of particular
concern arsenic,  asbestos, cyanides,
lead,  mercury, electroplating industry,
iron and steel industry, tanning industry,
coal industry,  dams and sediment, and
canals (containing waste).
  From these,  arsenic, the coal industry,
the iron and steel industry, and dams
and sediments were selected for greater
attention through case studies. Arsenic
was chosen  as  exemplary of toxic
substances used  in a variety of indus-
tries.  Coal  is  having a resurgence of
utilization, and under some  circum-
stances  could regain its nineteenth-
century preeminence  as a  source of
energy. The iron  and steel industry is
also a  prime target for reindustrializa-
tion or modernization in the near-term
future, and there is a real possibility that
either demolition or repairand rebuilding
of the industry's facilities could bring old
wastes  to the  surface. Old dams are of
particular interest at present  for two
reasons. First, there  is the question of
structural safety and the environmental
problems associated with either failure
or  repair. Second, there is an active
program of rehabilitating old dams for
hydropower development.  The report
provides an indepth  analysis of  these
topic areas distilling the most potentially
significant  concerns and  providing
recommendations for further research
by  the  U.S. Environmental  Protection
Agency (EPA).

Results

Arsenic
  Arsenic and arsenic compounds were
used  m the nineteenth-century  in a
wide variety of manufacturing processes
and consumer products. Arsenic is an
element that  persists, and its toxic
properties endure. A number of  areas
were identified  where  nineteenth-
century arsenic residues are likely to be
found and  result in  exposures today.
These include:
  • In residual mine tailing and manu-
    facturing waste dumps close to the
    site  of  old  mines and  factories,
    either on the surface or subsurface
    where they may be encountered in
    excavation.
  • In sediments in reservoirs, lakes,
    rivers, canals, or  bays, either as a
    result of  water-based disposal or
    through   erosion  of agricultural
    lands treated with pesticides.

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  • As residues embedded in buildings
    once used  for  processing and
    manufacturing.
  • In a  variety of nineteenth-century
    consumer products  still in use,
    being refurbished, or collected and
    displayed as curious or historical
    objects

Coal and Coal Products

  The coal industry was  in its hayday
between  1870  and  1920,  when coal
was the  dominant fuel for America's
industry.  Coal also  heated America's
homes, and for a few decades, coal gas
illuminated its streets, public buildings
and residences.  Coal-based chemistry
also provided many widely used indus-
trial materials and consumer products.
  Sources of enduring environmental
problems left over from the nineteenth-
century coal industry include  mining,
combustion, and coal products. The
problems left over from nineteenth-
century  mining are well  recognized,
widespread, severe, and,  to  a large
extent, not  yet solved. The problems
associated with coal combustion in the
past have in part gone with those who
suffered from them, and those problems
that remain — such as  damaged  art
work and deteriorated building  facades
and bridges — can  hardly be distin-
guished from the results  of twentieth-
century  contaminants. Coal-based
products are not known  to  contain
carcinogens, and here the residuals
from the last century are less studied
and less well recognized  Unless the
lessons  of the past are appreciated,
these problems may well recur if the
national  policy of encouraging coal use
is successful.

Iron and Steel

  In the last quarter of the nineteenth-
century, the United States became the
world's  leading producer of iron and
steel. In 1900, it mined 26 million tons
of iron ore and produced 6.7 million long
tons of Bessemer steel and 3.4 million
tons of open-hearth steel.
  Every  step  of this  process,  from
mining to steel shaping and finishing
could conceivably  have  left  behind
residual  environmental problems and
hazards.  These include:

  • Sediment and soils contaminated
     with high  levels of  tar, phenols,
     cyanide, and napthalene in  areas of
     abandoned coke ovens and blast
     furnaces.
  • The presence of a substance called
    "moondust"  in the gas lines and
    flues of abandoned coke ovens.
    Chemically, this residue is  com-
    posed of iron, sulphur, ash, hydro-
    gen sulfide, cyanide, phenol, sul-
    fates, chlorides, and heavy metals.
    It can be both toxic and explosive.
    Demolition or rehabilitation of coke
    ovens could pose significant hazards
    to workers.

Dams
  Before 1900, 1582 dams were built in
what  is now the United States. Three-
quarters of the 1582 nineteenth century
dams are located in ten states: Colorado
(219), Connecticut (215), Massachusetts
(141), Michigan (129), California (103),
Rhode Island (94), Pennsylvania (87),
New Hampshire (82), Maine (76), and
North Carolina (64). About 20 percent of
these dams are now hazardous. If they
should fail, there could be substantial
loss of life. There would  almost certainly
be significant environmental  impacts.
  Any dam  —  nineteenth-century or
twentieth-century — may contain toxic
wastes  in its sediments, from urban
run-off, industrial effluents, erosion of
agricultural land treated with pesticides
and fertilizers, etc. The older dams have
been collecting  such sediments over a
longer period, and are also more likely to
have  trapped toxic wastes from the
1800's, when mining and manufacturing
operations routinely disposed of toxic
materials by dumping them into streams
or on the ground.  Of special concern
would be lead,  mercury, arsenic, and
cyanides, which were used in, or were
by-products  of, many  different  nine-
teenth-century industries. Whether
dams fail, are deliberately breached to
prevent  unexpected failure, or are
repaired (which  usually  requires dredg-
ing) these toxic  sediments may re-
emerge as an environmental,  health,
and safety problem.

Recommendations
  This brief assessment of nineteenth-
century industry indicates that there are
hazards and  problems that remain from
the industrial activities that took place in
the last century. These problems are
neither as severe nor as widespread as
the by-products of  twentieth-century
technology, but they are not insignifi-
cant.  In  some areas,  particularly the
sites  of  mtensive  nineteenth-century
manufacturing and mining,  they may
well represent a serious — and largely
unrecognized — problem.
  The following recommendations are
made by the study:
1.  EPA should continue to fund explor-
   atory retrospective environmental
   impact assessment.  High priority
   areas of concern for more detailed
   assessments include:
    Materials  Industries
Systems
arsenic

asbestos
cyanides

lead
mercury
coal

electroplating
iron and steel

tanning

dams and
reservoirs
canals
urban
networks


     These  assessments should be
   planned so that, should they indicate
   problems of substantial magnitude
   and significance,  they would lead
   directly  to  successive levels of
   assessment and  action programs
   including regional and site-specific
   assessments,  field  sampling,  and
   design of remedial measures.
2. EPA should consider the develop-
   ment of information bulletins directed
   at local communities to alert them of
   the possibility of residual risks from
   nineteenth-century industry, and to
   suggest  that  local governments
   review their industrial history  for
   possible  sources  of environmental
   contaminants and structural hazards.
   Information bulletins should  also be
   targeted at occupational and avoca-
   tional groups who may be particularly
   likely to be exposed to such risks.
3. EPA should initiate discussions with
   other  responsible  agencies on sev-
   eral areas of overlapping concern,
   such as:

  • Toxic residuals from the nine-
    teenth-century which  may  be
    concentrated  in sediments behind
    old dams (Army Corps of Engineers,
    Bureau of Land Management/
    Department  of the Interior,  and
    State programs for dams found to
    be hazardous).
  • Possible health and safety effects
    of toxic substances to  which
    construction  workers, furniture
    restorers,  museum  workers,  and
    other occupational groups may be
    especially exposed  (Occupational
    Safety and Health Administration).
  • Lead, arsenic, and mercury content
    of nineteenth-century antiques
    and  artifacts  (Consumer  Product
    Safety Commissions).
                                                                                     « U.S. GOVERNMENT PfllNTINO OFFICE: 1M2 -559-017/0840

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      Vary T. Coates,  Thecla Fabian, and Margaret McDonald are with Dames  &
        Moore, Washington, DC 20014.
      Robert Barles is the EPA Project Officer (see below).
      The  complete report, entitled "Nineteenth Century  Technology—Twentieth
        Century Problems: A Retrospective Mini-Assessment," (Order No. PB 82-
        242 058; Cost: $13.50, subject to change) will be available only from:
              National Technical Information Service
              5285 Port Royal Road
              Springfield. VA 22161
              Telephone: 703-487-4650
      The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
              Office of Exploratory Research
              U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
              Washington. DC 20406
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Center for Environmental Research
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
Postage and
Fees Paid
Environmental
Protection
Agency
EPA 335
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
          s

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