Theses and Dissertations

Mesha Jones

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Truax, Dennis D.

Committee Member

Martin, James L.

Committee Member

Ramirez-Avila, John J.

Committee Member

Magbanua, Benjamin S., Jr.

Date of Degree

12-9-2016

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Civil Engineering

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Abstract

The first part of this project focused on evaluating aspects of the environmental management practices of Texas chemical industries, particularly waste generation and management of the data related to these processes. The waste generation data included Texas notifications required to track wastes. The next phase consisted of characterizing industrial waste disposal methods, waste container management, and transportation including an overview of required documentation for each activity. This led to identification of issues encountered from inefficient recordkeeping, ineffective internal communication, or inadequate environmental management systems. The result of an ineffective hazardous waste data management program can be fines, damage to the environment, and even adverse impacts on worker health and safety. For example, for the situations outlined in this document, violations could have resulted in penalties totaling $550,000 per day. This led to an effort to evaluate and develop solutions needed to develop a robust management system. The goal was to provide an operating and hazardous waste management program which optimally resulted in “zero findings” by the state regulatory agency. This would be achieved through personal experiences of this environmental engineer while working at a chemical plant augmented by information obtained through observations of others at the facility and a review of published documentation. This document focuses on the redesign and automation of an ineffective, manual environmental management system by making modifications and enhancements with a focus on effective management of various waste media. The criteria used for determining system optimization includes regulatory compliance and noncompliance penalties, internal communication time, onsite storage accumulation time exceedances, recordkeeping efficiency, number of lost waste containers, and time needed to make waste classifications. Optimization is verified against other alternatives by comparing instances and severity of noncompliance with state and federal regulations. The result was a total environmental management system optimized in a way that ensured compliance and achieved the goal of eliminating violations. It also reduced cost, allowed automated data entry, supported rapid asset location and helped track performance.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18857

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