Contribution of Municipal Waste Incineration to Trace Metal Deposition on the Vicinity

Because municipal solid waste incineration is onepotential source of air pollution, the incinerationindustry has provoked great public concern, especiallyfor areas within 10–20 km of an incinerator. However,little work has been done to evaluate whetheran incinerator significantly contributes pollutants to nearbyareas. Rain and snow samples were collected at eightlocations distributed in a semi-circular patternradiating out in the prevailing wind direction fromthe Claremont incinerator, New Hampshire, U.S.A. Sodium, Mg, K, Ca, Fe, Al, B, Sr, Ba, Pb, Cr, Cd, V, Ni, Mn, As,Co, Cu, and Zn were analyzed in the solutions of rain and snowand in particulate fractions of rain samples. Principal component analysis was used toidentify the most important sources of atmosphericdeposition in an attempt to identify the contributionof heavy metal deposition due to the incinerator. Analyses show that the predominant sources of metaldeposition are very different for fall and winter. The most important source of metals for the rainsamples collected in fall 1996 is soil dust, but forthe snow samples collected in the winter 1997 isprobably coalfired fly ash. The Claremont incineratorcontributes less than 20% of the total variance of theelemental concentrations.