Environmental Impact Assessment of a MSW Incinerator

This paper presents a study of the emission impact of a Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator located in a predominately agricultural and residential valley but containing some industrial sites. The MSWI has been operating since 1979 treating about 100 tons per day of municipal solid waste and it is equipped with flue gas emission treatment and monitoring systems. The plant has a continuous monitoring system for the most important emission parameters. Its impact on the territory is exclusively due to gas emission into the atmosphere because it is equipped with a closed water cycle and a good slag disposal system. The aim of this study is a global quantitative assessment of the environmental impact of the incinerator through a complete statistical elaboration of the emission data and the simulation of the gas dispersion using an advanced transport model for atmospheric pollutants and three dimensional territorial maps, in order to estimate the concentration and the dry soil deposition for each pollutant.