What is the difference between the “abatement” of a hazardous material and “mitigating” a hazardous material?
- Jinx
A bit of a WAG here but perhaps “abate” = “remove” and “mitigate” = “encapsulate” (or something like that which will make it more difficult for the dangerous stuff to get out).
With asbestos, at least, “abatement” generally means removal. But the toxicity of asbestos is also related to how encapsulated it is, so perhaps it is possible to take a toxic substance and apply some sort of a binding or sealing agent. It will still be there, but it will be less dangerous.
But this is all mostly a WAG. I will, however, be interested in seeing the real answer. Surely there is someone here with a HAZMAT/EPA background.
Jinx, I waited to post a reply here, because I don’t have a cite for the definitions of “abatement” and “mitigation” under the federal EPA, which is what I suspect you want, but I believe that abatement refers to discontinuing or lessening the escape of pollutants, while mitigation refers to the remedying of the effects of past pollution. Under the Michigan EPA, mitigation is also referred to as remediation.
So, if a landfill site is leaching pollutants into the adjacent soil and ground water, abatement efforts would include repair of the enclosure to prevent future leachate, and mitigation would include removal of the polluted soil and treatment of the ground water to remove the hazardous materials which already escaped from the landfill site.
You can search for federal statutes and regulations here:
http://www.infoctr.edu/ill/ (statutes)
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html (regs)