Environmental Impact & Safety Regulations Flashcards

A Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) land-applies manure as fertilizer. Which permit does the CAFO likely require under the Clean Water Act?

Answer: NPDES permit

Large CAFOs are defined as point sources under the Clean Water Act and must obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for their wastewater and runoff discharges.

Which soil application timing is most likely to result in nitrogen loss via denitrification?

Answer: Application to waterlogged or flooded soil after heavy rain

Denitrification is an anaerobic microbial process that converts nitrate to nitrogen gas; it occurs most rapidly in waterlogged, oxygen-depleted soils.

A setback requirement in a state nutrient management regulation prohibits fertilizer application within 50 feet of a stream. What is the primary purpose of this setback?

Answer: To prevent nutrient-laden runoff and drift from directly entering the waterway

Setback requirements create a buffer zone that reduces direct nutrient input to water bodies by allowing runoff to infiltrate and nutrients to be absorbed before reaching the stream.

Under OSHA's Process Safety Management (PSM) standard, a facility storing anhydrous ammonia above 10,000 pounds must develop which key safety document?

Answer: Process Hazard Analysis (PHA)

PSM requires a Process Hazard Analysis to systematically identify, evaluate, and control hazards associated with processes involving highly hazardous chemicals above threshold quantities.

Which nutrient application method generally results in the lowest risk of ammonia volatilization loss?

Answer: Injecting anhydrous ammonia or liquid nitrogen subsurface

Subsurface injection places nitrogen below the soil surface where soil moisture and cation exchange sites trap ammonium ions, dramatically reducing ammonia volatilization to the atmosphere.

An applicator's SDS lists the IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health) value for ammonia as 300 ppm. This value is most directly used to:

Answer: Determine the concentration above which a worker must immediately escape without standard respiratory protection

IDLH is the airborne concentration at which a worker would be unable to escape without experiencing irreversible health effects, defining the limit for escape-only respirator use without a supplied-air device.

Which practice most effectively reduces the risk of fertilizer contaminating a private well through direct entry?

Answer: Maintaining proper well casing height and a sealed wellhead cap

A properly sealed and elevated wellhead prevents surface water and dissolved nutrients from directly entering the well casing, which is the primary pathway for direct well contamination.