ABSTRACT

The first three environmental protection systems implemented by Cetrel were the organic effluent, the inorganic effluent, and the solid hazardous wastes treatment system. By 1982, Cetrel had doubled its treatment capacity from 31,100 to 62,200 m3/day, treating a volume of wastewater equivalent to the volume a city of 1,200,000 residents would generate. During the first few years of Cetrel’s operation, a company called Limpec was in charge of doing an inventory and disposing of the solid hazardous wastes generated in the complex, despite not having prior experience with hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal. According to Fontes Lima and Alves, after 1987, all of Cetrel’s solid hazardous waste management practices were revised. During Cetrel’s first twelve years of operation, the state of Bahia had majority control and appointed two of Cetrel’s three directors. It was therefore controlled by two different state secretariats: the Industry and Commerce, and the Planning, Science, and Technology.