Native American Report

1/10/03

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Gila River Indians Helped to Close Waste Incinerator on Reservation

The Gila River Indian Community has flexed its activist muscles, taking part of the credit for shutting down a medical waste incinerator that operated for years in the reservation's industrial park, according to Lori Thomas-Luna, co-founder of the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment (GRACE).

During the past year, GRACE worked with the California-based Greenaction to share its concerns with the community about incinerator emissions of dioxins, which have been associated with cancer and other diseases. The organizations held several district meetings, requesting that Stericycle, operator of the facility and leading U.S. medical waste company, close the incinerator and switch to cleaner technologies.

In November, the company announced its intent to close the incinerator, saying it received consent from its customers to treat the waste using autoclave technologies instead.

"This is a major accomplishment, and we're satisfied with the outcome because we know that indigenous people are becoming more and more aware of environmental regulations," Thomas-Luna told NAR.

In organizing its campaign, GRACE initially faced a community that did not feel it had the power to help close the incinerator. "There was resistance, a lot of doubt," Thomas-Luna said. "We didn't get a lot of cooperation in the beginning, but we kept plugging away and plugging away. Now the outcome is more than I could have expected. It is a big burden off my chest."

The facility was the last commercial incinerator in Arizona, representing another step in a recent trend away from incineration as a primary method of medical waste treatment. According to EPA, thousands of medical waste incinerators across the country have closed down during the past few years, reducing the number to about 700.

While Stericycle has programs in place to inform its clients about alternatives to incineration, company officials told NAR that federal law continues to require incineration of a certain percentage of medical waste.

According to Bradley Angel, Greenaction executive director, the benefits of the shutdown are two-fold. Not only was it the last commercial incinerator in the tri-state area of Arizona, California and Nevada, but there also will be less waste being imported onto the reservation.

Contacts: Lori Thomas-Luna, GRACE, (520) 562-3321, L_thomas_l@hotmail.com; Bradley Angel, Greenaction, (415) 248-5010

"People were saying, 'Can you believe we did this?' And the youth saw what their parents and grandparents were doing." Teri Johnson, Greenaction