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Oakland Tribune Wednesday, January 3,
2001  For more information, contact:
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Officials May Deny Permit to Incinerator Oakland medical waste facility accused of emitting pollutants By Douglas
Fischer Air regulators say they are close to denying a crucial permit to owners of the state's only commercial medical waste incinerator, citing concerns that the East Oakland facility cannot reliably meet federal clean air standards. Such a decision would be a first for the nation and a huge victory for community and environmental activists, who have vehemently opposed an operation they say pumps dangerous levels of dioxin and other toxics into the air above one of the Bay Area's poorest neighborhoods. Integrated Environmental Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Norcal Waste Systems, defends its record with equal vigor, saying it is one of the nation's most-regulated and best-run medical waste incinerators. Deciding which side is right has kept renewal of the incinerator's Title V permit -- a federally required certificate issued by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District -- tied up for more than a year. A final decision is expected in the next week, with the air district "possibly proposing a denial," said Peter Hess, deputy air-pollution control officer and the district's No. 2 man. The reason: IES' compliance record. "It's not been good enough for us," Hess said. "That gives us concern for how it's been operated." Last year from Jan. 1 to Dec. 11, the district issued eight violations against the incinerator. It received three confirmed and eight unconfirmed reports of black smoke and "horrible" odors coming from its smokestacks. And it recorded two dozen instances where monitors failed or IES had to bypass emissions controls and vent vapors out the main stack. "The incinerator, when it's working -- it's top notch. There's nothing better," Hess said. Unfortunately, he added, too often air regulators don't know if it's working. "We don't want to issue a permit to this facility and have them fail." IES cannot operate its incinerator without the permit, and a denial would be unprecedented, said district spokeswoman Terry Lee. Since the EPA required the nation's worst polluters to obtain a Title V permit a few years ago, only one has been refused -- for an out-of-operation plant in Louisiana. No air district in the nation has ever refused a permit for an operating facility, she added. Hess cautioned that a final decision on the renewal has not been made. And any decision will likely be appealed, first to a quasi-judicial board at the air district, then to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and perhaps ultimately to the courts. That the air district was considering a denial surprised IES officials, who thought negotiations with the district were going well as recently as mid-December, said spokesman Alonza Robertson. Company managers declined to speak on the matter, instead issuing a brief statement protesting attacks on IES' safety record. "We have demonstrated, through established testing, that our emissions meet all standards for public health and safety," IES said. "Any denial of our Title V permit would be inappropriate and illegal." California law requires the burning of outdated pharmaceuticals, chemotherapy drugs and pathological waste -- used needles, hospital gowns and anything else placed in those red plastic bio-hazard containers at doctors' offices. While some hospitals and clinics operate their own nonprofit incinerators, IES's High Street facility in East Oakland is the only commercial furnace in the state, and it accepts waste from medical clinics, hospitals and dentistry labs throughout California. IES opened the incinerator in 1977. It can burn as much as 22.8 tons of waste per day. A $5 million retrofit in 1996 installed two new triple-chamber burners, earning IES accolades as one of the cleanest operators in the country at the time. Indeed, when EPA imposed tougher standards for medical waste disposal a year later, IES alone could meet them, Robertson said. The three chambers burn at about 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit and reduce anything placed inside to inert ash, according to IES. Before venting any gas, a complex system of pipes and scrubbers (akin to a car's catalytic converter) grabs remaining pollutants out of the exhaust. "All we have left is steam," Robertson said. "A lot of what people are saying about what comes out of our facility is just not there." Community groups don't buy that. They note that an EPA study has concluded dioxin, a mysterious byproduct of combustion and incineration, is one of the deadliest substances known. And they question how much metal, particularly mercury, gets past IES' safeguards. "IES is so bad that even their friends at the air district are... having big problems trying to justify the permit," said Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction and one of IES's loudest foes. The air district held its first public hearing on IES' title V permit Nov. 3, 1999. Since then, between 250 and 300 comments have been logged, Hess said. A typical permit review usually attracts 10, Hess said. The district also has spent nearly $400,000 on tests, observations, engineering evaluations, he added. That includes $12,000 on a facilitator to organize a public outreach campaign and thousands more on translators. A nationwide search yielded only two labs in the country capable of analyzing gases in incinerator's plume. The permit fee, in contrast, is about $20,000. "This is the most complex one we've looked at," Hess said. "We have had inspectors on a regular basis -- day in and day out -- looking at their plume, checking their waste stream." "We covered everything." |