Oakland Tribune

July 19th, 2001
Editorial

For more information, contact:

Bradley Angel Greenaction

(415) 248-5010

Medical Waste Burner Must Toe The Line

STATE health officials have given Integrated Environmental Systems permission to temporarily continue operating a medical waste disposal center in East Oakland despite strong neighborhood opposition.

The officials granted that reprieve after IES burned and shipped out hundreds of barrels of waste whose illegal storage had prompted State Health Services to take punitive action against the firm.

State Health had ordered the firm not to accept waste for a month and to get rid of soiled bandages, surgery specimens, scalpels, needles and syringes illegally stored in barrels on its property.

IES has since complied with that order and made changes in management, staffing and operations. The firm is working closely with the state during a 90-day permit period, said Jack McGurk, chief of the department's environmental management office.

"It gives us a chance to ensure that they are going to be operating effectively and efficiently," McGurk said.

The Oakland firm is the state's only commercial medical waste incinerator, a distinction that necessarily carries a singular obligation to adhere meticulously to every state law and regulation governing the operation.

If IES doesn't follow rules meant to protect the public, especially surrounding neighborhoods, from smoke the incinerator emits, the firm could be shut down permanently.

Under the permit guidelines, IES is allowed to burn 2,000 pounds of
medical waste per hour and up to 900 pounds per hour in its microwave unit.

Environmental and community groups want the incinerators closed when its IES's Title V permit, a federal certificate issued by the Bay Area Quality Management District, comes up for renewal next year.

Bradley Angel, executive director of the San Francisco-based environmental group Greenaction, said the violations cited show that IES cannot be trusted to comply with the agreement.

"They violated the permit, the state law, the cease-and-desist order, and the compliance agreement," said Angel. The group plans to hold nonviolent demonstrations protesting the permit.

We urge IES to heed the concerns of the community. The firm has not always been a good neighbor since it began operating in 1977, and has failed to correct its operation until the state stepped in.

Now the state is giving IES another chance to operate responsibly. It's up to IES to prove it can be a good neighbor.

If the firm doesn't comply fully and immediately, the state would be justified in yanking the firm's permit to operate.