Oakland Tribune

Saturday, December 8th, 2001, Front Page

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Bradley Angel Greenaction

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Controversial Medical Waste Incinerator Shuts Down Monday

By Douglas Fischer
STAFF WRITER

The operator of the state's only commercial medical waste incinerator said Friday it would cease all operations at its East Oakland facility Monday and shut down, effectively ending the commercial practice of burning medical waste in California.

Integrated Environmental Systems, a subsidiary of Norcal Waste Systems, said it would be sold to Stericycle on Monday and that its High Street facility in the Fruitvale district - with twin incinerators and an autoclave sterilizer - would be closed. About 70 IES employees in Oakland would be laid off.

Environmental and community activists called the decision an enormous victory, and the closure could have national repercussions: Given California's political and regulatory climate, some question whether the state will ever license another commercial medical incinerator.

"This is a great victory for community health and environmental justice," said Bradley Angel, executive director for Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, which has spent at least four years battling the plant. "This victory will send a message across the country that incineration is a dangerous and unacceptable technology."

Under the sale terms, Illinois-based Stericycle will obtain all IES customers - which include hospitals, biotech firms, even local police departments looking to dispose seized drugs - and will shut down IES' High Street incinerator, according to IES spokesman Jay Silverberg.

An innovative waste recycling program run by IES will continue under Stericycle management, he added.

Waste once destined for IES will presumably be treated at one of Stericycle's three autoclaves - in Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego, with a fourth being built in San Leandro - or shipped to an out-of-state incinerator. The company has several across the country, with the closest in Utah and Arizona.

Stericycle, with $323 million in revenue last year, does not have any incinerators in California and has not sought permits to run IES or build a new facility, said Jack McGurk, chief of the Environmental Management Branch of the Department of Health Services.

Any attempt to open a medical waste incinerator after IES shuts down Monday would require a full environmental review by the Health Department, with additional permits required from the local air district and other agencies.

IES' medical waste burners, considered state-of-the-art after a $5 million refurbishment in 1996, would be brought down, and the waste will no longer be treated at IES' plant at 499 High Street, Silverberg said.

"There's no more reason for IES to open them up," he added. "They were made for medial waste. There's no more customers."

Stericycle officials were not available for comment late Friday night.

The sale brings an end to the long-running saga that often pitted regulators, environmentalists, local politicians and company executives against one another and often flared spectacularly on the evening news.

This summer activists led by Greenaction and PUEBLO stepped up demonstrations in front of IES, with protesters chaining themselves to the front gate. Oakland City Council President Ignacio de la Fuente and state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, attempted to negotiate a truce, brokering a promise by IES to curtail medical waste incineration and switch to other sterilization technologies.

In May state health officials, responding to a tip, found hundreds of barrels of illegally stored soiled bandages, surgery specimens, used syringes, needles and scalpels at the High Street plant. The state suspended IES' operations and fined the company $925,000.

More than two years ago, the local air district held its first public hearing for a crucial permit IES needs to continue operations. That permit, called the most expensive and complex ever undertaken by the district, remains under consideration to this date, though Monday it will be a moot point.

Silverberg denied Friday that an increasingly uncertain political and regulatory environment prompted Norcal to jettison IES. "IES spent considerable sums updating the facility, putting in new management - well before those negotiations began - with the full intent to operate that facility," he said.

"They were approached, the deal was negotiated, the deal was made."

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Angel, on the other hand, was confident the rising community pressure prompted IES' demise - and persuaded Stericycle to abandon the High Street plant. "Nobody in their right mind would want to inherit the political problems IES has right now."