For immediate release

June 16, 2008

Citizens for a Healthy Community & Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice

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Breaking News!

InEnTec Medical Services LLC Cancels Permits to Build Controversial Plasma Arc Medical Waste Incinerator Near Red Bluff, California Residents & Greenaction Win Huge Victory Against Incinerator In Disguise

Red Bluff, California – Red Bluff and Tehama County residents and Greenaction are celebrating their total victory in the 3 ½ year epic battle that has defeated InEnTec’s proposed plasma arc medical waste incinerator facility.

On Friday, June 13, 2008, InEnTec Medical Services California LLC sent a letter to the Tehama County Planning Department and the Tehama County Air Pollution Control District surrendering and canceling their permits for the proposed plasma arc facility that would have been built near Red Bluff. The company cited “changing business strategies and market conditions” for the decision.

InEnTec’s press release omitted key facts, including the intense public opposition, problems with their plasma technology, inaccurate claims made by InEnTec, and the abandonment of their permit months ago in the face of ongoing opposition. Recently, attorneys for the citizens and Greenaction sent letters to the Tehama County Planning Commission pointing out that InEnTec had not worked on the site for 2 ½ years and thus had “abandoned” their land use permit as set forth in County Code section 17.70.050 (c) that states: “In any case where an active use permit has been abandoned for a period of six months, the use permit shall be deemed null and void.” Red Bluff attorney Dan Irving, the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment and Natural Resources Defense Council provided pro bono legal support for the fight against InEnTec.

Challenging InEnTec’s claims, residents and Greenaction documented that the plasma arc facility would not be clean energy and would emit toxic pollutants into the air. The waste would have been heated, then the resulting “syngas” burned in internal combustion engines that citizens and Greenaction exposed as incinerators in disguise. Hundreds of residents attended the ten hearings in 2005 during the appeal of InEnTec’s permits by citizens’ groups and Greenaction, and continued to fight the project in the courts and administrative and regulatory processes.

The defeat of InEnTec’s proposed facility will have international repercussions as similar facilities are proposed across the state, country and the world. Greenaction and community members advocated for safer, non-incineration technologies to be used to treat medical waste instead of plasma arc or traditional incinerators.

“This victory was won by our community, no thanks to the county officials who would not enforce their own county codes and protect their own citizens,” said Richard Clapp, Red Bluff resident and Director of Citizens for a Healthy Community.

“Words can't contain my joy that we have won an important victory in Red Bluff and protected surrounding communities' air and water, too,” said Jan Ivanoff, Red Bluff resident. “I am thankful for citizens from all walks of life, young and old, professional and not, along with Greenaction, who alerted Red Bluff to this problem, the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, and Natural Resources Defense Counsel for legal work, who all worked together to make InEnTec leave.”

“This is a great day for the health of the community and for environmental justice,” said Bradley Angel, Executive Director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. “The truth came out about this incinerator in disguise, and the community won this David versus Goliath fight.”