Santa Cruz Incinerator

August 26, 2003

See Also:

8/25/03 Read Santa Cruz Sentinel story: Trash-to-energy plan draws heat

8/10/03 Stop the Santa Cruz/Monterey County Incinerator Proposal! Read the fact sheet and action alert / Aviso En Espanol, and the letter to the Santa Cruz Department of Public Works. Read about British study: Living near incinerator may up birth defect risk.

For more information, contact:

Santa Cruz and Monterey County Residents Unite With
Environmental Health & Justice Groups to Fight Garbage Incineration Plan
Promoted by Santa Cruz County Supervisor Jeff Almquist

“We Don’t Want Dioxin and Mercury In Our Bodies Or In Our Food!”

Santa Cruz, CA -- Residents of Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties were joined by Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives in calling on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to cancel their study of a possible tri-county “waste to energy” garbage incinerator being sited in Moss Landing or elsewhere. Incinerator sites being considered include Moss Landing’s former gas refractory plant, located on the shores of the ecologically sensitive Elkhorn Slough.

At a press conference, residents and the environmental health organizations called on the counties to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of non-polluting, low-waste generating alternatives. Community coalition members then spoke at the Board of Supervisors meeting describing the many reasons incineration represents the least desirable and most unacceptable method for dealing with the counties’ residential discards in these coastal and farming communities.

In May the Board of Supervisors voted to study a proposal by American Ref-Fuel to build a waste to energy garbage incinerator. Residents and environmental health and justice groups vow to fight any incinerator proposal due to the toxic emissions of dioxin and metals that threaten public health, the environment and the food grown in nearby agricultural areas.

Despite claims in American Ref-Fuel’s public relations materials that “cleansed gases” are emitted from their incinerator stacks, the truth is that all incinerators including those operated by American Ref-Fuel emit dioxin, one of the most toxic substances known to science, as well as other toxic chemicals and metals. According to studies by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and scientific bodies around the world, dioxin is super toxic in minute levels of exposure and is linked to cancer, reproductive, developmental, immunological and other serious health problems.

“We already have too much cancer in our communities, and we don’t need an incinerator spewing cancer-causing chemicals into our bodies, air, water, sensitive ecosystems and our food supply,” said Bradley Angel, Executive Director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice.

"Programs moving counties towards Zero Waste through prevention, recycling and composting are already a reality, and as they expand they will continue to provide jobs and local economic development," said Monica Wilson of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. "I am confident the Board of Supervisors will continue their support for Zero Waste programs and immediately end consideration of the unnecessary, outdated, and polluting technology of incineration."