BREDL comments to EPA regarding
Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units.
Aug. 23, 2010: [Excerpt] The impact of incinerators on human
health is obvious. We support continuous emissions monitoring and
a more transparent reporting system that better informs the
surrounding community. We find that very often communities and
public officials are unaware of the impacts from incinerators.
Readily available data and reports would be a valuable tool.
Continuous emissions monitoring is an essential step toward
making that a reality.
Aug. 11, 2010: BREDL chapter Citizens for a Healthy Environment (CHE) in Mathews, NC reports that Union County has unanimously passed a resolution that all medical waste incinerators in the State of North Carolina (i.e., Stericycle, located in Graham and BMWNC, located in Matthews) be required to come into early compliance with the new EPA rules by Oct. 2012.
BREDL comments on EPA Proposed Rule
regarding definition of solid waste
Aug. 3, 2010: BREDL
Comments on EPA definition of solid waste.
Alamance County Commissioners’
Meeting regarding Stericycle
Commissioners' Meeting
Monday July 19
7:00 p.m.
County Office Building
124 W. Elm St.
Commissioners Meeting Room, 2nd Floor
The Case Against Plasma Arc Waste
Incineration: The St. Lucie Geoplasma facility
June 2010: The Case Against Plasma Arc Waste Incineration: The St. Lucie
Geoplasma facility would be a Title V Major Source of air
pollution. The facility would emit high levels of hazardous air
pollutants including hydrochloric acid. Similar to most
incinerators, the St. Lucie Geoplasma facility will have a bypass
stack which will be used in case of upsets such as sudden
increases in synthetic gas production. Dioxins and furans, common
toxic byproducts of older mass-burn incinerators, are also
emitted by plasma acre gasification systems.
League to Lay Out the Case Against Plasma
Arc Incineration
On Monday at the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners
meeting the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League will release
a report on plasma arc incineration. Louis Zeller, the
League’s Science Director, will present the report and
recommend a moratorium on waste incineration, including plasma
arc.
Stericycle medical waste
incinerator permit renewal
EXTENSION OF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD!
The NC DENR Division of Air Quality has extended the public comment period to June 30, 2010.
Comment Deadline EXTENSION: June 30 Written comments of any length can be submitted until June 30,
sent via email to: Gautam.patnaik@ncdenr.gov
or by mail to: NC DENR/DAQ, 1641 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC
27699-1641.
The Stericycle Press Conference, May 25, 2010, hosted by BREDL and the Haw River Assembly.
Read about the Press Conference and view photos.
Kieran and Kendra Bjork presented a NOTICE OF INFRINGEMENT to Stericycle President and CEO Mark Miller (alias Chris Carter, Mr. Puppethead).
Heather Bjork letter to Stericycle
Groups to hold press conference on Stericycle’s pollution
On Tuesday, May 25, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and the Haw River Assembly will hold a press conference to reveal flaws in the proposed permit for the Stericycle medical waste incinerator, located in Haw River, NC.
Read BREDL Press Advisory
New Report Released: An Industry Blowing
Smoke - 10 reasons why gasification, Pyrolysis & Plasma
Incineration are not "green solutions"
June 15, 2009: BREDL co-releases a new report by Global Alliance
for Incinerator Alternatives. The Report - An Industry Blowing
Smoke - outlines 10 reasons why gasification, Pyrolysis &
Plasma Incineration are not "green solutions". BREDL Press Release | Download:An Industry
Blowing Smoke
The Case Against Plasma Arc Waste
Incineration: The St. Lucie Geoplasma facility
June 2010: The Case Against Plasma Arc Waste Incineration: The St. Lucie
Geoplasma facility would be a Title V Major Source of air
pollution. The facility would emit high levels of hazardous air
pollutants including hydrochloric acid. Similar to most
incinerators, the St. Lucie Geoplasma facility will have a bypass
stack which will be used in case of upsets such as sudden
increases in synthetic gas production. Dioxins and furans, common
toxic byproducts of older mass-burn incinerators, are also
emitted by plasma acre gasification systems.
League to Lay Out the Case Against Plasma
Arc Incineration
On Monday at the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners
meeting the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League will release
a report on plasma arc incineration. Louis Zeller, the
League’s Science Director, will present the report and
recommend a moratorium on waste incineration, including plasma
arc.
Mecklenburg County’s resolution to
protect North Carolinians from toxic air pollutants related to medical waste
incineration
North Carolina is home to three of the nation’s
“still-in-use” commercial, medical waste incinerators.
Stericycle operates two medical waste incinerators, located in
Haw River, NC, two of the largest in the country. Stericycle is
located less than a quarter mile from the Alamance Community
College, within the Graham, NC, city limits. Medical waste from
24 states is shipped to Stericycle. The third, commercial medical
waste incinerator, the BMWNC, is located in Matthews, NC. The
BMWNC is about half the size of Stericycle, and takes medical
waste from 12 states. Like the Stericycle medical waste
incinerator, the BMWNC medical waste incinerator is located in a
rural area of Matthews, among homes and schools, about a block
away from the Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC).
Realizing that medical waste incineration poses a risk to the
health of residents of Matthews, the Mecklenburg County Board of
Commissioners, this past April unanimously passed a resolution
that they will submit to the state requesting that ALL medical
waste incinerators in NC comply with the EPA’s new and more
protective standards for air emissions from medical waste
incinerators by 2012 instead of 2014. The EPA rules, promulgated
in October, 2009, set stricter standards for mercury, lead,
cadmium, chromium, dioxins, furans, hydrogen chloride, nitrogen
oxide, and particulate matter, among others. The new EPA rules
also require more efficient recycling and segregation of medical
waste, increased monitoring and testing, and regulation of
uncontrolled emissions from by-pass events. Emissions from
by-pass events occur when air pollution equipment fails, due to
equipment malfunction or operator error, resulting in a release
of concentrated pollutants into the air. By-pass events are an
inevitable by-product of incineration of medical waste, and both
Stericycle and BMWNC incinerators have recorded histories of
numerous by-pass events.
We recommend that every county in North Carolina, in addition to
local governments, consider adopting this same resolution to
provide better protections for its residents from the continued
health impacts of medical waste incineration.
Union County Resolution
Aug. 11, 2010: BREDL chapter Citizens for a Healthy Environment (CHE) in Mathews, NC reports that Union County has unanimously passed a resolution that all medical waste incinerators in the State of North Carolina (i.e., Stericycle, located in Graham and BMWNC, located in Matthews) be required to come into early compliance with the new EPA rules by Oct. 2012.
Here is a song, an anthem if you like, for everyone who is fighting against incineration. Written and performed by Ro J (along with Dave Sidley on electric guitars and Henry Fosbrook on whistle and bongo) it focuses on the downsides of burning vital resources. For the chorus it takes a leap into the future and we hear the people there saying "It Was Madness".
