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The Columbus Dispatch
www.dispatch.com
Power
down: Embattled incinerator shouldn't be operating
Wednesday,
November 1, 2000
For
years, The Dispatch has said the contentious Von Roll Waste Technologies
Industries incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio, should be given a chance.
The
plant burns hazardous materials, an unpleasant but so-far necessary byproduct
of modern society.
But
the newspaper also has cautioned that evidence of wrongdoing or public harm
would be grounds for the plant to be shut down.
And
so the time has come to immediately suspend operations at the toxic- waste
incinerator for at least six months, while additional safety tests are
conducted.
The
national ombudsman of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Robert Martin,
said his investigation of the facility uncovered "fundamental
irregularities'' in tests of emissions from the incinerator.
He
found that Waste Technologies has failed to track what happens to lead after it
is burned in the incinerator and that other potential risks to public health
weren't adequately addressed before the plant began operating.
Martin
also found that data provided by Waste Technologies to get its initial
operating permit for the plant was questionable.
What's
more, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency recently fined the plant
$135,000 for violating state hazardous-waste regulations, saying the company at
times failed to:
· Properly manage waste containers, which
requires separating incompatible waste.
· Properly
evaluate waste received at the plant.
· Operate the
plant in a manner that would minimize chances of fire, explosion or release of
waste.
This
is unacceptable -- especially for a plant that sits just a few hundred feet
from homes and 1,100 feet from an elementary school.
EPA
Administrator Carol Browner is wrong to not stop the plant's incineration of
hazardous materials while additional testing, including soil analysis, is done.
Perhaps she feels trapped in its tangled and messy political roots. The EPA
granted a permit to operate the incinerator in the final days of President
Bush's administration, and a campaigning Al Gore vowed to shut it when he
became vice president, then later said his hands were tied.
But
public health concerns should always trump politics, and Martin clearly is
concerned about public health.
The
jobs Waste Technologies supports in this economically depressed Ohio River town
are valuable. And no one disputes the need to contain, reduce or destroy
hazardous waste.
But
the East Liverpool incinerator is now operating in a haze of questions,
uncertainties and potential hazards. Until more clear answers -- and solutions
-- are available, the EPA has no choice but to suspend the plant's operations.
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