Bell Kills Study of Hazardous Waste Incinerator

The City Council has withdrawn an earlier approval that could have led to the development of a hazardous waste incinerator.

In a 4-0 vote, with one member absent, the council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, rescinded a September decision to allow a private consulting firm, Mark Briggs and Associates, to study the possibility of building the waste plant as a way to generate additional city revenue, officials said.

If councilmen had approved construction, the plant would have been built on 8.6 acres just south of Bandini Boulevard. About 5.5 acres of the site were acquired from the National Guard in exchange for city financing of a $1 million armory to be completed later this month, officials said.

But, because of possible environmental dangers and concern about a new technology, the agency stopped any further consideration, officials said.

“The technique--which would have used intense heat to turn liquid hazardous wastes into less hazardous dry cakes and ash--is too new,” Bell Councilman Jay Price said. “We were not about to embark on something that was not a sure thing.”

Citing its dissatisfaction with the consultant’s suggestion that the toxic incinerator would be the best possible use for the land, the council also terminated Mark Briggs and Associates’ exclusive right to negotiate with the city for redevelopment purposes.