EPA to Halt New Toxic Waste Incinerator Permits

The Clinton Administration will announce steps today that will effectively halt issuance of permits for new hazardous waste incinerators and industrial furnaces for the next 18 months, Environmental Protection Agency sources said Monday.

EPA Administrator Carol Browner will direct the agency to concentrate on completing reviews of permits pending for about 180 currently operating facilities before considering any additional applications, the sources said. The order will have the effect of halting permits for new facilities, a step that will also give the Administration time to consider revising rules regulating incinerators.

Critics of hazardous waste burning maintain that the country already has excess incineration capacity and insist that the federal government should emphasize recycling as the primary weapon for dealing with toxic wastes. They also argue that the facilities are perilous to nearby communities.

The action comes in the face of a bitter controversy over a $160-million toxic waste incinerator at East Liverpool, Ohio, that the Clinton Administration allowed to begin limited operations earlier this year.

During the last weeks of the George Bush Administration, the EPA gave the Liverpool facility permission to conduct a test burn, which environmentalists unsuccessfully sought to block in court.

During last year’s presidential campaign, then-vice presidential nominee Al Gore strongly criticized the Bush Administration for pressing ahead with clearance to operate the incinerator. Although Gore subsequently softened his stand, environmentalists, led by Greenpeace activists, made the Ohio controversy an environmental litmus test for new Administration. The Liverpool incinerator will not be affected by the EPA decision being announced today.

Owners of the facility, Waste Technologies Industries, a subsidiary of a Swiss steel conglomerate, insist that it can operate safely and will provide badly needed jobs in the economically depressed area. Plant operators also say it has the latest pollution control equipment and will destroy 99.99% of the wastes.

But environmentalists maintain that it poses a hazard to nearby residents and to a school.

In Washington, a loud demonstration against the facility Monday led to the arrest of 52 demonstrators, including actor Martin Sheen, in front of the White House. A number of demonstrators handcuffed themselves to a moving van and authorities spent several hours trying to free them so they could be taken into custody.