A federal judge ruled Friday that a controversial East Liverpool, Ohio, hazardous-waste incinerator can conduct an eight-day test burn of toxic chemicals, a decision that could provide the first major gauge of the Clinton administration’s position on the environment.
Whether the burn goes ahead at the $160 million Waste Technologies Industries Inc. incinerator is viewed as a critical environmental issue because Vice President Al Gore had vowed to block its operation pending a federal investigation.
The case also is being closely watched by the hazardous-waste incineration industry as a possible landmark, as the public’s fear of toxic chemicals clashes with society’s need to get rid of toxic trash.
Judge Ann Aldrich in Cleveland allowed the incinerator to take a small step forward as she approved the limited test period and dismissed six of seven counts of a lawsuit seeking an injunction against operation of the facility.
“WTI can burn eight days, and then they have to quit,” said Libbey Sheldon, spokeswoman for the Government Accountability Project, which filed suit Jan. 13 along with the environmental group Greenpeace and some nearby residents.
“It is not a full victory for us,” said Sheldon. “We would have liked to enjoin them from the trial burn. But it is a victory in that they can’t go on indefinitely, and it puts the ball in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s court to make a decision-and that could take up to a year.”
Defendants in the case were Waste Technologies; its parent company, Von Roll AG of Switzerland; the U.S. EPA; and the Ohio EPA. Aldrich dismissed the federal and state agencies as defendants.
The remaining count in the complaint, alleging imminent substantial endangerment to people in East Liverpool if the incinerator goes into operation, will go to trial.
One of the residents, Terri Swearingen of rural Chester, W.Va., said Friday after the ruling:
“We heard during expert testimony that the test burn is an enormous risk, with absolutely no benefit. She (Aldrich) didn’t err on the side of caution. In essence, she handed WTI and EPA a public-relations tool to defend incineration.
“We’re waiting for Bill Clinton and Al Gore to say, `The buck stops here,’ when they fulfill their commitment to us that they would not allow the test burn pending a General Accounting Office investigation.”
One of the companies that had expected to haul wastes to the Ohio incinerator is Chemical Waste Management Inc. of Oak Brook.
The federal government said toxic wastes will be used in the East Liverpool test burn.
“Trial burns would involve test burning of hazardous waste to determine the efficiency of the incinerator,” said Anne Rowan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. EPA.
The federal EPA and its Midwest regional administrator, Valdas Adamkus, have been under attack for approving the project.
“This case has been reviewed and evaluated in consultation with experts,” said Adamkus. “I don’t think any permit was ever scrutinized like this one.
“All the facts were presented and reviewed by headquarters people and by our scientific board. What else is left? I exhausted all legal and scientific avenues available to me and based my decision on that.”
Nancy-Ellen Zusman, the federal EPA’s acting regional counsel, pointed out that in dismissing the U.S. and Ohio EPAs from the case, Aldrich was saying other avenues of appeal should have been taken first. But she kept jurisdiction over the public-health question.
Efforts to reach WTI were unsuccessful.
The Ohio case is one of two key cases being watched nationwide to signal the future of toxic-waste incineration.
A Little Rock, Ark., federal judge Feb. 12 ordered a hazardous-waste incinerator in Jacksonville, Ark., to stop burning wastes containing dioxin, a toxic, dangerous material.
Under a $28.7 million project, an incinerator on the Vertac Chemical Co. site in September 1990 began burning 29,300 barrels of toxic waste.
The judge ruled it was not certain that the incinerator was destroying dioxin in the waste to the extent required by the federal government.
On Feb. 25 a federal appeals court judge in St. Louis stayed the Little Rock judge’s ruling, and Vertac began burning toxic wastes again Tuesday.
