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IES Incinerator Sold; Will Shut Down
IES Medical Waste Incinerators in Oakland to Close Immediately!
Press Release
4 Year Battle Against Toxic Polluter Ends in Big Victory for Community, Health and Environmental Justice
Oakland, CA -- In an enormous victory for community and environmental justice groups, the controversial Integrated Environmental Systems medical waste and solid waste incinerators in Oakland, California, are closing effective December 10, 2001.
Faced with escalating community protests and blockades of trucks carrying medical waste,
massive fines and pending legal action, IES has been sold to competitor Stericycle. The new owner reportedly will be tearing down the incinerators and closing the facility immediately.
IES was the last remaining commercial medical waste incineration facility in California, and was under fire from the community due to emissions of dioxin, mercury, particulates and other toxics. IES was also notorious for hundreds of violations, including excess emissions, broken monitors, odors, uncontrolled bypasses of the pollution control equipment and worker safety violations. Despite recent claims by government officials that IES had improved, violations including excess hydrochloric acid emissions and more uncontrolled bypasses have continued.
IES was located in a low-income community of color in East Oakland, and government agencies including the Bay Area Air Quality Management District participated in environmental racism by ignoring toxic emissions and ongoing violations for years.
Greenaction and the Coalition for Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice have battled IES and government agencies for four years to end incineration. We have worked, and will continue to work, to promote safer non-incineration technologies to treat medical waste, and to encourage hospitals to use less toxic products. The Coalition brings together local residents and community, health, labor, religious, youth and environmental justice groups.
Stericycle is the largest medical waste treatment company in the U.S., and operates three non-incineration autoclave facilities in California and medical waste incinerators in Utah and Arizona. Greenaction and the Coalition call on Stericycle to use only non-incineration technologies, and we will oppose any attempt by Stericycle to send waste out of state for incineration. We call on Stericycle to hire IES workers who may lose their jobs as a result of the sale.
"This is a great victory for community health and environmental justice," said Bradley Angel, Executive Director of Greenaction. "This victory shows that ordinary people with justice on our side can beat polluters and their friends in government. This victory will send a message across the country that incineration is a dangerous and unacceptable technology that must be replaced by safer alternatives. The health of our communities must be a priority over the profits of polluters."
4 Year Battle Against Toxic Polluter Ends in Big Victory for Community, Health and Environmental Justice
Oakland, CA -- In an enormous victory for community and environmental justice groups, the controversial Integrated Environmental Systems medical waste and solid waste incinerators in Oakland, California, are closing effective December 10, 2001.
Faced with escalating community protests and blockades of trucks carrying medical waste,
massive fines and pending legal action, IES has been sold to competitor Stericycle. The new owner reportedly will be tearing down the incinerators and closing the facility immediately.
IES was the last remaining commercial medical waste incineration facility in California, and was under fire from the community due to emissions of dioxin, mercury, particulates and other toxics. IES was also notorious for hundreds of violations, including excess emissions, broken monitors, odors, uncontrolled bypasses of the pollution control equipment and worker safety violations. Despite recent claims by government officials that IES had improved, violations including excess hydrochloric acid emissions and more uncontrolled bypasses have continued.
IES was located in a low-income community of color in East Oakland, and government agencies including the Bay Area Air Quality Management District participated in environmental racism by ignoring toxic emissions and ongoing violations for years.
Greenaction and the Coalition for Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice have battled IES and government agencies for four years to end incineration. We have worked, and will continue to work, to promote safer non-incineration technologies to treat medical waste, and to encourage hospitals to use less toxic products. The Coalition brings together local residents and community, health, labor, religious, youth and environmental justice groups.
Stericycle is the largest medical waste treatment company in the U.S., and operates three non-incineration autoclave facilities in California and medical waste incinerators in Utah and Arizona. Greenaction and the Coalition call on Stericycle to use only non-incineration technologies, and we will oppose any attempt by Stericycle to send waste out of state for incineration. We call on Stericycle to hire IES workers who may lose their jobs as a result of the sale.
"This is a great victory for community health and environmental justice," said Bradley Angel, Executive Director of Greenaction. "This victory shows that ordinary people with justice on our side can beat polluters and their friends in government. This victory will send a message across the country that incineration is a dangerous and unacceptable technology that must be replaced by safer alternatives. The health of our communities must be a priority over the profits of polluters."
For more information:
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was wondering what was happening with the incinerator.
too bad about the workers though. chances are that their jobs are toast. and some of them probably won't be able to get jobs anywhere else. the specialized skills needed to run an incinerator might not transfer over well to microwave treatment of medical waste. so, its fair to say that some of those workers are just plain unemployable now =\
is much less "green" than burning it. A well run incinerator is the "greenist"
alternative. Not only can toxins be destroyed they can be used to create
energy rather than burning more oil.
I'm sorry, "Hippy Boy", but that's just plain wrong. The only way to safely incinerate materials that create toxins is through arc heat, a technology that is decades away from being commercially viable. Even then, it may not be perfectly safe.
The I.E.S. incineration resulted in the discharge of dioxin, one of the most carcinogenic man-made compounds in the world. Dioxin, in the most minute amounts, causes cancer, asthma, and endocrine disruption. A large-scale EPA study found it to be absolutely deadly, at a far greater magnitude than even they had previously thought. That study had been commissioned by the first Bush administration, with the hope of laying to rest the notion that dioxin was a serious threat. No such luck.
I.E.S., and the agencies with jurisdiction over them, operated with complete reckless abandon, and with absolutely no regard for the consequences in the Fruitvale community. Cancer and asthma have been prevalent in that community for a long time, and I.E.S. willingly did their part.
By the way, "Hippy Boy" is a rather ironic name for a dioxin-spewing incinerator apologist, wouldn't you say?
Congratulations, Greenaction, for such a monumental and successful effort.