A publication of Work On Waste USA, Inc., 82 Judson, Canton, NY 13617 315-379-9200 April 1993

The Greenpeace bus tour is touring communities fighting hazardous waste schemes. Greenpeace will end the bus tour at the WHITE HOUSE to deliver a message to President Clinton and Vice-President Gore: Put People First, Not Polluters. The following is a partial schedule of a 4-week, coast-to-coast anti-incinerator bus tour. Activists (including Terri Swearingen) fighting the Von Roll hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverspool, Ohio, will be accompanying America’s fabulous Greenpeace Toxic Campaigners on the tour to inform other incinerator-targeted communities about their 12 year fight. The tour will feature events in 25 communities faced by proposed or operating hazardous waste schemes and will culminate in Washington, D.C., with demands to President Clinton and Vice President Gore to keep the promises they made to the East Liverpool community to stop WTI. The Greenpeace bus -- the “Rainbow Warrior on Land”-- is equipped with solar panels and an engine that can run on vegetable-based oils. If you plan to attend any of the tour events,please confirm times with contacts below

April 28: TEXARKANA, TEXAS/ARKANSAS. Press Conference 9:30 am. The Texarkana community is fighting to stop three proposed waste burners: a proposed EPA superfund incinerator to burn pentachlorophenal waste; a medical waste incinertor in the city and a cement kiln in Forman, Arkansas, where the Ashgrove Cement Company is burning hazardous waste. Gross contamination from another wood preserving operation owned by the Koppers Company in Carver Terrace, a sub-division of Texarkana, and a predominantly black community, forced the U.S. Government, under a congressional madate, to relocate 86 families who lived in Carver Terrace. The relocation began in the early fall of 1992. As of this date all but 8 families have been moved. The Koppers Company, now owned by the Beazer Company of Texas, is responsible for compensating the U.S. Government for the relocation. 2 1/2 miles from the Carver Terrace site is the Texarkana Wood Preserving Company where pentachlorphenol contamination is rampant. EPA Region 6 and the Texas Water Commission plan to permit a hazardous waste incinerator to burn 6 to 12 inches of the contaminated penta soil over the objections of city-wide public opposition. (Weston is a consultant on remediation.) Within 1/8 mile of the site is a predominately low income African-American community. Within 1 mile, approx. 1,200 residents and a large elementary school are directly downwind from the proposed incinerator site. Arkansas Attorney General Winston Bryant has filed a suit against plans by the EPA and Texas Water Committion to permit the incinerator. The Wadley Regional Medical Hospital in Texarkana have applied for a medical waste incinerator permit. For more information contact Angela Brown, Greenpeace, at 504-866-1987; on Carver Terrace contact Jim Presley of FUSE (Friends United for a Safe Environment) at 903-793-2454, or Tammie Davis, President, Mothers Air Watch, Tel: 501-653-5038.

April 28: LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS. Bus tour, 3 pm. Press Conference, 4 pm. A Community Meeting at 7 pm. When President Clinton was Governor of Arkansas he approved burning the largest known store of dioxin [Agent Orange sludges] in the U.S.A. in the middle of a residential area in Jacksonville, Arkansas. To appease Jacksonville voters, who had overwhelmingly rejected the burn, Clinton promised to shut down the incinerator if any problems occurred. After numerous problems, including EPA’s admission that the incinerator is spewing out 400 times more dioxin than the law allows, Clinton still refused to act. Instead, as President of the U.S.A. he has allowed EPA and state attorneys to defend the continued dioxin burn, despite a federal court ruling that it is illegal and an imminent threat to public health. Speakers at the Community Meeting include Greenpeace scientist Pat Costner; George Claxton, Chairman of the Agent Orange Committee, Vietnam Veteranss of Am.; Betty Ferris, Pres. of Jacksonville NAACP. For more info contact Pat Costner, Greenpeace, 501-253-8440.

April 29: TIMES BEACH, MISSOURI. RALLY AT 5 PM. One of the world’s most infamous dioxin sites. Missouri residents, Vietnam veterans, and Marilyn Leistner, the former mayor of Times Beach, will join the tour to demand a moratorium on new dioxin sources -including incinerators. Times Beach area residents are oppposing the construction of an IT hazardous waste incinerator to burn dioxin contaminated soil in Times Beach. For more info contact: Charlie Cray, Greenpeace, at 312-666-3305, or Don Fitz, St. Louis Greens, at 314-644-8973.

April 30: NOXUBEE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI. Open Bus tour, 5 pm. Town Meeting, 6 pm. The U.S.A.’s largest hazardous waste landfill, run by Chemical Waste Management, is in Emelle, Alabama, just across the border from Mississippi. Lowndes and Noxubee counties in Mississippi, within 10 miles from each other, have a USPCI (owned by General Motors) proposal for a hazardous waste landfill and FTI is proposing to build a hazardous waste incinerator and landfill. The Holman cement kiln in Lowdnes County is burning hazardous waste and can now legally burn the leachate from the Emmelle Landfill. Chemical Waste Management (owned by Waste Management Inc.) is a major shareholder of Holman! The residents of these two counties are predominantly African-American, and they have been targeted for gross envionmental racism. For more info contact Angela Brown, Greenpeace, at 504-866-1987 or Essie Spencer at 601-726-2246.

May 1: BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA. Town Meeting 2pm at the Alsen Community Center on Old Rasemyer Road (near the Rollins haz. waste incinerator). The heart of Lousiana’s chemical corridor, where much of the nation’s toxic waste is born. Baton Rouge and environs are host to over 100 chemical manufacturers, two commercial hazardous waste incinerators, Rollins and Rhone Poulenc, while SFI is proposing to build a hazardous waste recycling facility. For more information contact Gail Martin, Greenpeace, at 504-861-0867, or Florence Robinson at 504-775-0341.

May 3: ATLANTA, GEORGIA. Demonstration at EPA Region 4 Building,, 10 am, to blast the U.S. EPA for covering up information on the impacts of incineration on the food chain. Residents from Houston County, GA, who are fighting a Medusa Cement kiln proposal to burn 80,000 tons of hazardous waste per year will be there. For more information contact Scott Brown, Greenpeace, at 404-876-8256.

May 3: ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA. Town Meeting at 7 pm, Nazareth Baptist Church (right across from incinerator). Rock Hill is home to the notorious ThermalKEM commercial hazardous waste incinerator. Residents from Rock Hill will be there as well as Judy Pruitt, who will discuss the GSX-Laidlaw proposed commercial hazardous waste incinerator for Spartanburg. Joann Almond, will discuss Carolina Solite’s (Stanley County, NC) proposal to burn hazardous waste. For more info. contact Rock Hill activists Addie Baker at 803-327-1948 or Doris Lewis at 803-327-9329 or Scott Brown, Greenpeace, at 404-876-8256; Judy Pruitt at 803-574-2084 or Joann Almond at 704-982-3300.

May 4: WOODLAND, NORTH CAROLINA. Open Bus tour, 6pm. Town Meeting, 7 pm. Small community fighting proposed ThermalKEM 5-state commercial hazardous waste incinerator. Focus on agricultural impacts with farmers involved in the fight. For more info contact Scott Brown, Greenpeace, at 404-876-8256, or Therese Vick at 919-534-1118.

May 6: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. *No bus. Citizens Public Hearing on EPA Corruption. Congress Hotel, 520 S. Michigan Avenue, 7pm. For more information contact Charlie Cray, Greenpeace, at 312-666-3305.

May 7: MIDLAND, MICHIGAN. Press Conference at 11:30 at the Grace Dow Memorial Library. Greenpeace scientist Pat Costner and EPA’s Hugh Kaufman will talk about Federal U.S. EPA’s failure to comply with federal laws when it comes to burning dioxin waste. Dow’s Midland plant has manufactured Agent Orange and they produce a range of products from pesticides to aspirin in Midland. In the late 1930’s Dow began deep-well injection of chemical wastes in Midland which continued to 1984 when citizens demanded sampling. Dow’s response to sampling requests was to plug the injection wells with cement! Activists are opposing state permits for a hazardous waste incinerator that Dow built in Midland in 1991 to burn dioxin listed wastes. According to Diane Hebert, the Health Risk Assessment on the incinerator only examined inhalation as a route of exposure to dioxin, even though Midland is surrounded by farm country and is close to Lake Huran. A 1982 study by Harless and Lewis and the 1987 EPA National Dioxin Study found that fish in the Tittabawassee River had the highest dioxin levels in the country. Dow dscharges into the Tittabawassee River, which empties into Saginaw Bay, which is part of Lake Huran. Dioxin levels in the Midland area are very high and attributable to Dow’s operations. (Dow operates another hazardous waste incinerator in Midland that burns about 30,000 tons. On April 14, 1993, the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources announced a $68,500 fine against Dow for two 1993 explosions at the older incineator.) For more information contact Charlie Cray, Greenpeace, at 312-666-3305 or Diane Hebert in Midland at 517-832-1694 or Terry Miller in Bay City, MI, at 517-686-6386.

May 7: ALPENA, MICHIGAN. Rally, Town Hall, 7 pm. In Alpena, La Farge operates the largest portland cement plant in the U.S.: 5 kilns, 2 which burn 50,000 tons of hazardous waste a year. La Farge is seeking a permit to burn approx. 17 1/2 million gallons (approx. 160 million pounds) of hazardous waste in the remaining three kilns per year. La Farge exerted a leveraged buy-out of National Gypsum Company in 1986. After the buy out, LaFarge busted the union and began burning hazardous waste in 1986. The cement kilns abut Lake Huran. LaFarge is paid to burn the hazardous wastes, which comes primarily from 6 mid-western states, Alaska and Canada. According to a May 15, 1986, Staff Activity Report from the Michian Dept. of Natural Resources, Air Quality Division: “...staff believes that the burning of waste-derived fuel in applicant’s dry process cement kiln will not result in the emission of polychlorinated dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans. The emission limits contained in Special Condition Nos. 19 and 20 are levels which represent a risk of additional cancer of 1/4 of one in one million.” DNR lab scientists, in their review of LaFarge’s April 1992 test of polychlorinated dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, found that the company has exceeded its permitted levels by 7.7 and 3.6 times in these respective catagories. For more information contact John Pruden of HEAL at 517-471-2747 or Charlie Cray, Greenpeace, at 312-666-3305.

May 8: MILAN/ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN. Region wide Rally in Ypsilanti, near Ann Arbor, 1:30 pm. Mother’s day rally for a national incinerator moritorium. Envotech is proposing to construct the largest hazardous waste complex in the state of Michigan: hazardous waste dumps, deep-well injection, and a hazardous waste incinerator, proposed for Milan, Michigan. Envotech is owned by Wayne Disposal. For more info contact Charlie Cray, Greenpeace, at 312-666-3305 or contact local activist group: M-CATS (Michigan Citizens Against Toxic Substances) at 313-43X-DUMP (439-3867).

May 10: UNION COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Open Bus Tour, 4-6 pm. Town Hall Meeting at 6 pm. Residents have been battling a proposed Concord hazardous waste incinerator. For more info. contact Beth Newman at 304-387-1007.

May 11 - 12: EAST LIVERPOOL, OHIO - action still to be decided. Contact Greenpeace office (Beth Newman or Scott Sederstrom) at 304-387-1007.

May 15: WASHINGTON, D.C. Citizens Clearing House for Hazardous Waste Conference and Rally at EPA. For details on the Grassroots Conference and Rally at the EPA call CCHW at 703-237-2249.

May 16-19: WASHINGTON, D.C. Bringing the message home to the White House: “Put People First, Not Polluters.” Everyone welcome. Details not finalized. For more information contact Rick Hind, Greenpeace, 202-319-2505