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

SEPTEMBER 16, 1993: “The hazardous waste incineration company ThermalKEM announced today THERMALKEM that they were withdrawing their application for a 50,000 ton per year

WITHDRAWS ITS [commercial] hazardous waste incinerator in the rural town of Woodland,

PLANS TO BUILD A North Carolina...The citizens victory over ThermalKEM represents the

50,000 TON-PER-YEAR fruits of a hard 14-year battle...The siting effort has seen 21 different North

COMMERCIAL Carolina counties effectively block efforts, first by the State, and then by

HAZARDOUS ThermalKEM...‘ThermalKEM thought this poor, rural, racially-mixed

WASTE community would just roll over, well, we lasted one day longer than they did. INCINERATOR The nightmare is finally over,’ said Therese Vick...with the Blue Ridge Environ-

IN mental Defense League...Billie Elmore, former executive director of NCWARN, noted it

NORTH CAROLINA. took a strong grassroots effort to stop ThermalKEM...‘They knew we’d do what ever it takes to stop ThermalKEM.” Greenpeace News release, 9-16-93, ...Falling Like Dominos. The residents of Woodland (pop. approx. 900) put up a tremendous fight. A statewide victory party party is planned for early October. For more info. contact Billie Elmore at 919-774-9566.

SEPTEMBER 1993: One of the reasons cited by CWM for their pull out in California was the U.S.

CHEMICAL WASTE EPA’s announcement in May of an 18-month moratorium on the permitting of

MANAGEMENT of hazardous waste incinerators. According to the Wall Street Journal, 9-8-93:

WITHDRAWS “WMX Technologies Inc gave up trying to build a hazardous waste

PROPOSAL incinerator in California because of rapidly shrinking demand for such plants. FOR The withdrawal of a permit application by the nation’s largest trash hauler and COMMERCIAL hazardous waste concern illustrates the sharp reversal of fortune in a once-HAZARDOUS booming industry...And after years of asking states to prepare for a disposal WASTE shortage, the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged this summer that INCINERATOR adequate capacity exists nationally. WMX Technologies’ hazardous waste IN unit, Chemical Waste Management said it withdrew its application in Kings KETTELMAN HILLS, County, Calif., to build an incinerator on a site where the company already CALIFORNIA. operates one of the nation’s largest hazardous waste dumps....The amount of California hazardous waste that requires incineration fell an estimated 30% from 1987 to 1990, and continues to decline by about 10% each year, Chemical Waste said...” WSJ,

9-8-93, WMX Pulls its Application for Incinerator.

AUGUST 1993: “DuPont Co., canceled plans for a $100 million hazardous waste incinerator,

DU PONT saying it wouldn’t be profitable given increased incineration capacity around the

CANCELS PLANS country and recent reductions in the amount of toxic wastes DuPont

FOR 62,000 TPY other companies produce. DuPont’s decision is another sign that growth in the

COMMERCIAL hazardous-waste incineration business has cooled, possibly for good...The

HAZARDOUS WASTE DuPont incinerator, which would have burned 62,000 tons of wastes a year

INCINERATOR IN from DuPont and commercial customers, was planned for...the company’s

DEEPWATER, sprawling Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J. DuPont continues to

NEW JERSEY. operate a smaller incinerator in Deepwater, as well as incinerators at plants in Pontchartrain, La., and Sabine River, Texas. Clark Hoffman, safety, health and environment manager at Chambers Works, said that when the incinerator was planned six years ago, DuPont produced enough toxic waste to make it worthwhile. But by the end of the 1980s, DuPont cut is toxic-waste generation 35% from the early ‘80s. The company reduced its generation 10% in the past three years, he said.” Wall Street Journal, August 27, 1993. DuPont Scraps Plan For a Waste Incinerator At New Jersey Plant.

JUNE 1993: “Thanks to the hard work of Residents Organized for Lewiston-Porter

CHEMICAL WASTE Environment (ROLE), Law Professor Nils Olsen and community residents,

MANAGEMENT Chemical Waste Management (CWM) agreed to a ‘Good Neighbor

‘AGREES’ TO Agreement’ with the Towns of Lewiston and Porter to not site any commercial

10 YEAR incinerator in Niagara County in the next 10 years. For the past few years,

MORATORIUM ON CWM had proposed building two large toxic waste incinerators. In exchange

BUILDING for the 10 year moratorium, the towns and ROLE agreed to rescind their

TWO 50,000 TPY opposition to CWM’s plans for a 47 acre hazardous waste landfill. Paul Mac

HAZARDOUS Clennan of the Buffalo Evening News [6/20/93] stated that “...it really was the

WASTE work of the gutsy 12-member citizens panel that turned the tide. Without its

INCINERATORS IN perseverance, the moratorium simply would not have happened...The losers are

MODEL CITY, the state and federal government officials who have lost the confidence of the

NIAGARA COUNTY, citizenry...State officials had no comment on the deal, saying they had not seen

NEW YORK. the agreement, but privately some were miffed...” TOXICS IN YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER, Spring/Summer 1993, Moratorium on CWM Toxic Incinerator, page 10. Published by the Citizens Environmental Coalition, 33 Central Avenue, Albany, NY 12210. Tel: 518-462-5527. For more information contact Diane Heminway at 716-798-0111.

APRIL 1993: Concord Resources Group (CRG) is a subsidiary of Ohio Hazardous CONCORD Materials (OHM) and ConRail. CRG spent 3 years battling county DROPS EFFORT TO residents in an attempt to build a 45,000 ton per year commercial hazardous

BUILD A 45,000 TPY waste incinerator on a 290-acre farm in Millreck Township. CRG “has

COMMERCIAL announced it is no longer interested in developing a hazardous material

HAZARDOUS incinerator and landfill in western Clarion County. A spokesman for Concord

WASTE said the decision was prompted more by changing market conditions than by

INCINERATOR either the bitter opposition of residents and politicians or by the rejection of the IN plan by the state Department of Environmental Resources...The company

CLARION COUNTY, decided to devote its resources to hazardous waste treatment facilities it already

PENNSYLVANIA. operates 70 miles east of Denver and outside Montreal,” according to Rick Gimello, Concord’s director of new site development. U.S. Congressman Bill Clinger “expressed his deep satisfaction’ from his Washington, D.C. office following the announcement by Concord. ‘This is a victory for rural Americans, especially the people in Clarion County where the community organization and regional support has been exceptional from the beginning,’ said Clinger. ‘We have all worked together from day one pooling our resources, holding public hearings and protests and looking for legislative remedies, to make this a difficult and expensive project for Concord Resources. We’ve shown Concord and other state disposal companies all over the country that we will not be dumped on. Concord misrepresented themselves to my office and to the community from the beginning: they didn’t provide us with critical information about the facility or what the disposal of hazardous waste would do to the community,’ said Clinger...The news touched off a wave of celebration among residents of Clarion and Jefferson Counties...‘...Concord may have done more for this community that they realize,’ said [Dough Kepler, president of P.E.A.C.E. [Protect Environment and Children Everywhere]. ‘They brought us together and showed the kids that government can work from the bottom up.’...” Jefferson Democrat, Brookville, PA, April 29, 1993.