A resolution calling for medical waste incinerator Stericycle to comply to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards two years earlier was not adopted by the Alamance County Commissioners in a 4-1 vote; Commissioner Eddie Boswell was the lone vote for the resolution.

Sue Dayton, statewide coordinator with Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, presented the resolution two month prior, however, commissioners wanted to hear from Stericycle officials before putting the resolution to vote.

The resolution stems from the EPA’s regulations that all medical incinerators must meet by 2014. Environments say the 2014 deadline is to long to wait for clean air.

Stericycle officials argued the state and federal government had yet to release guidelines on the most efficient methods of complying with the new EPA regulations and pushing the deadline forward two years could cause the Haw River incinerator to close.

The EPA’s new emission guidelines would cut the amount of pollutants and harmful chemicals released by medical waste incinerators by 97 percent, according to environmentalists. Some of the chemicals released by medical waste incinerators include mercury, Dioxins, lead, cadmium and greenhouse gases.
Selin Hoboy, Stericycle’s vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs, said there were no medical waste incinerators able to meet the regulations without some guidelines.

“We simply would like to point out there are a number of difficulties with implementing the new emission limits,” Hoboy said. “There is new equipment and processes we have to research since there are no facilities that can meet these requirements alone. We need to design, propose and test for approved and consisted compliance.”
And the companies would need time to apply for permits to build new facilities, she said.

More than a dozen supporters of the resolution were in attendance at the meeting, calling for commissioners to vote in support of the 2012 deadline.

Many stated Stericycle had the money and resources to dispose of medical waste, like autoclaving — a steam-and-pressure method of sterilization.

Eric Henry, an Alamance County native of 50 years, congratulated Stericycle on maintaining a profitable business but told commissioners that profits where the company’s main objective.

“So first I would like to request that Stericycle look beyond their bottom line to meet these new regulations,” he said. “But I also would request our county commissioners protect the citizens of Alamance County and pass this resolution.”

The number one polluter, Commissioner Linda Massey said, was diesel. She asked the audience did that mean the trucks needed to be taken off the road.

“I just want to be fair to everybody,” she said. “And I really am for clean air but I just think that we need to give these people the time limit that the state and federal government has given them to be in compliance with the new rules.”

Boswell said his father-in-law had a daughter who died from cancer and he wondered if what was being released from the smokestacks where anyway related to her death. He said he read on Stericycle’s website that the company wanted to be environmentally friendly.

“Be considerate of the people you live around you too is all I want to ask because I think you mean that,” he said. “And sometime money is not an issue where life is. If there is something you can spend money on to improve this why wouldn’t you?”

A state-wide hearing on the new regulations is tentatively set for August.