US waste incinerator fails test

US waste incinerator fails test

The State of Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology announced on April 2 that a controversial mobile incinerator at a chemical waste site had failed in testing and would not be permitted to burn dioxin wastes at this time.

The day before, the National Toxic Campaign Fund had filed a suit seeking to permanently halt the incinerator from burning 28,000 barrels of dioxin-contaminated wastes. Much of these wastes (2,4,5-T and 2,4-D) were created during the manufacture of Agent Orange, a herbicide used during the Vietnam war.

In the lawsuit, NTCF disclosed a letter from the manufacturer of the wastes to the US Environmental Protection Agency, which warned that burning the wastes in a mobile incinerator would create dioxins.

NTCF has made the incinerator the focus of a campaign to stop toxic waste burning. This was widely believed to be a test case for burning of toxics proposed in more than 30 communities.

From GLW issue 8