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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Epa Tells Mayors: Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em Incinerator Ash Not Considered Hazardous Under New Rules

Associated Press

Cities that have municipal incinerators would be able to avoid tens of millions of dollars in additional costs in burning their trash under rules announced Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The regulations, announced by EPA Administrator Carol Browner at a meeting of the Conference of Mayors, call for testing municipal ash in such a way that experts say it would unlikely be classified a hazardous waste.

The cost of disposal increases substantially when a waste is found to be hazardous. Mayors have argued that there is little evidence that ash from municipal incinerators should not be disposed of in cheaper, conventional landfills.

Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that municipalities must treat ash from garbage-to-energy incinerators as a hazardous waste if it is found to have levels of toxic materials that are dangerous. But the court left the testing criteria up to the EPA.

There are about 130 municipal trash-to-energy incinerators operating in the country.

Browner, seeking to bring some good news to the mayors at a time when the EPA’s regulatory programs have been under growing attack in Congress, said the agency would test municipal incinerator ash at a point when it leaves the combustion building.

That means that fly ash - which is normally more toxic - can be combined with bottom ash which poses less of a hazard before it is tested. EPA officials acknowledged that combining the two types of ash would likely allow conventional disposal because of lower toxicity levels.

Some environmental groups had argued that the EPA should test the fly ash separately because it contains the highest levels of toxic metals and should undergo special handling and storage as a hazardous waste.

The EPA decision was greeted enthusiastically by the mayors, many of whom have complained that EPA regulations have put an undue financial burden on local governments.

Mayor Dennis Archer of Detroit estimated that the EPA testing program for incinerator ash would save cities with municipal incinerators a total of $200 million a year by avoiding increased operating costs and capital improvements.

Dave Gatton, an environmental adviser for the Conference of Mayors, said that city officials have estimated between $1 million to $3 million in additional capital costs would be needed for each incinerator if ash had to undergo the special treatment as a hazardous waste.

In another action designed to please the mayors, who are meeting for their winter conference, Browner said that the EPA would officially remove 25,000 waste sites from its Superfund inventory of roughly 38,000 sites.

Browner said the sites already have been screened as no longer requiring remedial action under the federal toxic waste site cleanup program, but continue to be “stigmatized” by being on the list. Some of the sites have been on the list for a dozen years or more, officials said.

“The mere fact of being on the list was enough to scare investors away. It’s like a bad credit rating that never goes away,” she said. Browner said she hoped that banks would look favorably on financing development of the sites once they’re officially off the Superfund list.

Browner did not provide a list of the sites, which were said to be scattered in urban areas across the country. The Superfund inventory still totals about 13,000 sites, with the worst of them - about 1,200 sites - also included on a national priority list for cleanup.

At the same time, Browner promised the mayors she would reexamine ways to limit liability for lenders seeking to develop other Superfund sites. She said the new program, expected to be implemented within six months, “will help to clarify who is liable and take those who are not liable out of the Superfund net.”