Environmentalists, State Trash Incinerator Study Group Vows To Work With City On Health Risks From Waste-To-Energy Plant

Spokane’s incinerator study is so flawed it should be overhauled before any additional public money is spent on it, a Spokane environmental foundation told the City Council Monday night.

Nine months after the Northwest Environmental Education Foundation was first invited - and then uninvited - to City Hall, the group finally delivered its critique at the suggestion of Mayor John Talbott.

Meanwhile, the $300,000 study by city consultant Kathryn Kelly was also harshly criticized last month by state officials at the departments of Ecology and Health. They said it has “serious flaws” and needs to be done over.

The NEEF critique came with an olive branch and a promise - to work constructively on the remaining public health questions surrounding the waste-to-energy plant.

“While we have an obligation to be honest and unsparing in our assessment of events, we are also committed to being a constructive force in our community,” NEEF Editorial Director Tim Connor told the council.

The study is flawed for several reasons, Connor said.

City officials allowed “special wastes” - including used Canadian pesticide jugs and oil-field filters - to be burned in the plant during the period covered by the health risk assessment, compromising the emissions data, he said.

City officials also don’t know why the plant’s dioxin numbers fluctuate dramatically, Connor said.

NEEF says the city should:

Accelerate plans to add additional air pollution controls, called carbon injection, to the plant, which would further reduce dioxin and heavy metals emissions.

Retest the stack emissions after the carbon injection system is installed.

Seek state funds for a locally directed study of dioxin and other bioaccumulative chemicals around Spokane. There is currently no data, in Spokane or statewide, on how much dioxin has accumulated in the food chain.

Increase Spokane’s recycling rate - now about 40 percent of the waste stream - and remove chlorinated plastics and heavy metals to reduce emissions.

At least in the short run, refuse to use the plant’s dioxin-laden fly ash for building materials and other products, as several entrepreneurs have recently proposed.

Several of NEEF’s recommendations deserve serious consideration, a city official said after Connor’s presentation.

“There isn’t a spirit of animosity any longer, and we’d like to work together,” said Nick Dragisich, the city’s new assistant city manager for operations.

He replaced Phil Williams, the former city engineering director who was fired after revelations that he’d carried on an intimate relationship with Kelly while supervising her work on the trash study.

NEEF is a new voice in Spokane, but many of its board members and staff are influential community activists.

They include Dr. Michael McCarthy, a pediatric lung specialist who helped bring about a statewide phaseout of bluegrass field burning in 1996; Nancy Schaub, a philanthropist and founder of the New Priorities Foundation; former Mayor Sheri Barnard, an incinerator critic; and Connor, nationally known for his work on nuclear issues and a founding member of the Hanford Education Action League.