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

Available for free in English or French from: The Ministry of the Environment, Public Information Centre, 135 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto, Ontario M4V 1P5, Canada. Tel: 416-323-4321.

This 18-page pamphlet, published in late 1992, is a simple, easy-to-read overview of the Ontario Ministry of Environment’s case for enacting into law a ban on the building of municipal waste incinerators in Canada’s largest province (population approx. 10 million). The five chapters in the pamphlet are: Incineration Threatens Human Health and the Environment; Incineration Creates Large Quantities of Ash; Incineration is the Most Expensive Disposal Option; Incineration is Incompatible with the 3Rs; and, Incineration is Inconsistent with the Ministry’s Pollution Prevention Strategy. It was under Ruth Grier, as Minister of the Environment, that the ban was enacted. In February 1993, Ruth Grier was appointed as Ontario Minister of Health and Bud Wildman is now the head of the new Ministry of Environment and Energy.

GERMANY BEGINS TO INSTITUTE PVC-FREE CONSTRUCTION POLICIES & PURCHASE BANS ON PVC-MATERIALS. Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) published a 10-page report on Concerns Broaden Over Chlorine and Chlorinated Hydrocarbons in their April 19, 1993, issue (pgs 11-20). Some excerpts on the the efforts to ban the purchase of poly vinyl chloride, PVC, a material whose production, and destruction in incinerators, is a major source of dioxin in our environment: “...an increasingly prominent element of the argument against use of chlorinated hydrocarbons is that many of these compounds cause noncancer health effects -endocrine, immune, and neurological problems -principally in the offspring of exposed humans and wildlife, and seem to create these problems at extremely low exposure levels...A number of cities and towns in Germany and Austria have decided not to use PVC materials for any of their new public buildings. Four of the nine regional capitals in Austria --Vienna, Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck- have PVC-free construction policies for public buildings, and two entire Austrian states have followed suit. More than 100 German communities will no longer use PVC in their new public buildings. The German state of Lower Saxony banned purchase of PVC products by the government for any purpose, unless no substitutes can be found. The use of chlorinated herbicides is also under pressure in Europe. Applicaton of atrazine, one of the most heavily used herbicides in the U.S., is restricted in Germany, the Netherlands, several Nordic countries, and northern Italy. Use of a number of specific chlorinated organics has been severely restricted and in some cases banned in the U.S. over the past 20years; DDT was restricted in 1972, polychlorinated biyphenls (PCBs) in 1976...After a falling from a peak in 1972, DDT levels have begun to rise again in Great Lakes fish --probably from long-range atmospheric transport of the chemical. Levels of mirex, which was used as a fire retardant and to kill fire ants, have also begun to increase. The concentrations of several other persistent pesticides, although down from high points reached in the mid-1970s, are no longer declining...the International Joint Commission (IJC), the U.S.-Canadian agency that is the environmental watchdog for the Great Lakes, called for a gradual phase-out of the use of chlorine and chlorine-containing compounds as industrial feedstocks...last September, the Paris Commission, the European equivalent of IJC that oversees emissions of pollutants into the northeast Atlantic Ocean, recommended that discharges of organochlorines be reduced, while programs are initiatived to phase out their use...new regulations have been introduced in various countries that would restrict specific uses of chlorine or ban certain types of chlorinated organics. The Canadian province of British Columbia has decided to reduce the chlorine content of the waste from its pulp and paper mills to 1.5kg per ton of pulp manufactured by 1995 and to 0 kg per ton of pulp by 2002. The provinces of Quebec and Ontario have established similar standards for 1995 and goals of 0.8 kg of chlorine per ton of pulp by 1999 or 2000. Sweden also is committed to eliminating chlorine use in its pulp and paper mills...” See also Waste Not # 236 for a review of the new Greenpeace report on PVC: “Dioxin Factories”

OGDEN MARTIN HOST$ ‘CLO$ED-TO-THE-PUBLIC-AND-MEDIA’ INCINERATOR CONFERENCE FOR PUBLIC OFFICIAL$. From April 18-20th (Sunday through Tuesday), the “1993 Ogden Projects Partners Conference” was held at the Sanibel Harbor Resort and Spa in Florida. Our taxpayer-dollars-at-work- conference included: “Media Handling/Dealing with Public Opposition”; “The Mercury Issue: Regulatory Trends and Technological Capabilities”; “Understanding the Impact of Waste-to-Energy via Health Risk Assessments”; “Ash Utilization, Smart NOx Testing”; etc. Approx. 25 residents opposing Ogden’s plans to build a 1,200 ton-per-day, $200 million incinerator in Fort Myers, Lee County, Florida, “gathered outside the gates of the resort and others on a boat were able to get near the pool area where Ogden Martin officials were holding a cocktail party. ‘We were out in the water holding up our signs,’ said Bonita Springs resident Nancy Gross, a member of S.F. Care Inc. [Southwest Floridians For a Clean and Risk-Free Environment]. ‘People on balconies were cheering. We had supporters there...We just felt like this could not go uncalled...It’s a secret meeting and we are tired of it,’ Gross said. ‘It involved citizens and taxpayers very much’...” Front page of the Cape Coral Breeze, Florida, 4-19-93. Public officials who attended, according to Ogden Projects’ “Confirmed Attendee List as of 3-17-93”:

Commissionr Robert Appell, Env. Control Town of Babylon, New York.

Rosemary Klotz, Chairperson/Mayor’s Aide Bristol Resource Recovery Facility Operating Committee, Connecticut.

Robert Michalik, Esq., General Counsel

Jonathan Bilmes, Executive Director

R. Mort Jackson, Executive Director Metropolitan Authority, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

M. William Fenton,Chairman

Mayor Gloria McCluskey City of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

William Darcy, President Connectcut Resources Recovery Authority

William Pike, City Council President Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Bob Hanson, Acting County Commissioner Hennepin County, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Janet D. Leick, Director

V. Genzlinger, Assoc. City Admin./County Eng.

Jerry Snow, Resource Program Developer Hillsborough County Dept of Solid Wasate, Florida.

Frank Doyle, Manager, Office of Rapid Transit City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Colin M. Jones,Energy Recovery Administrator

Patricia DelCol, Director of Resource Recovery Town of Huntington, New York

James R. Ledbetter, Chairman of the Board Huntsville Solid Waste Disposal Authority, Alabama

Eddie Coker, Executive Director

Karen Schoening, Recycling Coordinator

Beulah A. Coughenour, City Councilor City of Indianapolis, Indiana

Paul Smith, Asst. Administrator of Finance

William Allen, WTE Admin. Manager Kent County Dept. of Public Works, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Douglas Wood, Deputy Director

Herbert Flosdorf, Executive Director Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority, Pennsylvania

Richad J. Spangler, Chairman of the Board

Jim Warner, Program Manager

Commissioner Ray Judah, Vice Chairman Lee County Board of Commissioners, Fort Myers, Florida.

Commissioner John Manning

Lindsey Sampson, Project Engineer Lee County, Fort Myers, Florida.

Larry Johnson, Director Lee County Dept. of Solid Waste, Fort Myers, Florida.

Commissioner Randall Franke Marion County Board of Commissioners, Salem, Oregon.

Jay Destribats, Chairman Mercer County Improvement Authority, Trenton, New Jersey

Richard Van Noy, Executive Director

James Lambert, Deputy Director

Robin Depot, Project Manager N.E. Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, Baltimore, Maryland.

Paul O’Connor, Executive Director Onondaga County Resource Authority, Syracuse, New York.

Bill Bulsiewicz, Counsel

Bob Hillers, Chairman

Vincent Mannella, Solid Waste Facilities Mngr. OMS of Pasco, Inc., Florida

Herbert A. Smith, Esq., Project Director Huntington Resource Recovery Facility, New York.

Patrick Vecchio, Town Supervisor Town of Smithtown, New York.

Gordon Dewers, Director Dept. of Environmental Resources, Modesto, California.

Frank Muratore, Councilmember City of Modesto, California.

Richard Patterson, City Councilor

Angelo Bonanno, Vice Chairman Union County Utilities Authority, Linden, New Jersey.

Jeffrey Callahan

Helen Miller, Chairwoman

Kenneth Miller, Chairman Warren County Pollution Control Financing Authority, New Jersey

Bart Carhart, Executive Director

Frank Leary, Vice

Jim Broscious, Esq. Broscious, Cooke & Glynn, Washington, New Jersey.

Kent Burton, President Integrated Waste Services Assoc., Washington, D.C.

Ogden Martin employees who attended: Karen Alexander, Barbara Badino, Brian Bahor, Steve Bass, Joe Burgess, Fred Engelhardt, Rob Graham, Mike Greco, Kathleen Gurriere, Jeff Hahn, Paul Houck, Beth Hurley, John Klett, Richard Lage, Bill Mack, Scott Mackin, Walter Martin of Martin GmbH, Gloria Mills,Tom Mitchell, Gail Petersen, Bruce Stone, David Sussman, Joe Treshler, Ray Tulli, Arlen Van Draanen, Bill Whitman