for more information:
Craig Williams (859) 986-7565
for immediate release: Sunday, November 26, 2000
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a final report with technology information which citizens say will help change the course of hazardous waste disposal in the U.S.
The report looks at six non-incineration technologies currently being considered through a federal program, the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) for disposal of chemical weapons. Titled Potential Applicability of ACWA Technologies to RCRA Waste Streams and Contaminated Media, the report states that "the potential market for ACWA technologies includes wastes that currently are treated by combustion and organic waste that are treated by other technologies," such as pesticides, industrial chemcials, agricultural chemcials, medicinal chemicals and more.
The ACWA program was created in 1997 after Congress directed the Department of Defense to identify and demonstrate non-incineration technologies for chemical weapons disposal. Since 1991, the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), a grassroots coalition of citizens working for the safe disposal of chemical weapons, has pushed for this type of program.
CWWG Director Craig Williams said, "After years of being told that no viable alternatives to incineration existed, the ACWA technology demonstrations are bringing us closer to achieving safe disposal of chemical weapons." He added, "The CWWG has not been alone in its call for non-incineration disposal technologies. The ACWA technologies and other advanced disposal systems could make toxic technologies like incineration obsolete."
Jane Williams, Director of California Commnities Against Toxics, concurs. "This report confirms that incineration is not the only way to destroy hazardous wastes from the Superfund and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act programs. It is time for the states and EPA to take a close look at replacing incineration as the technology of choice for the destruction of hazardous wastes."
Incinerators are known to release toxics such as dioxins and furans, PCBs, heavy metals, and hundreds more unidentified products of incomplete combustion (PICs). Human exposure to even small amounts of these chemicals, either directly or through the food chain, results in increased risks ot cancer, reproductive disorders, birth defects, and immune system dysfunction.
In contrast, ACWA technologies were chosen for demonstrations based on stringent criteria developed by the consensus of the ACWA "Dialogue," including grassroots environmental advocates, state and federal regulators, local citizen leaders and the Department of Defense. For example, ACWA technology vendors must be able to characterize air emissions until the effluents are proven safe for release; identify all by-products; and demonstrate a complete treatment capability including any secondary wastes.
Demonstrations of six non-incineration technologies are now complete, and ACWA will submit a final report to Congress in early 2001.
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