COLUMBUS, Ohio – Aging hazardous waste incineration plants in Ohio that have been barred from expansion for three decades could start growing again under a new policy Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law last week.
Ohio has four such incinerators – large industrial facilities that burn hazardous and toxic chemicals and have been linked to public health risks – but the legislation was written to allow at least one specific facility in Lorain County to apply to the state to expand its operations. This could effectively overturn a 1993 law that imposed a moratorium on new hazardous waste incineration in Ohio, following public outcry after the last facility was built in Columbiana County.
As the clock neared midnight on the second-to-last day of the two-year legislative session, state Sen. Rob McColley, a Republican from Napoleon, added the incinerator expansion proposal as an amendment to a bill originally focused on water and sewer infrastructure.
He said the amendment only applied to one facility and that the bill doesn’t guarantee its request will be granted by the director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Hazardous waste incinerators take in harmful chemical wastes like solvents, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), PFAs (polyfluoroalkyls), and pesticides, and roast them at temperatures ranging from 1,600 to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Only roughly two dozen exist in the U.S. Their critics say the facilities tend to sit in poorer neighborhoods with larger populations of minority groups that bear the brunt of the pollution.
A website for Ross Incineration Services, the Lorain County facility, said it burns liquids ranging from the easiest to the “most complex and hazardous” and solids ranging from rags and paints to “highly toxic, highly reactive, highly odorous, heat sensitive, non-compatible and high-metal waste.”
Spokesmen for both the Senate and DeWine said the law would allow the Ross plant to apply to expand. However, a Ross spokesman said the company has no “definitive plans” yet to do so.
Australian researchers recently reviewed nearly 100 studies of health effects of waste incinerators (not specific to hazardous wastes). Their review identified “significant risks” associated with food contamination and ingestion for both nearby and distant residents to the plants, although on-site workers are the most likely to experience adverse effects.
“Many older incinerators were linked with neoplasia, reproductive issues and other diseases,” the researchers wrote. “While the results were not consistent across the literature, based on a precautionary principle there is insufficient evidence to conclude that any incinerator is safe.”
Lorain facility to expand
In 1993, after a national political fight over a recently completed hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio, Republican Gov. George Voinovich signed into law a moratorium blocking the Ohio EPA director from granting any new permits for hazardous waste incinerators in the state.
House Bill 364, which DeWine signed last week, creates two new possible exceptions to the moratorium. Both exceptions apply only to plants in operation before April 15, 1993. The bill passed mostly along party lines, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed.
The first exception applies for facilities seeking to install an improved air emission control system to comply with federal regulations. The second exception applies to facilities that want to treat more hazardous waste and are at or near their capacity.
Ohio’s four hazardous waste incinerators all obtained federal permits between 1980 and 1985, according to the Ohio EPA. John Fortney, a spokesman for the Ohio Senate, said the legislation would allow the Ross Incineration facility in Grafton to expand.
“The language change was necessary to allow for the consideration of modernized emission control upgrades specifically designed to protect air quality and the environment, and any application to do so, or to change operating protocols remain subject to the authority and approval of the Ohio EPA and existing federal law,” he said.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for DeWine, said the Ross facility in Lorain County could expand under the bill, but must still comply with federal rules and regulations.
“There will still be emissions standards, there will still be regulation, there will still be normal inspections,” he said.
The applications would fall under the purview of the director of the Ohio EPA. DeWine recently appointed his former policy director, Anne Vogel, to the job.
Andy Sedlak, a spokesman for Ross Environmental, noted the amendments allow the facility to apply for an expansion but don’t guarantee the exception is granted.
“Flexibility is of interest to any business,” he said. “However, many years of careful planning and discerning foresight are necessary before committing to an expansion of any kind. We have no definitive plans to announce an expansion in the near term.”
East Liverpool
U.S. President Bill Clinton delivers his speech on the steps of the West Virginia Capitol Building in Charleston, West Virginia, Monday, August 9, 1993. A protestor holds a sign calling for the closing of a hazardous waste incinerator located in East Liverpool, Ohio, near the West Virginia and Pennsylvania state lines. It was owned by WTI at the time. It's now owned by Heritage Thermal Services. (AP Photo/Joe Marquett)AP
State officials say the legislation does not apply to the East Liverpool plant that prompted Ohio’s moratorium on incinerators, but some familiar with the plant say it should be a cautionary tale.
The facility, now owned by Heritage Thermal Services, has faced more than 30 years of opposition from some of its neighbors. One group, Save Our County, has repeatedly filed lawsuits seeking to close the plant. One lawsuit centers on the plant’s incineration of PFAs-laden firefighting foam. The plaintiffs claim incineration of PFAs contaminates the air, and human ingestion is linked to cancer, liver disease, infertility, and other health effects. The suit alleges that federal agencies failed to exercise due diligence to avoid the pollution when entering contracts with the facility.
The lawsuit is ongoing. But local news outlet Mahoning Matters reported that Congress ordered a moratorium last year on the U.S. Department of Defense contracting out the incineration of PFAs.
“Incineration is a really inefficient and dangerous way of disposing of hazardous wastes,” said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a senior attorney in the toxic exposure and health program for EarthJustice, a nonprofit that helps litigate environmental issues. “They end up releasing incredibly harmful byproducts into the environment.”
He noted East Liverpool is a mostly white area, but the community around it is mostly Black and lower-income. These environmental justice issues at a “decades-old facility using inherently dirty technology” tend to pop up around similar facilities, he said.
In 2013, an explosion caused a massive cloud of ash to escape the facility and drift into the community. The U.S. Department of Justice and EPA in 2018 reached a settlement with the plant, finding it repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act over hundreds of days both leading up to and after the incident.
The Heritage plant won’t be affected by the legislation, according to spokesman Raymond Wayne. He declined to specify what kinds of wastes the plant incinerates. He said in 2021, the plant self-reported a few Clean Air Act violations that were of a “very brief” duration, and none in 2022.
Alonzo Spencer, 94, mobilized local opposition to the plant with Save Our County as far back as the 1980s. In an interview, he said he didn’t know about the new state law. But his experiences with the plant have been poor. He said he recalls instances where the facility offered to pay for car washes after emissions blanketed people’s cars.
Other times, he said, local officials would warn locals not to eat their homegrown vegetables for fear of contamination.
“We don’t know exactly what all is going into the facility, and what’s all coming out of it,” he said.
Jake Zuckerman covers state politics and policy. Read more of his work here.