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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 2021)
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2021 | 3A Covanta Marion incinerator seeks new solid waste permit Tracy Loew Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK State environmental regulators are asking for public comment on a pro- posed new solid waste permit for Co- vanta Marion, the garbage incinerator in Brooks. The facility burns most of Marion County’s residential and commercial waste, generating electricity that it sells to Portland General Electric. The proposed permit, drafted by the state Department of Environmental Quality, authorizes Covanta Marion to continue to own and operate the site, and regulates what type of waste it can accept. The new permit would replace an ex- isting expiring one. It doesn't make any changes to the type of waste the facility may accept. Covanta Marion, Oregon’s only municipal waste incinerator, has been controversial since it began operating 36 years ago. That controversy has in- tensified in recent years. In 2016, Marion County began allow- ing Covanta to take as much as 25,000 tons per year of medical waste, contain- ing plastic, from out of state and Cana- da. The limit was changed to 18,000 tons this year. Plastics can create dioxins and other harmful pollutants when burned. In 2019 and 2020, Covanta officials warned the plant could close unless the Oregon Legislature designated garbage burning as renewable energy, allowing Covanta to sell the power produced for a higher rate. Bills authorizing the change did not pass. In June, a Statesman Journal investigation revealed that the compa- ny makes about $1 million per year tak- ing out-of-state industrial waste. And in July, Marion County ended its three-decades-long partnership with Covanta, giving up control over what the facility burns. Covanta Marion’s current solid waste permit expires Aug. 30, but it will be al- lowed to continue operating on it until a new one is approved. It’s legal, and not unusual, for companies in Oregon to op- erate with expired permits, as long as they filed their permit applications on time, which Covanta did. The proposed new permit runs through July 30, 2031. It allows the facility to accept munici- pal solid waste, including infectious waste, pharmaceutical waste, cannery Vaccine Continued from Page 1 cording to Oregon Health Authority. Days after the outbreak began, the facility shared in a news release that 87% of residents, but only 36% of staff, were fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, other businesses can mandate vaccines. Eugene winery King Estate made headlines in April for re- quiring their employees to vaccinate. “It’s a real problem,” said Dennis Westlind, a Portland lawyer who has practiced employment law for 20 years. “I represent a lot of health care em- ployers and they’re at their wit’s end be- cause they see the King Estate wineries of the world mandating their employees be vaccinated, and yet they can’t require nurses and therapists, and other people that have to have hands-on interactions with patients to be vaccinated.” “I was literally just sending an email to a client saying, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry, it makes no good policy sense. I can give you a rationale and an explanation of how it got to be this messed up, but I cannot justify this on a policy level,’ ” Westlind said. Covanta employee Brad Berkey, an auxiliary operator, sorts garbage deposited by local trash haulers at Covanta Marion, Inc. in Brooks, Ore. on Dec. 5. The Energy-from-Waste facility processes on average 550 tons per day of municipal solid waste (MSW) from Marion County. MADELEINE COOK / STATESMAN JOURNAL waste, undigested sewage sludge and septic tank pumpings. It also may accept specific hazardous wastes from small generators; and nar- cotics, illegal drugs, and equipment and materials used in the production of illic- it drugs seized by law enforcement offi- cers. Covanta spokeswoman Nicolle K. Ro- bles said Covanta does not take hazard- ous waste as a matter of course. "If a situation arises where we are asked to take this particular material by a governing authority, it is reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis," she said. Robles said Covanta takes drugs from law enforcement across the country as a public service. "Pharmaceutical waste is a massive problem with both social and environ- mental consequences, which demands sustainable, responsible solutions from industry," she said. "Ten years ago, Co- vanta recognized that the U.S. lacks a safe, standardized way to dispose of un- used medications and created this pro- gram to help communities have a conve- nient and safe way to dispose of their medications to keep it out of the hands of the most vulnerable and out of our water- ways." The permit allows Covanta to accept electronic waste and radioactive waste for storage, but not to be burned. The permit doesn’t regulate the pollu- tion emitted by the burner. Covanta Marion has a separate air quality permit that regulates air emis- sions. It was renewed in 2020, with higher limits for greenhouse gases, and small and fine particulate matter. And it has a water quality permit that allows it to discharge about 88,000 gal- lons per day of treated wastewater to the Willamette River at milepost 71.7, near the Wheatland Ferry. Covanta uses well wa- ter for flushing built-up minerals from the boiler and cooling tower. The water quality permit expired 2009, but DEQ has allowed the company to operate under those rules because Co- vanta filed its application for a new per- mit on time. DEQ took public testimony on a pro- posed new permit in 2016, which would have lowered allowable chlorine and mer- cury emissions, but did not take action on it. At the time, DEQ officials said they were waiting on possible federal rule changes. Comments on the proposed solid waste permit must be received by 5 p.m. Aug. 27, 2021. Send comments to DEQ Permit Coordinator Denise Miller at denise.miller@deq.state.or.us or at 165 E. Seventh Ave., Suite 100, Eugene OR 97401. Tracy Loew is a reporter at the States- man Journal. She can be reached at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399- 6779 or on Twitter at @Tracy_Loew ees of a health care facility, employees of licensed health care providers, em- ployees of clinical laboratories, firefight- ers, law enforcement officers, correc- tions officers, parole officers and proba- tion officers. “As you can imagine, that was super well-intentioned and, in my humble opinion, a really good idea. But then, in the legislative process, somebody raised a concern,” Westlind said. “They threw an amendment on to the original bill. So you get this crazy situation where I can mandate my paralegal to go get a vaccine, but a hospital can’t man- date its nurses to get a vaccine.” The relevant clause states that an emergency response employee cannot be required as a condition of work to be immunized unless that immunization is otherwise required by federal or state law, rule or regulation. While this pandemic has brought re- newed attention to the law, Westlind said it comes up with clients every year when employers in health care settings think about ways to prevent the spread of the flu. Clients learn, just as Lane County’s Luedtke did 10 years ago, they can’t do anything more than implore their employees to get immunized. already challenges with staffing in health care settings. “The health care workforce ... is very fragile right now,” Allen said. PeaceHealth’s 5,400 local employees are 79% vaccinated, and administrators seem similarly disinterested in pushing for policy change. “While we are actively monitoring the regulatory environment, we have no current plans for mandatory COVID-19 vaccination and remain confident in our ability to provide a safe care environ- ment with the high rates of vaccination that we have today,” Dr. Doug Koekkoek, PeaceHealth’s chief physician execu- tive, said in an emailed statement. The Oregon Nursing Association also boasts a high vaccination rate among the nurses it represents, but its data shows vaccination rates depend on the kind of nursing: 79% of nurse practi- tioners, 77% of nurse anesthetists, 74% of registered nurses, 60% of licensed practical nurses and 57% of certified nursing assistants are vaccinated. The association also does not want to see a change in the law. “ONA has a long history of promoting and providing free vaccinations while protecting the privacy of individuals’ health care records,” the association said in an emailed statement. “We will continue to discuss the most effective ways to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are accessible and equitable for all Orego- nians.” On the other hand, Luedtke, with Lane County, said he believes there’s some advocacy to change the law. “We’ve had COVID now for 18 months. We know where some of those high-risk settings are, and it’s time to do something to improve the safety in those high-risk settings,” Luedtke said. “We have vaccines that are really good. It is another arrow in the quiver ... and unfortunately that is not offered to us in the state of Oregon for the health care space.” Contact reporter Tatiana Parafiniuk- Talesnick at Tatiana@register- guard.com or 541-521-7512, and follow her on Twitter @TatianaSophiaPT. Some not eager for a change Letter of the law The billwas introduced the same year the number of reported AIDS cases in the United States reached 100,000. It proposed securing free access to preventative immunization for people who are licensed or certified to provide health care under Oregon law, employ- Last month, Oregon lawmakers wrapped up their five-month session and didn’t touch this issue. Patrick Allen, the director of the Ore- gon Health Authority, said at a recent news conference the agency is “reluc- tant to mandate” and create a statewide vaccine requirement because there are LOCAL ADVISORS Salem Area Caitlin Davis CFP® Chip Hutchings www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC Pay Continued from Page 1 Neither the state nor labor unions — SEIU and AFSCME — yet know how many state employees qualify for the checks, nor how much the one-time payments will cost the state. Andrea Chiapella, communications director for the Department of Adminis- trative Services, said the money will be coming out of agency budgets, not out of money set aside for salaries. Members of the labor bargaining teams said securing hazard pay was one of their top priorities. Christina Sydenstricker Brown, a member of AFSCME’s bargaining team, said the payments show “respect” for the employees who were not able to avoid coronavirus risk by working from home. Simply needing to work in-person added a lot of anxiety for state employ- ees and their families, she said. “We kept Oregon going in a time of crisis. When everyone wanted us to stay home and stay healthy, we had to go to work,” Sydenstricker Brown said. Reporter Connor Radnovich covers the Oregon Legislature and state gov- ernment. Contact him at cradnovich@ statesmanjournal.com or 503-399- 6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRadnovich. 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