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Covanta Marion
slow to comply with
new air toxics rules
Tracy Loew
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
State regulators have given Covanta
Marion more time to tell the public ex-
actly what toxic chemicals are in its air
emissions, as part of Gov. Kate Brown’s
Cleaner Air Oregon initiative.
The program closed a loophole in
state law that allowed polluters to emit
dangerous levels of toxic chemicals
while operating legally.
Covanta, which operates the munici-
pal waste incinerator in Brooks, now
has until Feb. 28 to submit test results,
following three extensions of its No-
vember 2020 deadline.
“There is no way to expedite the as-
sessment because it requires intensive
education on how our processes work
and the careful development of proper
testing protocol,” Covanta spokeswom-
an Nicolle K. Robles told the Statesman
Journal.
Covanta isn’t the only company in
the Cleaner Air Oregon program to re-
ceive multiple extensions.
The Oregon Department of Environ-
mental Quality identified more than
350 facilities for inclusion in the pro-
gram. Twenty of those were supposed
to complete health risk assessments
during the program’s first year.
After 2.5 years, only three have fin-
ished.
DEQ officials said the risk assess-
ments are proving more challenging
than they had expected.
Some companies have provided in-
complete submittals that lack the back-
ground assumptions and calculations
used to estimate their emissions, DEQ
Director Richard Whitman told the
state’s Environmental Quality Com-
mission earlier this year.
Covanta, for example, provided
some test results from five other incine-
rators it owns, in California, New Jersey,
Virginia and two Canadian provinces,
with some results dating as far back as
1991. DEQ officials said that wasn’t suffi-
cient, and ordered the company to con-
duct source tests on its Marion County
facility.
In February, the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality fined ENTEK
International, in Lebanon, $7,500 for
deliberately undercounting the amount
of trichloroethylene, or TCE, it emits.
TCE has known cancerous and non-
cancerous health effects.
In July, DEQ issued a warning to an-
other company, Amerities West in The
Dalles, for refusing to submit the neces-
sary information to complete its emis-
sions inventory.
“This pace should quicken in the fu-
ture as the parties involved gain more
experience,” DEQ spokesman Harry Es-
teve said. “DEQ is also proposing some
rule updates that will help streamline
and clarify requirements which will fur-
ther quicken the pace.”
But critics said the delays show just
how far Oregon is behind other states
that have collected similar air toxics da-
ta for decades.
“DEQ overestimated the ability of in-
dustries to comply with the new regula-
tions,” Lisa Arkin, executive director of
Eugene-based Beyond Toxics, said.
“They didn’t understand how our for-
merly weak rules set us up to not be able
to get accurate data in a timely fashion.”
Cleaner Air Oregon
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown launched
Cleaner Air Oregon in 2016 after a Port-
land neighborhood discovered it had
been contaminated with dangerous lev-
els of heavy metals coming from nearby
Bullseye Glass.
The program requires facilities to
submit detailed emissions data, deter-
mine whether those emissions could
harm neighbors and, if necessary, work
with the state to reduce those risks.
In 2018, the Oregon Legislature
adopted Senate Bill 1541, which estab-
lishes funding and positions for the
program, and the state’s Environmental
Quality Commission adopted the pro-
gram’s rules.
In March 2019, 14 of 20 of the high-
est-priority facilities, including Covan-
ta Marion, were called in to the pro-
gram.
So far, only three companies have
completed the process: Genentech,
QTS Investment Properties and STACK
Infrastructure, all located in Hillsboro.
DEQ plans to “call in” the remaining
six highest-priority facilities by the end
of 2021, Esteve said. Locally, those in-
clude Boise Packaging & Newsprint in
Salem and Wolf Steel Foundry in Hub-
bard.
The program has succeeded in de-
veloping emission inventories and risk
assessments for new companies, Es-
teve said. DEQ has completed more
than 20 risk assessments for new facil-
ities, and has modified some of those
facilities’ permits.
Covanta concerns
Covanta Marion has been burning
most of Marion County’s garbage since
1986.
Neighbors
and
environmental
groups for years have said they don’t
know enough about what Covanta is
burning and what is coming out of its
smokestack.
Covanta officials have said they
comply with all federal and state regu-
lations.
Concerns intensified in 2016 when
Covanta substantially increased the
amount of out-of-state medical waste it
burns. That waste can have high levels
of plastics, which can create dioxins,
particulate matter and other harmful
pollutants when burned.
In June, the Statesman Journal
reported that Covanta also was taking
industrial waste, including paint, oil
and plastic, from across the U.S. and
Canada. The operation wasn’t new, and
county officials knew about it, but it had
never been publicly discussed.
In July, Marion County ended its
partnership with Covanta, allowing the
company to operate the incinerator as
an independent business. The deal
meant the company can take in larger
amounts of medical and other waste,
and that it no longer has to tell the coun-
ty what it’s burning.
Currently, Oregon requires Covanta
to test once per year for particulate mat-
ter, cadmium, lead, mercury, sulfur di-
oxide, hydrogen chloride and dioxins/
furans.
Under Cleaner Air Oregon, it must
report its emissions of more than 70
toxic air contaminants.
DEQ has not yet approved Covanta’s
proposed testing plan.
A coalition of climate and environ-
mental groups has said the plan doesn’t
go far enough.
In a letter to DEQ, the Clean Air Now
coalition asked the state to ensure that
Covanta burns the same proportion of
plastic-containing medical and indus-
trial waste during testing as it does on a
typical day.
It also wants Covanta to specifically
describe the industrial waste burned
during testing.
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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2021
|
3A
Business owner uses tech
to tackle homelessness
Whitney Woodworth
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
This is part of a weekly series intro-
ducing readers to individuals who are
passionate about our Mid-Valley com-
munity.
For Salem business owner Russ
Monk, the past two years that brought
the challenges of the pandemic, home-
lessness and wildfires to Oregon also
presented a chance to problem-solve
solutions.
The director of operations for High
Impact Technology, LLC and Water-
Shed LLC, which manufactures rain-
wear and protective gear for first re-
sponders at its factory in north Salem,
has a dozen patents to his name.
He began his career as an accoun-
tant but soon shifted to the work of
building supply chains, creating new
technologies and developing products.
The longtime Salem resident drives
an SUV with a lightbulb affixed to the
roof by his wife — a nod to his affinity
for inventing.
His company designed and built the
30 Compact Liveable Shelters that
house people at the Church at the Park
micro-shelter site near the Catholic
Community Services building on Port-
land Road. The site is designated for
families.
Monk said he listened to service pro-
viders, unsheltered residents and city
officials about what was needed —
power-washable surfaces, security, a
place to charge their phones, and light-
ing — then tried to realize these needs
in the most efficient and safest way
possible.
The foam structures with metal
framing are covered in military-grade
coating to be sturdy and sanitizable.
Solar lights and a spot to charge
phones paired with insulation keep the
shelters powered and warm without
needing to rely on heaters and electri-
cal systems.
His team added small touches like
blackout curtains for people who work
nights and individual keypads so pro-
viders don’t have to worry about re-
placing lost keys.
‘I love solving problems’
Monk said the micro shelter project
exemplifies the things he loves most
K
A
T
O
UB
R uss Monk worked to create 30 micro
shelters to address the homelessness
crisis in Salem. RUSS MONK/SPECIAL TO THE
STATESMAN JOURNAL
about his job: Working with people in
the community and using creative
thinking and innovation to find solu-
tions.
“I love solving problems,” he said.
“I’m a pure inventor by heart.”
When Monk started High Impact
Technology back in 2004 with engineer
Tom Ohnstad, they tackled the prob-
lem of fuel tankers in Iraq becoming en-
emy targets during the war. Insurgents
would fire rounds at the vehicles, spill-
ing fuel and igniting fires.
“A 30-cent bullet could take a quar-
ter-million-dollar fighting vehicle out if
it hit the gas tank,” Monk said.
HIT developed BattleJacket with the
idea that instead of layering on protec-
tion to stop the bullets, they could add a
self-healing, self-sealing coating to
keep the tankers from spilling fuel and
catching fire once they were shot.
Within weeks of developing the
technology, Monk said they were in Ku-
wait setting up a factory to retrofit all
the tanker trucks going in and out of the
country.
About 20,000 vehicles still use the
BattleJacket coating. Monk recalled
seeing a fuel tanker in Iraq with about
800 bullet holes in it. The tank never
lost any fuel.
The technology went on to become
the subject of a PBS Nova documentary
segment in 2011, and the company won
the President’s “E” Award and was hon-
ored by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce
for its export achievements in 2016.
See MID-VALLEY, Page 4A
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