Coalition Presents Counterproposal for IES Incinerator

by Sheila D'Amico

A coalition of neighbors and community action, health, labor, and environmental justice organizations recently presented a proposal to Integrated Environmental Systems (IES), the medical waste incinerator on High St., asking them to replace the incinerators with safer treatment technologies. The proposal, actually a counterproposal, was the Coalition for Healthy Communities & Environmental Justice's response to a previous proposal by Ignacio De La Fuente, which the Coalition believed did not go far enough. Among other items, the counterproposal asked IES to "publicly commit to reducing dioxin emissions to zero" by March 2002 and offered to participate in discussions as to how to achieve that and other goals.

After taking a look at the counterproposal, IES VP and General Manager James Bateman remarked to a Coalition member, Greenaction's Brad Angel, that the counterproposal was "bizarre."

Because IES does not seem to be taking community concerns seriously, the Coalition is working on other fronts to reduce dioxins and other toxins from IES, the only medical waste incinerator in the state. Mike Green, from Oakland's Center for Environmental Health (CEH), says that "three major customers have stopped allowing their waste to be incinerated at IES because of their concerns about dioxin and heavy metal emissions into that low-income community of color." Alta Bates and Alameda Hospitals have agreed to send their medical waste to IES only if IES agrees to microwave the waste instead of incinerating it. The Coalition also aided the very active Stanford students in reaching an agreement with Stanford Hospital's officials who, instead of sending medical waste to IES, will autoclave on site and will also reduce the use of PVC and mercury products.

Neighbors, students, activists, and others concerned about incineration will join the Coalition in front of IES for a peaceful demonstration on Thursday, June 28, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Anyone concerned about environmental justice is welcome to participate. For further information about the demonstration or to become involved with the Coalition's work, call Katie Silberman at CEH, 594-9864.