Document 1RnZq0MwzZ6XKrXGV4Qzmo1E

First poison waste buried at state site ! BY KATE HARRIS . New* Miff writer - Waite Management ot Alabama, Inc., the atate'a only hazardous waitea lie. aituated 20 miles north of Living- aton, has buried its first shipment of PCB-contamlnated materials. . PCBs Is the popular name for poly-. ' chlorinated biphenyls, used in a num- , ber of products from ink solvents to , hydraulic fluids to Insulation for elec ... Irical transformers and capacitors. The product Is so dangerous that the , federal Tonic Substances Control Act ;. of 1071 has forbidden any more of It to , be produced after January 1171 and any more sold after July 1171. ALABAMIANS became concerned about PCBs In Ii7( when fish In the Coosa River were found to be contaml, stated with It from a General Electric Co. plant in Rome, Ga. Georgia closed to fishing an area of the Coosa near the V plant. . In the late 1900s an Industrial acci- dent ceueed 1,900 Japanese to become III after eating rice oil contaminated with PCBs. PCB Is a chlorinated organic com- i pound similar to DDT, and research by > a specialist at the National Cancer Re t eearch Institute in Tokyo has linked It with liver cancer. PCBs cannot he . chemically broken down in the enviI ronmenl but must be safely storied If j they do not become an environmental I hasard. A LETTER from the federal Envi ronmental Protection Agency (EPA) notifying the Waste Management . ' company on June 19 It was being le- f sued a federal permit to dispose of. i PCB-contaminated material said the . I site has, in the pest, accepted this ' material with approval from the state, t Mate Rep. Prank Campbell of Llv- ' lagston, who bet been active la oppos- lug location of a basardout wastes burial site la Sumter County, said, v "That was news to the local people. , They did set ktow thst PCBs were being brought In here until EPA adver- 1 Usedla a local paper that the eompany ! bad applied for a federal permit le bury the material." . . M,w.. 7, 197> gt, ilmiMlutt. K- EPA gave the public 19 days to com ment. "It's a funny thing." said Campbell. "The federal government usually calls r a public hearing on every little thing l but this time they Just asked for writ ten comments. "The rank and file of the people In this area don't like the idea of a haz ardous wastes disposal area being M the county and especially they don't like It handling PCBs because they are afraid It will contaminate their water supply. They don't like the odor of the site either." . lv Turn to Page 9, Column i i . MONS 000701 First shipment of PCBs buried near Livingston |C from Flie1) streams as they were when they were disposed ol Indlscrimiaautly," he said. Dan Cooper of the state Department * JOHN A. LITTLE, EPA deputy re gional admlnlatrator, Atlanta, laid no opposition to the federal permit waa received from anyone during the 30 11 day comment period. of Public Health said there were no regulations governing disposal of PCBs until February, when EPA issued them. "There was no doubt In our minds that Waste Management would meet "We, along with state geologist!, EPA standards. We felt the site was made a thorough investigation into secure enough from the geological how the environment would be affected standpoint to dispose of PCBs." and concluded that It Is one of the saf He said the company has Installed a est sites possible (or disposing of separate trench to bury PCBs esclu- PCBs,"hesaid. stvely. that It b highly monitored and - . People In the area had considered all known precautieas are taken to see l taking legal action, said Campbell, but that there is ae seepage. i "these people are not wealthy, so they abandoned the idea because they Cooper added that the company ac couldn't afford the cost. cepted PCB-contaminated material "They're tolerating the site only be with state approval from the time it cause they feel they have no choice. They don't think Sumter County should become a dumping ground lor the began operating last summer until March, when it became necessary to get a federal permit. state, the region and the natloa." "Then Waste Management stopped taking this material until it received JAMES PARSONS, son-in-law of the proper permit," said Cooper. Gov. George Wallace, who, along with Mark Oregory of Memphis, Is manag ing the Sumter County operation, safd he eupecta several shipments of PCB- contamlnated material to be brought to ' the site weekly. The one burled Thursday was from a . chemical company In Louisville, Ky. I "The material will be transported by > enclosed tractor-trailer vans and come both from Alabama and out-of-state," I Parsons said. - . Since EPA has banned the manufac- hire of PCBs, equipment that Is pulled 1 out of service must be disposed of In ' EPA-approved sites, said Parsons. There are two others In the nation, In Oregon and Idaho. . "Transformers are drained of the liquid containing PCBs and the liquid THE COMPANY'S corporate struc ture has changed since it began opera , tlons about a year ago. The original ' company, Resource Industries of Ala ' bama Inc., merged in February with Waste Mangement Inc., which oper ates In 24 states, Canada and Saudi 1 Arabia. ' Parsons was president of the origi nal company, which was formed with four other persons from Memphis. Waste Mauagemeat is headquarter ed la Oak Brook, III. Its president Is H. Wayne Hulseaga, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He also Is chief operating officer and a company director. ' Chairman of the board and chief executive officer Is Dean L. Buntrock. of Oak Brook, III. .; Is Inoinerated elsewhere," said Par , sons. "We are not permitted to inciner| ate it." CHARLES WARREN, director of the Council of Environmental Quality, Washington, D C., called PCBs a "very i THE 8ITE also disposes of what Is | known as "haiardous" materials, such as pesticides, sludges, contaminated : metals and chemical plant wastes. ' Parsons said, however, that he looks i at the Sumter County site "as a solu- tlon to one of mankind's problems ralh- ' er than as a problem." . "It's hotter to have these materials la a secure, well-monllored facility than to have them polluting the environmentally haiardous substance that must be dealt with most careful ly." The Resource Coaservatlon and Recovery Act of H7I, he said, author ises EPA to rogulate the use and dis posal of PCB-contamlnaled material. "EPA has been given the last word on how this should be done and haa received strict guidelines to follow on disposing of the material In the Interest of public safety," he said. MONS 0 0 0 7 0 2