correction in my incinerator posting

["Jon Campbell" <jon@cqs.com>]

  Hello, folks,
  
        In my posting about incinerators vs. recycling, I stated that the U.S.
  Supreme Court had ruled that incinerator ash was hazwaste. That was rather a
  simplification of what happened; in fact, what the court said is that
  incinerator ash was not exempted from the rules of measuring waste to see if
  it should be classified as hazwaste, in a suit brought about by several
  environmental groups. It was known that both the bottom ash (contaminated
  with heavy metals) and the fly ash (contaminated with dioxin) would be
  classified as hazwaste in many or most cases.
  
  In some sort of deal (and I am told that the EDF was
  involved as well) the EPA changed the ash handling and testing rules,
  allowing the mixing of ash before testing, and using a non-acid water
  leaching test. The bottom ash diluted the dioxin content sufficiently to be
  under the regs for PCDD/PCDF-contaminated wastes, and the lime added to the
  fly-ash at the precipitator alkalized the mixture so that the non-acid test
  found insignificant heavy metal leachate. (Of course the same amount of
  dioxin is still there, and the heavy metals are still there.)
  
  I hope this emission "clears the air" and corrects the omission, so to
  speak...(:-)
  
  Cheers
  Jon
  
  This is what I meant by a political technique for making the ash non-toxic.
  
  Regards
  Jon