SIERRA CLUB SUES EPA: LAX INCINERATOR STANDARDS

[Joseph R Parrish Jr <JoeParrish@compuserve.com>]

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

From:	Neil Carman, INTERNET:Neil_Carman@greenbuilder.com
TO:	(unknown), INTERNET:cbebucket@igc.org
	(unknown), INTERNET:ajs@sagady.com
	Felice Stadler, INTERNET:fstadler@nrdc.org
	Gina Porreco, INTERNET:gporreco@nrdc.org
	Joe Parrish, JoeParrish
DATE:	11/29/99 6:06 PM

RE:	SIERRA CLUB SUES EPA: LAX INCINERATOR STANDARDS


     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         CONTACT:
     November 29, 1999                            Neil Carman, 512-472-1767
                     Jim Pew, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, 202-667-4500
     
     
     USING LAX STANDARDS, EPA ALLOWS TOXIC WASTE INCINERATORS TO 	 DUMP
DANGEROUS POLLUTION
     
     Sierra Club Sues EPA to Protect Families from Airborne Toxics
     
     WASHINGTON -- In an effort to reduce pollution that causes lung diseases 
     and cancer, the Sierra Club today filed a lawsuit aimed at reducing the 
     amount of harmful chemicals dumped into the air by toxic waste
incinerators        	 	 and waste burning cement kilns.  Although hazardous
waste incinerators are 
	 among America's most dangerous polluters, the federal government has
     failed to monitor and control the pollution they release into our air. 
     Because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently 
     released new smokestack standards that continue their lax incineration
     approach, the Sierra Club has asked a federal appeals court to force the 
     agency to take action to protect people from the release of mercury,
dioxin 
     and other dangerous chemicals. 
     
     "Toxic waste incinerators foul our air, land and food.  These incinerators
make it 
     tougher for kids with asthma to breathe, fill our lungs with toxic
chemicals, and 
     poison the food we eat," said Dr. Neil Carman, clean air program director
of 
     Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter in Texas.  "The government has been
looking the 
     other way again, letting the toxic waste industry pollute at outrageous
levels and 
     then self-monitor their incinerators for violations.  Sierra Club's
lawsuit will prod 
	 the government to wake up and force waste incinerators to stop poisoning our
lungs."
     
     In 1990, Congress passed amendments to the Clean Air Act requiring the 
     U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set rules to control the 
     amount of pollution emitted by incinerators.  By the EPA's own admissions,

     the standards set by the EPA will allow toxic waste burners even cement
kilns and 
	 other kilns to continue to emit tons of highly toxic pollution.  The rule
will do 
     too little to reduce emissions of mercury and fails to set the safest
limits on
     releases of dioxins and other chemicals that cause cancer and other
diseases.
     
     Over 200 toxic waste incinerators operate in the U.S., in some cases
operating under 	 the disguise of cement kilns and lightweight aggregate kilns.
 These toxic waste 	 	 	 burning kilns are major sources of highly poisonous
persistent, bioaccumulative toxins
     including mercury, carcinogens and particulate matter, small particles 
     that lodge deep in the lungs and cause respiratory disease.  Cement 
     kilns can burn large amounts of toxic waste to fuel their enormous energy 
     requirements, and many also burn other waste including iron slag, tires
and 
     other materials in addition to coal.  
     
     "By allowing excessive limits for mercury emissions, the EPA's rule for 
     reducing pollution from toxic waste incinerators is a slap in the face of
the 
     Clinton Administration's Mercury Action Plan," Carman said.  "The 
     EPA has failed to live up to President Clinton's promises to make our air 
     cleaner and safer to breath."
     
     "I don't think that the toxic incineration industry should have a right to
poison 
     our air and sacrifice our community," said Sue Pope, a resident 
     of Midlothian, Texas, which is home to the Texas Industries waste burning
cement 
     kilns.  "Our air has been polluted, our quality of life worsened, our 
     properties devalued and our health compromised.  We are not 
     expendable, and the EPA needs to curtail these toxic emissions."
     
	There are more than 200 toxic waste burners across the country.  As EPA itself
states 
	"[t]hese sources emit some of the most toxic, bioaccumulative and 
	persistent hazardous air pollutants -- among them dioxins, furans, mercury 
	and organic hazardous air pollutants."  EPA's hazardous waste burn 
	regulations do not comply with the Clean Air Act's minimum stringency 
	provisions, maximum reduction requirement, or reporting requirements.
     The EPA's new rules won't do anywhere near enough to bring all
     toxic waste incinerators up to the reductions that Congress intended when
it 
     passed the Clean Air Act."
     
     Sierra Club, which is represented by Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, 
     filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia..
     
                                # # #

Date: Mon, 16 Aug 99 15:13:47 -0800
From: <allen.mattison@sfsierra.sierraclub.org>
To: <neil_carman@greenbuilder.com>,

Sender: Neil_Carman@greenbuilder.com

Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:07:29 GMT