[S-C] Huge Victory!! Greenaction & Red Bluff Citizens Win Appeal of InEnTec's permits for plasma arc medical waste plant

[Bradley Angel]

Dear friends and supporters of Greenaction and environmental justice,

We are thrilled to let you know that we have won an incredible David versus
Goliath victory.

The Appeals Board of the Tehama County Air Pollution Control District voted
3-1 in a late night vote on December 21st to grant the appeal filed by
Greenaction and the Red Bluff area citizens group and invalidated the
permits given by the Air District to InEnTec.  The Appeals Board adopted
100% of our Proposed Findings (you can read them on our website
http://www.greenaction.org <http://www.greenaction.org/>  ) .  InEnTec has
now lost their air permits and must stop construction.

We do not know what InEnTec's next move is and if they will decide to try
again in Red Bluff.  If they try, residents and Greenaction are ready to
keep fighting to protect the community from this polluting project.

This is a great holiday victory for the community, Greenaction and people
everywhere who care about health and justice and a clean environment.

Please support Greenaction to enable us to continue this fight and help
other communities far and wide protect their health, their air and water and
win justice for all.  You can donate online on our website or send us as
generous a donation as possible.  We rely on supporters like you to enable
us to keep helping communities win victories for health and justice.

Happy Holidays!

Bradley Angel, Executive Director, Greenaction for Health and Environmental
Justice

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RED BLUFF DAILY NEWS, DECEMBER 23, 2005, FRONT PAGE NEWS!

Appeal wins on InEnTec
By CHERYL BRINKLEY-DN Staff Writer 

Friday, December 23, 2005 - 

County hearing board splits 3-1

RED BLUFF Citizens cheered after the hearing board upheld the Citizens for
Review and Greenaction appeal in a 3-1 vote late Wednesday night.

The Tehama County Hearing Board members who voted against the proposed
medical waste facility were Fred Richelieu, Linda Henderson and, hesitantly,
Tyler Christensen. Chair Mel Oldham was the one dissenting vote. Oldham
declined to comment on Thursday.

"I think they are concerned about the lack of data and whether or not the
data they have is reliable," said Tehama County Counsel William Murphy after
Greenaction's Bradley Angel said the board was going on the fact that there
were some significant changes to the project.

"In fairness to my client, the board should say exactly what rule was broken
and which rule was violated by my client," said Arthur Wylene, legal adviser
for the Air Pollution Control District that had issued the authority to
construct permit.  Christensen suggested modifications on some of the APCD
conditions placed on the medical waste facility. He moved that changes to
the conditions be added in the permit.

"I can't approve this without an EIR (Environmental Impact Report)," said
Richelieu.

Murphy said Tuesday that should the appeal be upheld, the board has the
right to request further action by InEnTec, but it does not mean it cannot
build.

The citizens group will now "wait and see" what InEnTec does "as it relates
to the legal process," said Dan Irving, representative for the Citizens for
Review on Thursday.  InEnTec officials declined to comment Wednesday on the
hearing board's decision.

"Truth and justice has prevailed. The citizens should be proud," said Angel.

"I have to give Bradley all the credit. It was mostly his hard work," Irving
said.

The appeal was filed by Citizen's for Review of Medical and Infectious Waste
Imports into Tehama County and Greenaction, a San Francisco-based
environmental group, in August. The two groups appealed the APCD decision to
issue a permit to construct on grounds that it failed to act "in compliance
with (CEQA) statutory requirements." 

Although the hearing board was to decide whether or not the APCD did all it
should according to the law, board members expressed concerns that there was
no data on the proposed Plasma Enhanced Melter 500 unit. 

There is data on smaller units that was used by InEnTec and the APCD. The
available data was used for the PEM 500 through calculations using increased
figures, according to Jeffrey Surma, president and CEO of InEnTec Medical
Services LLC.


**************************************************************************


Redding Record Searchlight 


December 23, 2005


 

Appeal slows waste plant

Tehama County air board wants more environmental details from InEnTech

By David Benda, Record Searchlight

RED BLUFF -- Construction of a $10 million medical waste plant south of here
is on hold. 

Washington-based InEnTech Medical Services suffered a major setback late
Wednesday when the Tehama County Air Pollution Control District Board voted
3-1 to uphold an appeal filed by Red Bluff area residents and a San
Francisco conservation group. 

In July, InEnTech received an "authority to construct" permit from the
county air pollution control district. Wednesday's ruling sets aside the
permit, Tehama County Counsel William Murphy said Thursday. 

"The citizens sent a strong message that the process of approval was flawed,
and we brought that to the attention to the community," Lupe Green of the
citizens group said Thursday.  Officials from InEnTech couldn't be reached
for comment Thursday. 

Plant opponents want more environmental study on the proposed disposal
plant, which would use a melter to sterilize and disintegrate hospital
waste. It was the first appeal ever filed with the Tehama County Air
Pollution Control District and capped a fight that started in late September
and included 10 hearings and an estimated 70 hours of testimony. 

Wednesday's vote came after 11 p.m. Board members Linda Henderson, Tyler
Christiansen and Fred Richelieu were in the majority. Mel Oldham voted to
deny the appeal.  Board member Don Webster recused himself because his son
works for Pillsbury, Winthrop & Shaw in Sacramento, Murphy said. The law
firm's San Francisco office is representing InEnTech. 

InEnTech had broken ground on its Reading Road plant, which would employ
between 12 and 15 people. The plant was designed to process up to 6 tons of
waste per day. 

The appeal filed by the citizens group and Greenaction cited "serious and
significant" defects in the permit application process. Protesters
complained that the plant was described in its application as an electricity
producer when its primary purpose is to get rid of medical waste. County
Counsel Murphy said the next step is up to InEnTech. The company could ask
the Tehama County Superior Court to reverse the board's order or it could
re-file for another permit. 

Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction, said the message should be
clear to InEnTech. "The community wants them to pack up and go back to where
they came from," he said. "We hope InEnTech has learned their lesson." 

 

 

 

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