The process of permitting a medical waste incinerator in Tooele County moved forward this week.
On Tuesday night the Utah Department of Environmental Quality held a public hearing at Tooele High School on Stericycle’s application for a solid waste permit for its proposed facility.
Stericycle has proposed moving its medical incineration operation form North Salt to a location in Tooele County 10.7 miles north of Interstate 80’s Exit 77. The proposed incinerator site is on the east side of Rowley Road.
Grantsville City Councilwoman Jewel Allen was the only Tooele County resident who attended Tuesday’s hearing.
“I would like to commend Stericycle on their progress and having no further bypass violations,” Allen said. “I am concerned about proper procedures of reporting and consistent testing of the solid waste to make sure there is proper measuring of what is hazardous.”
Also attending the public hearing were Salt Lake City residents Cindy and Art King.
Cindy King spoke during the public hearing representing the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club.
She cited several parts of Utah Code while reading a prepared statement. She reminded the Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control of their responsibility to protect the citizens of Utah from the possibility of mortality or increased illness caused by the incinerator.
King also said alternative technology to incineration should be considered.
King and Allen were the only speakers at the public hearing. The meeting was also attended by three representatives from Stericycle and one representative from the Tooele County Health Department.
The public comment period for Stericycle’s solid waste permit started Oct. 31 and continues until Jan. 6, 2017.
Documents relating to the permit may be reviewed at the Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control’s office located on the second floor of the multi-state agency office building at 195 N. 1950 West in Salt Lake City or at the Tooele City Public Library at 128 W. Vine Street in Tooele City.
An unofficial draft copy of the permit is available online at www.deq.utah.gov/NewsNotices/notices/waste/index.htm#phacp.
Written comments may be hand delivered to the above address or mailed to Scott T. Anderson, Director; Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control; P.O. Box 144880; Salt Lake City, UT 84114-4880.
Alternatively, comments in either text files or pdf format may be emailed to dwmrcpublic@utah.gov.
Stericycle’s North Salt Lake facility has been encroached by residential development and is maxed out in its capacity, according to Stericycle officials.
Stericycle’s Tooele County facility will be on five developed acres within a 40-acre parcel that Stericycle has an agreement to purchase from the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration.
The facility will have two incinerators, doubling the potential for maximum waste processed.
Each incinerator has the capacity to incinerate 2,050 pounds of medical waste per hour for a combined total of 18,000 tons of medical waste per year, an average of 49.3 tons per day, according to a DEQ fact sheet.
The facility will operate 24 hours per day, employing 50 people in either two or three shifts, according to the permit application.
The medical waste accepted by Stericycle does not contain any radioactive or hazardous waste.
Using a two-stage incineration system, the incinerators burns and then thermally sanitizes medical waste at 1,800 to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The resulting bottom ash received from the incinerator is non-hazardous and may be disposed at any licensed solid waste facility, like the Wasatch Regional Landfill that will be across the street from the incinerator site, according to Roy Van Os, an environmental scientist with DEQ.
The fly ash is a hazardous waste and will be handled by a licensed hazardous waste disposal facility, Van Os said.
Stericycle made inquiry with Tooele County officials in October 2013 about the possibility of relocating to Tooele County.
The Rowley site was already zoned for general manufacturing, which allows incinerators as a conditional use. Tooele County issued a conditional use permit to Stericycle for a medical waste incinerator on July 9, 2014.
In November 2014, the Department of Environmental Quality and Stericycle reached a settlement agreement for a notice of violation for the North Salt Lake incinerator issued in August 2014.
In the agreement, Stericycle agreed to a penalty of $2,322,536. Half of the penalty, $1,161,268, was due following the acceptance of the agreement. The balance of the penalty fee will be written off as a supplemental environmental project following the relocation of incineration operations to Tooele County and the closure of the North Salt Lake facility.
“The new facility [in Tooele County] will have better technology and will be sited away from population centers,” reads the November 2014 settlement agreement.
The agreement gives Stericycle three years from the time it receives all necessary permits and approvals to open its new facility in Tooele County and close its old facility in North Salt Lake.
The public comment period for Stericycle’s air quality permit was held from March 24 to May 20. An April 18 public hearing on the air quality permit drew 25 people.
A decision on both the air quality and solid waste permits will be announced jointly by the DEQ after addressing the public comments, according to Van Os.