EPA to require municipal waste incinerators monitor for toxic emissions
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New rule hailed as major step toward reining in source of local toxic air pollution that hits low-income neighborhoods. The EPA plans to require the nation’s municipal waste incinerators to monitor for dangerous air emissions, a move environmental groups have hailed as a major step toward reining in a staggering source of localized toxic air pollution that most frequently hits low-income neighborhoods.
Municipal incinerators’ stacks often spew hazardous pollutants like dioxins, particulate matter, PFAS, carbon monoxide, acid gases, or nitrogen oxides. The substances are linked to cancer, developmental disorders and other serious diseases, but still are burned with limited or patchwork oversight.
The new rule would require about 60 such facilities across the country to consider about 800 chemicals that are part of the federal toxic releases inventory. The data could be used to inform local residents about what’s being emitted, litigate, alert first responders, increase monitoring, or inform state and federal regulators on how to set new pollution limits.
The EPA is “doing the right thing”, said Mike Ewall, executive director of the Energy Justice Network public health advocacy group. It co-led a citizens’ rulemaking petition signed by 300 environmental groups requesting the EPA take the step. “This industry is worse than landfilling, dirtier than coal burning, and disproportionately impacts people of color,” Ewall added.
Municipal incinerators burn residential and commercial garbage as an alternative to landfilling. They are often prolific polluters and, public health groups say, under-regulated. The waste streams are filled with consumer goods and materials that contain PFAS that are not destroyed in the incineration process, or PVC that forms dioxins when burned.
