Fighting Covanta garbage burner in Minneapolis, Minnesota

[Alan Muller]

Covanta is trying to expand the allowed burning rate of a 1980s garbage burner in Minneapolis by 200 tons per day.  (The burner is owned by Hennepin County but operated by Covanta.)

The opposition is lead by Neighbors Against the Burner, headed up by Nancy Hone.  As time passes, more and more legislators and mainstream advocacy groups and other NGOs are getting on board with the fight against burning and for zero waste..

Ironically, the state environmental regulatory agency, the Minnesota Pollution Conrol Agency, is actively promoting increased garbage incineration in Minnesota.

This presentation ( http://www.neighborsagainsttheburner.org/files/PwrPtHERC.pdf) was developed during the campaign and might be of interest to some.

am

Alan Muller
Energy & Environmental Consulting
Red Wing, MN
Port Penn, DE
302.299.6783
al...@greendel.org

[Mary Lou Van Deventer]

Is this the same Minneapolis incinerator that, when it went into operation, actually required Minneapolis to put an existing recycler out of business so the City could fulfill its put-or-pay contract?  

Mary Lou Van Deventer 

Urban Ore 

To End the Age of Waste 

[Pat Franklin]

That reminds me of the incinerators we fought in FX CO more than 25 years ago…..they ended up putting in not one, not two, but three (can’t remember how many tons a day each burned.)  We were simultaneously fighting FOR curbside recycling.  It was many years later that the Co implemented curbside recycling, then, because trash volume decreased they ended up importing trash from other counties.   I first met Neil Seldman back then….he was helping us fight the incinerator.  Richard Dennison came out a couple of times as well. 

 

Pat Franklin

[Dan Knapp]

Hello Alan:

I think you got it right when you used the word irony to describe the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.  It occurs to me that the local activists could use this sense of irony to advantage.  One of my dictionaries says this about irony:

1.  irony:  "The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning".  

Far from controlling pollutants, burning garbage manufactures pollutants.  These pollutants will vary as the extraordinarily variable feedstock varies.   They may be captured or released.  Just because they are captured does not mean that they have ceased to be dangerous.

2.  Irony:  "Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs".  

Control is a strong word.  Going into a corner with a fast car, you may control the steering to produce a curving trajectory, but if it's the wrong curve you'll still end up in the ditch.  How can you control pollution by burning garbage when the composition of the garbage going in is unknown and unknowable? Can you ever hope to know what is in the residue, since nearly continuous testing would be required?  Are there tests of the residues from this burner?  What do they show?

So, bullet point one:    Rename the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency the Minnesota Pollution Production Agency, or something similar.  Calling them MPPA is closer to what they really are doing, it's intuitively right, and it helps tip people into understanding, especially if backed up by solid facts, e.g., listing the kinds of pollutants produced as residue of garbage burning, and where they go in the land, water, and air around the incinerator.  include both uncontrolled and controlled emissions.

Incidentally, this same kind of irony was used by government in Canberra, Australia, which went on a landfilling binge a couple of years after piously declaring that "Nowaste by 2010" was their goal. 

And after you give the agency a correct name, put out lots of information about the pollutants, and tell people about the alternatives, which are much better and don't rely on doublespeak.

Dan Knapp   

On Oct 2, 2009, at 12:50 PM, Alan Muller wrote:

[James Travers]

Hello all.

 

Dan is right to advise putting out a lot of information about pollutants and incinerator alternatives.

 

To my knowledge, there is no present technology able to capture ultra-fine particulate matter, those smaller than 2.5 microns in size and most dangerous because of their ability to lodge deeply within lung tissue. (pm<2.5) Even those that are much larger but still less than 10 microns (pm<10) are known to be problematic. (perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I can educate me where pm filtration efficiency technology stands today)

 

Perhaps partnering with the local branch of the American Lung Association could be helpful.

 

When weighing in with arguments opposing the increase, raise the economic impact on the local and broader economy, for surely those pushing for the increase will. I'm speaking about the impact of increased short and long term health care costs on the local and state economies. In these times is your state and county so wealthy that they deem these additional costs insignificant? You should ask these questions. And demand they be answered.

 

Educate your regulators, legislators and citizens on the wisdom of the Precautionary Principle and call upon them adopt it. Publish it on the Neighbors Against the Burner website to help raise public awareness of its wisdom. 

 

    "When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof. The process of applying the precautionary principle must be open, informed and democratic and must include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action." - Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle, Jan. 1998

 

Encourage your legislators to realize it is a new century and a time for change. Also, that if we are to achieve a sustainable future for future generations now is the time that we must adopt an entirely new paradigm, a new model for society to operate by. If there is anything that they want increase disposing of, advise them that it would be wise to to begin with our wasteful ways of the past.

 

Although the website has much information, there appears to be no transition plan for adopting zero waste principles; how to move away from incineration towards better, more sustainable practices. Simply opposing incineration, or an increase of the quatnity of waste being incinerated is not enough. You need to prepare and offer them a plan on how this best can be achieved.

 

Berkeley's definition of what Zero Waste is is the best I've come across:

 

"What does Zero Waste mean?

 

If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled, or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned, or removed from production.

 

The goal is to combine aggressive resource recovery and industrial redesign to eliminate the very concept of waste.

 

Eventually, the community’s resource-use system will emulate natural cyclical processes, where no waste exists."

 

Engage your local schools biology and science teachers. Children are our future and can deliver messages for change to parents whom you may otherwise be unable to reach more powerfully than one would imagine. Encourage instructors to have the children conduct air sampling with home -made particle collectors.

 

I find the information kept in TerraFly reports often helpfull to better understand a community's make-up. Here's a link for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which I navigated to from here. 

 

I've also attached a 2005 report published by the American Lung Association entitled Lung Disease Data in Culturally Diverse Communities: 2005

 

Keep on fighting this wasteful polluting incinerator.

 

Good luck.

 

Jim Travers

---

From: Dan Knapp <dr....@urbanore.us>
To: Alan Muller <amu...@dca.net>
Cc: stop-c...@googlegroups.com; gaia-m...@lists.riseup.net; Gree...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Mon, October 5, 2009 7:21:51 PM

Subject: [GreenYes] Re: Fighting Covanta garbage burner in Minneapolis, Minnesota