The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) sent out a tentative determination to renew a permit for Reworld Bristol, Inc., a company that incinerates biomedical waste.
“Basically, we’re seeing a business-as-usual approach,” Southington resident Francis Pickering, and member of Bristol Residents for Clean Air, said. “It’s almost as if all of the complaints from the public and concerns, including those that are scientifically based, have fallen on deaf ears. It’s just like we’re going to see the same old permit, renewed and rubber-stamped, which is really frustrating.”
Pickering lives less than two miles from Reworld’s incineration facility in Bristol, Connecticut.
He says there are two primary problems with Reworld: concerns about chemicals in medical waste and noise from their incinerators.
Reworld, which was named Covanta at the time, first applied for a permit to modify its Bristol facility to incinerate medical waste in 2022. That initial permit was denied, but another permit was approved in March of this year, despite community pushback.
Over 90% of what Reworld’s facility incinerates is municipal waste, or waste from households, businesses, schools, and government buildings, which is generally considered non-toxic. The rest of it is medical waste, which is burned in a distinct area.
Medical waste can include materials that are rarely found in ordinary municipal waste, like mercury and other heavy metals. It also contains high concentrations of the plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Burning these chemicals not only releases particulates into the air, but it can also create new toxins, like hydrogen chloride, which is a byproduct of burning PVC.
“It turns a biological problem into a chemical problem,” said Michael Ewall, the founder and director of the national Energy Justice Network. Bristol Residents for Clean Air is a member group of this organization.
Since Reworld’s facility burns municipal waste in addition to medical waste, it operates under lower emission standards than what federal law requires for a dedicated medical waste burning facility.
This is because of a “loophole” in state law.
“The state legislators and the city of Bristol legislators have also been asked to close that loophole with the powers that they have, and (DEEP has) chosen not to do that at this point,” said Ewall.
Senators Henri Martin (R-Bristol) and Rob Sampson (R-Cheshire), and Representatives Gale Mastrofrancesco (R-Southington) and Donna Veach (R-Berlin) proposed legislation to close this loophole in the most recent legislative session. The bill never passed.
“Bills like that could be brought back, and legislators could actually intend to fully pass them and not just use them for trying to win negotiating points or something,” Ewall said. “If we get the lawmakers at the local or state level to listen to the people that are electing them, then we could get this address.”
As for the noise complaints, Pickering said that in 2022, around the time that Reworld first applied for permits to burn medical waste, the noise from its facility was so loud that he could hear it from his basement. Now, the noise is less disruptive, but he can still hear the incinerators operating at night.
He claims that he made numerous complaints to DEEP, but the problem has not been fixed.
“If you’re in violation of your permit, you should not be issued a new permit or have your permit renewed until you bring yourself into compliance,” Pickering said. “I couldn’t get away with doing that if I were doing something on my house or my car. Why should a big corporation be able to get away with it?”
Reworld could not answer questions by publishing time.
DEEP is currently accepting public comments on the company’s application to have its permit renewed. The proposed permit can be found on DEEP’s website, and a hard copy can be viewed in person by appointment at DEEP, Bureau of Air Management, 79 Elm Street, 5th floor, Hartford, CT. Comments can be sent electronically to dave.lariviere@ct.gov.
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