From: "Andrews John" <Andrews_John@mac-mailserver.atc.ll.mit.edu>

Dioxin Levels down by 46% since closing of Waste-to-Energy Incinerator

By John Thomas (http://www.infinite.com/~jnthomas/computer_revolution)

According to an Ohio EPA report released on September 18, 1995 the ambient levels of dioxin in the air of southern Columbus decreased by 46% over the levels measured just one year ago. Since the earlier measurements, the Columbus Waste-to-Energy facility, a trash burning power plant, had ceased operation. While the Ohio EPA would not say that 100% of the decrease was due to the closing of the plant, they had to admit that the closing was a factor in why the levels have decreased.

During the testing in 1994, the Scioto Trail Elementary School was found to have the highest levels of ambient dioxin in the county. It was also the only location where 2378-TCDD was found. In 1994 the school was found to have on average 18.6 fentograms per cubic meter of 2378-TCDD in the ambient air. Todays measurement shows 4.1 fentograms per cubic meter of the same. In addition, the TEQ dioxin measurement at the school dropped 89% since 1994.

The Ohio EPA claims that other "unknown" sources are also contributing to the dioxin levels on the South side of Columbus. Because of variations in the wind direction the Ohio EPA claims that the drop in dioxin levels may not be attributed solely to the closing of the Columbus Waste-to-Energy incinerator.

What the Ohio EPA needs to look at is two locations where dioxin levels actually increased from the 1994 measurements. These locations were not those closest to the trash plant. They were the locations closest to the sewage sludge incinerators and the animal rendering plant. Both of these facilities have never been tested for dioxin emissions. Both are located approximately one half mile north of the closed trash plant, and are between the trash plant and the site where the monitors were placed.

According to a 1988 Battelle Memorial institute study 70% to 80% of the dioxin on the South side of Columbus was attributed to the Waste-to- Energy plant. 20% to 30% could be attributed to the sewage sludge and animal rendering plant.

What the Ohio EPA has just done is to provided evidence that Battelle may have been correct with this 1988 study. But to make certain the Ohio EPA needs to conduct testing at these other two facilities.
 
 

2. Date: 31 Aug 1998 15:26:01 -0400

From: "Andrews John" <Andrews_John@mac-mailserver.atc.ll.mit.edu>
Subject: Buying an Incinerator
[From Capital District Business Review, Albany, NY, August 31, 1998]

Counties may buy trash-burning plant
William Tuthill Business Review Reporter

In his campaign travels in the North Country, Nicholas Caimano says he repeatedly is asked, "What are you doing about the incinerator?"

The incinerator is the municipal trash-burning plant in Hudson Falls, which taxpayers in Warren and Washington counties now are subsidizing to the tune of $300,000 a month.

A simmering conflict for five years, it now has become a big issue in the campaign, said Caimano, an at-large Republican supervisor in the town of Queensbury who is running to fill the congressional seat of U.S. Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-Queensbury), who is retiring. "People know I'm struggling with this and am trying to find an answer," Caimano said.

After years of lawsuits and pleas to New York state to bail out Warren and Washington counties, a breakthrough might be in the works. The New Jersey company that operates the plant is considering selling it to the public sector, which could allow local taxpayers to refinance the debt and save millions of dollars over the next 15 years.

"This could be the best thing to happen yet," said Caimano, one of several local government officials who have watched in frustration for years as the plant's revenue has failed to cover the debt-service payments and the operator's profit that is guaranteed by contracts with the counties.

Officials will have to wait until Sept. 1, however, before they can begin negotiations with the company. That is the date that Foster Wheeler Corp. of Clifton, N.J., is expected to present the terms under which it would turn over the plant to the Counties of Warren and Washington Industrial Development Agency.

No one is saying what a fair price might be for Foster Wheeler to walk away from the plant, which was completed in 1992 at a cost of $80 million. Under its contracts with the company, the IDA is responsible for paying most of the financing costs until 2012, at which point Foster Wheeler will own the plant free and clear.

"They have said they'll give us a number and we'll see if that number is in the ballpark," said Robert Morris, the attorney for the IDA. "Then serious negotiations can begin."

Trash plant operations are only a small part of Foster Wheeler, a $4 billion engineering and manufacturing concern that serves the petroleum, gas and power-generating industries. This year, the company has been buffeted by sharp declines in its stock, which traded at $48 a share in October, but has since dropped to about $14.50.

Morris, a partner in the Glens Falls law firm Fitzgerald Morris Baker Firth P.C., said he had heard the company was considering spinning off its four U.S. trash-burning plants, including the one in Hudson Falls, to concentrate on its other businesses. Morris met this summer with company officials to discuss a possible buyout. It was then that they told him they would have something on the table by Sept. 1.

Alastair Davie, a spokesman for Foster Wheeler, declined to comment on the negotiations. Nor would he discuss whether the company is looking to divest itself of the trash-burning plants.

In order for the Hudson Falls incinerator to break even, it must charge $72 per ton of municipal waste brought in. Of that amount, nearly $60 is for debt service. Because of competition from other incinerators and landfills--where there is a glut of capacity--the market rate is around $50 a ton, forcing the plant to run a deficit.

Like other incinerators around the country, Hudson Falls was built and financed on the assumption that demand for disposal capacity would stay high. At the time, landfills were closing across the state, and municipal governments could control the flow of trash within their borders.

The predicted landfill capacity shortage never materialized, however, and a 1994 U.S. Supreme Court decision threw out local flow-control laws, allowing trash haulers to go wherever disposal rates are lowest, which sometimes is out-of-state.

In the past, Foster Wheeler has resisted demands that it renegotiate its contract with the counties to ease the financial burden on taxpayers. The company's current willingness to negotiate could stem from the need to change its business strategy and divest the trash plants. It also could be a result of increased pressure by Warren and Washington counties.

The boards of supervisors of both counties took a hard line in June, passing resolutions demanding that Foster Wheeler make contract concessions or take other action to stabilize the money-losing plant.

Washington County supervisors went further, issuing an ultimatum that they would stop payments toward the plant's debt on Oct. 31 if the company didn't make "significant concessions and contributions" in the operating contract.

"I think they'll have something for us," said Louis Tessier, chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors. "They can't put us off any more. They know we're not bluffing."

Perhaps the largest short-term advantage of public ownership of the plant would be lower interest rates, said Stephen Blakeslee, solid waste coordinator for Warren and Washington counties. A public owner could refinance the plant's remaining $72 million in construction debt with general-obligation bonds, replacing the current revenue bonds. That would cut the interest rate from about 8 percent to about 5 percent, IDA representatives have said. General-obligation bonds also would free up about $8 million that has been set aside for debt service reserve, Blakeslee said.

By taking over the plant, the counties would be exposed to some risk, he added. "Right now, [Foster Wheeler] pays all maintenance costs," he said. "If a turbine blows up, they have to pay for it. If we owned it, we'd have to pay."

Tessier, the Warren County chairman, argued that compared to the current onerous arrangement with Foster Wheeler, he sees no downside of public ownership of the trash plant.

"I know it's a lucrative business," Tessier said. "The counties could make money once the bonds are paid."

(c) 1998, Capital District Business Review