EPA grants Ill. incinerator key permit

SAUGET, Ill. (AP) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has signed off on a key permit for a St. Louis-area incinerator of toxic medical and chemical waste despite opponents' claims that it doesn't belong in a metropolitan area.

Veolia Environmental Services got its long-awaited Title V operational permit last week, the EPA announced Monday, months after the agency issued a draft permit for the site despite legal challenges by the Sierra Club and another environmental group, the American Bottom Conservancy.

The permits -- meant to ensure that incinerators, power plants and factories don't exceed air pollution limits -- require more stringent monitoring and reporting under 1990 revisions to the Clean Air Act.

Under the Title V program, major pollution sources must get an operating permit spelling out allowable pollution limits, monitoring obligations and required compliance reports to air quality regulators.

The former Onyx incinerator -- bought in 2006 by Paris-based Veolia SA and now operating as Veolia Environmental Services -- has been allowed to operate under permits it has held since the site's managers first applied for the Title V permit in 1995. The incinerator's Title V application was deemed complete since 1995, and the company has been paying fees for it ever since, the site's manager has said.

The U.S. EPA, citing the lawsuits by the environmental groups, took over the Veolia matter after rejecting a permit proposed in 2003 by the Illinois EPA.

Cheryl Newton, a regional EPA air quality official, said Veolia still has follow-up work to do, including more EPA-required testing that could have a bearing on whether the permit gets tweaked -- a modification process that again would solicit public feedback.

Kathy Andria, the American Bottom Conservancy's president and a Sierra Club member, said that while the latest permit was "vastly improved" over the 2003 one in terms of pollution guidelines, the environmental groups aren't convinced the incinerator's operators can be trusted to comply.

Andria noted the EPA's citing the facility in 2006 for exceeding emissions limits for benzene and arsenic, and for failing to adhere to leak-detection and repair requirements.

"It's like a kid saying, `Don't punish me, Mommy. I'm gonna be good.' An intention to comply is not the same thing as complying," she said. "They've never demonstrated that they can comply, and I have no confidence anybody's going to make them toe the line."

Andria said groups that have opposed the permit would review last week's ruling before deciding whether to appeal, perhaps to the federal EPA's environmental appeals board.

Messages seeking comment were left Monday by The Associated Press with Doug Harris, the incinerator's general manager.

Andria cautioned Veolia that environmentalists will be vigilant about the incinerator, part of a 35-acre Veolia site in this heavily industrial community just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

"A hazardous waste incinerator operating in the midst of hundreds of thousands of people -- it's just the wrong place for something like that," she said. "When you put one in that can't meet the parameters of the law, you're in a lot of trouble. People's lives are at risk."

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On the Net:

Veolia, http://www.veoliaenvironnement.com/en

Illinois Sierra Club, http://illinois.sierraclub.org