The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering a Bush-era initiative that would allow tens of thousands of incinerators at industrial facilities to burn tires, scrap plastics, spent solvents, used oil and other wastes -- allowing polluters to spew far more toxins into communities that are already overburdened with pollution.
If passed, the rule would exempt waste burners from siting regulations for incinerators. This would mean that any new facility -- or any one of more than 100,000 existing units -- could start burning tires or other toxic wastes in our backyards without going through siting analysis or even informing members of the public about the pollution to which they would be exposed.
Public health and the environment deserve full protection from toxic waste incineration. Tell Mathy Stanislaus, the EPA Assistant Administrator, to close this dangerous and toxic loophole!
Dear EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus,
Please reconsider a Bush-era loophole that would allow tens of thousands of industrial facilities to burn tires, plastics, spent solvents and other waste without meeting Clean Air Act requirements enacted to protect the public from the toxic pollution that waste-burning generates.
[Your comment will be inserted here]
Exempting industrial incinerators from the Clean Air Act's on-site incinerator requirements would allow polluters to spew far more toxins into communities that are already overburdened with toxic pollution.
Exempting waste burners from siting regulations would allow any new facility -- or any one of more than 100,000 existing units across the country -- to start burning tires or other wastes across the street from an elementary school without going through any siting analysis or even informing members of the public about the new source of toxic pollution to which their children would be exposed.
Exempting these facilities (concentrated largely in poor and communities of color) from emissions monitoring requirements would make enforcement of emission standards practically impossible.
Exempting sources from operator training requirements would mean that unqualified operators would be in control of facilities that emit significant quantities of toxic pollution even when operating perfectly.
Please abandon the waste burning loophole and protect communities from unregulated waste burning.
