Contact Your State Environmental Commissioner to Stop This From Happening in Your State

The Issue:

While the disposal of PFAS chemicals poses serious challenges, the rush to burn these chemicals is on, despite no evidence they can be safely incinerated.   EPA is trying to find an incinerator to be part of an experiment regarding PFAS and wants to issue a rosy report by the end of the year.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler @EPAAWheeler. @EPA is committed to finding a path forward for this important, necessary, and ENGO/Congressional/publicly requested research. At this point we are looking to find another state partner willing to focus on the protection of human health and the environment. 10:40 AM · Aug 26, 2020·Twitter Web App

Background:

Without informing the public, the Norlite hazardous waste incinerator in Cohoes, New York burned over 2 million pounds of toxic fire fighting foam (AFFF) in 2018 and 2019.  It came from state governments, private companies and primarily the US military in 25 states.  There was never a stack test, because the EPA does not have valid methods for testing PFAS at incinerators.

Soil samples and water samples taken near the incinerator found the fingerprint of AFFF – suggesting that the PFAS chemicals were not destroyed, and new ones may have been created by the combustion process.  AFFF is, by design, a fire suppressant and does not lend itself to being destroyed by incineration.  This testing was done by Bennington College and is now a new round of sampling is being done by the State DEC.

After environmentalists informed the public of this AFFF burnig, EPA and NY DEC wanted to do after-the-fact test burns at Norlite, but the local Mayor said that his residents would not be used as guinea pigs and that it could not be done in his community.  EPA then moved on to Rahway, New Jersey.  Just days before an EPA testing experiment was to take place, environmental justice groups found out and objected.  Covanta then pulled out of that experiment,  EPA issued an angry news release and is now searching the country for a new incinerator.

Little is known about the formation of new chemicals and combustion byproducts that occur during incineration of PFAS chemicals or what risks they may pose to human health and the environment.[1]  For chlorine and brominated based chemicals, chlorinated and brominated dioxins are formed in stack gases during incineration, which are some of the most carcinogenic chemicals produced.

EPA readily acknowledges that incineration can result in the “incomplete destruction” of PFAS compounds, resulting in the formation of smaller PFAS products, combustion by-products and products of incomplete combustion (PICs) which “may not have been researched and thus could be a potential chemical of concern.”[2] Yet, EPA has not yet developed the testing methods to find the combustion breakdown products from PFAS incineration, much less the analytic methods to find most PFAS chemicals in the air.

Indeed, emission studies, particularly for PICs, have been “incomplete” due to lack of approved and validated measurement methods suitable for comprehensive characterization, EPA scientists affirm.[3]

The Problem: Despite this, EPA is now desperate to find an incinerator to test stack emissions after the state of New Jersey refused to allow them to test the incinerator at the Covanta incinerator in Rahway, NJ.  EPA is urgently seeking another incinerator to use its questionable stack test method on. Until validated, peer-reviewed stack tests are available, the rush to burn PFAS chemicals must stop and EPA needs to call off its experiment.

This is all happening behind closed doors with incinerator companies, with no public notice and with a likelihood that the EPA will cherry pick data to attempt to make the case that incineration of PFAS is safe – all by the end of the year.

Non-incineration disposal technologies need to be EPA’s priority. On August 25, 2020, Administrator Wheeler announced a $50,000 prize and a crowd-sourced effort to find those innovative treatment technologies. That certainly does not sound like a serious commitment.

The Action: Please contact your state environment commissioner and urge them not to let  trial burns for PFAS chemicals take place in your state.

For Further Information:

Jane Williams, Executive Director, California Communities Against Toxics, 661-256-2101 or email Dcapjane@aol.com

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[1] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Understanding, Controlling, and Preventing Exposure to PFAS: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, pages 5-6. https://doi.org/10.17226/25856.

[2] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Technical Brief, 2019. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS): Incineration to Manage PFAS Waste Streams, https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-09/documents/technical_brief_pfas_incineration_ioaa_approved_final_july_2019.pdf.

[3] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Technical Brief, 2019. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS): Incineration to Manage PFAS Waste Streams, https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-09/documents/technical_brief_pfas_incineration_ioaa_approved_final_july_2019.pdf.