Essex County Trash Incinerators Weird, Pink Smoke Ignites Debate – Newark, NJ Patch

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — In the Ironbound section of Newark, there’s a waste-to-energy plant that burns garbage from all 22 municipalities in Essex County and provides power for about 45,000 homes. And when weird, pink fumes started wafting from one of its smokestacks on Wednesday, it caused some eyebrows to raise.

The origin of the unusually colored vapors? Iodine, a company spokesperson told Patch.

According to Covanta:

“The pink color coming from the stack is a rare occurrence that can happen when a load of trash is combusted that contains amounts of iodine, which was discarded in regular trash. We are actively working with our customers to ensure iodine does not come to our facility. While it may have looked alarming, it was not a danger to the public or the environment. Dispersion modeling showed that the maximum ground level limit was well below health exposure limits.”

But despite the company’s reassurances, some local environmentalists still have serious questions about what is being burned at the facility.

“Newark’s Covanta incinerator released dangerous iodine into the air this week,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We only know that because the iodine turned smoke coming out its smokestack pink and the public noticed.”

Tittel said it’s important to ask where that iodine came from, and whether Covanta is burning medical waste and releasing other toxic chemicals as well.

“The DEP needs to investigate the iodine release to find out what happened, and whether Covanta violated its air and solid waste permits,” Tittel said.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said Thursday it was still investigating the situation, NJ.com reported.

“After meeting with plant officials, it is suspected that visible emissions were caused by the combustion of a batch of trash containing iodine that may have been disposed improperly by a hospital,” a DEP spokesperson said.

According to its website, Covanta’s Newark location is New Jersey’s largest “energy-from-waste facility.” The facility opened in 1990. It currently combusts 2,800 tons per day of municipal solid waste and generates about 65 megawatts of electricity. The plant also recovers ferrous (steel) and non-ferrous (aluminum, brass, copper) materials for recycling.

Its air pollution control equipment includes “acid gas scrubbers injecting lime, fabric filter baghouses, selective non-catalytic reduction systems for nitrogen oxide control and a continuous emissions monitoring system.”

AFTER THE PINK SMOKE CLEARS

A spokesperson for Covanta disputed many of the Sierra Club’s charges, including the group’s accusation that the pink smoke incident is a public health concern.

“We do our very best to manage the waste that society creates and minimize the impact from it,” Director of Corporate Communications James Regan said. “We are also actively investigating this incident and trying to backtrack to where this waste may have come from so that this does not happen again.”

“Unfortunately, it is not illegal to throw iodine away with regular trash but we try to work with our customers to avoid it coming to our facility for the very reason that we do not want a pink plume emitting from our facility,” Regan stated. “We do not burn medical waste at the facility. We are highly regulated and the waste we process is approved by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.”

But that’s not the way the New Jersey Sierra Club sees it, according to Tittel.

“Covanta says it’s no big deal, but the fact that iodine is being released into the air only underscores the public health dangers of incinerators,” he argued. “Exposure to iodine vapors can cause sore throats, headaches, chest tightness and buildup of fluid in glands. The vapors can restrict pulmonary flow and increase impacts on people with respiratory illnesses and heart disease. We need to know not only why the iodine was burned, but what other toxic chemicals may be getting released that we don’t know about. The DEP doesn’t just need to investigate the iodine release, but also monitor the air quality near the incinerator and potential impacts on the community.”

Tittel and Regan offered clashing takes on the role of incinerators such as Covanta’s Newark facility.

AIR EMISSIONS

Tittel – “Garbage incinerators are large emitters of air pollutants with some studies showing that they emit several pollutants at a rate exceeding that of fossil fuel power plants. Stack emissions include a variety of pollutants such as particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), dioxins, nanoparticles, lead and mercury.”

Regan – “After passing through a state-of-the-art emissions control system, over 99.9% of what comes out of the stack is what is typically found in air – water vapor, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. The remaining emitted constituents are well below allowable limits set by state and federal regulators that have demonstrated protection of human health and the environment.”

RISKS TO LOCALS?

Tittel – “All across the country incinerators have been dumped into low-income and minority communities. A recent study showed that nationally, 80% of the incinerators are in EJ communities. In New Jersey, that figure is 100% for our 4 incinerators in Newark, Camden, Rahway and Westville. The Newark incinerator emits the greatest amount of lead in the country. Incinerators are poisoning families and children who live near these facilities. The lead is not only in the air, but in the soil and ground children play on. On top of that, particular matter, toxic ash, cyanide, and more are coming out of the incinerators. These harmful chemicals have already caused health problems such as heart diseases, increased asthma rates, and elevated blood levels.”

Regan – “The lead comment is completely false. For lead, the Covanta Essex facility performs 99 percent below the allowable state and federal limits that have demonstrated protection of human health and the environment… Study after study has shown that these facilities do not pose unacceptable health risks to local residents.”

SOCIETY’S GARBAGE

Tittel – “These incinerators are some of the dirtiest facilities in the state of New Jersey when it comes to emitting particulates and air toxins. For all of this pollution, however, they generate very little electricity. The Camden facility only generates around 21MW, Newark at 65MW, and Westville at 14MW. We are putting all of these communities at risk and getting dismal output. These facilities also undermine recycling and efforts to ban single-use plastics. We continue to let these garbage facilities off the hook. New Jersey has given them direct subsidies, loan forgiveness, and 3 or 4 bailouts to keep them from going bankrupt. The release of iodine in Newark shows once again that all of these incinerators must be shut down for good.”

Regan – “And what would Mr. Tittel propose we do with the garbage that society creates? These facilities are widely recognized by the scientific community as superior to landfills and they do not undermine recycling – in fact they are large recyclers themselves by recovering metal that remains in the waste stream. From the US EPA, ‘Energy recovery from the combustion of municipal solid waste is a key part of the non-hazardous waste management hierarchy, which ranks various management strategies from most to least environmentally preferred. Energy recovery ranks below source reduction and recycling/reuse but above treatment and disposal. Confined and controlled burning, known as combustion, can not only decrease the volume of solid waste destined for landfills, but can also recover energy from the waste burning process. This generates a renewable energy source and reduces carbon emissions by offsetting the need for energy from fossil sources and reduces methane generation from landfills.'”

CBS New York posted the below video taken at the scene.

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