Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Judge OKs agencies' disposal test of dioxins at Arkansas Date: Fri, 30 Oct 92 15:33:28 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \SS (WS) \HD Judge OKs agencies' disposal test of dioxins at Arkansas plant \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT LITTLE ROCK, Ark. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A federal judge yesterday approved test burning of chemical waste containing high levels of dioxin, over the objections of an environmental group that sued to stop it. U.S. District Judge Stephen Reasoner said he would consider the issue again after seeing how the test went. "We're never going to know if burning dioxin is feasible unless these tests are done," Judge Reasoner said at a hearing in Batesville. The Governmental Accountability Project said on Wednesday that state and federal agencies are circumventing their own regulations and endangering the public by risking the release of too much unburned dioxin. Judge Reasoner turned down the group's request for an immediate order blocking the start of the burning at the Vertac Chemical Co. plant in Jacksonville, a city of 29,000 just outside Little Rock. The judge approved a three-day test burn scheduled for yesterday and a second two-day test incineration tentatively scheduled for Nov. 9-10. But the judge agreed to block further burning until a hearing at which test results can be reviewed. Steve Weaver, chief counsel for the state Pollution Control and Ecology Department, said officials planned to proceed with the incineration, which has been supported by Gov. Bill Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee. The defendants in the lawsuit are the Pollution Control and Ecology Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the contractor hired by the state to burn the waste, stored in barrels at the closed pesticide plant. In court papers, the environmental group said the state and federal governments are "proceeding with what is estimated to be the largest release of dioxin into the environment in the history of the world, without having done their homework in even the most rudimentary fashion." A Pollution Control and Ecology spokesman countered: "We're not in the habit of violating our own laws or regulations. Neither is EPA." Dioxin causes cancer in laboratory animals but has not been proven to cause cancer in humans. Environmentalists have condemend it as one of the most dangerous substances known. The contamination has been one of the biggest environmental issues of Mr. Clinton's 12 years in office. Susie Whitacre, a Clinton spokeswoman, would not comment on the controversy yesterday. President Bush has not referred directly to the site but attacked the Democrat for proposing dioxin standards higher than Washington's. The Bush administration supports incineration as a way of cleaning up toxic waste sites. About 8,000 barrels of waste from the manufacture of pesticides at Vertac have been incinerated since Jan. 2, but they contained only nondetectable or very low concentrations of the most toxic form of dioxin, according to the state. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM