Red Bluff Daily News

June 17, 2008

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Greenaction

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InEnTec cancels Red Bluff facility

By GEOFF JOHNSON

After three-and-a-half years of protest, InEnTec announced late Friday the cancellation of its proposed medical waste processing facility near Red Bluff.

In a press release, company President and CEO Jeff Surma said he is "disappointed" that the county will not have the opportunity to lead in its "environmentally sound solution to the disposal of medical waste" but said the decision is the result of "economic sense" that is pushing the company to look at the disposal of traditional waste.

The proposed facility would have used plasma technology to burn medical waste as a form of disposal. Local and regional groups opposed the construction fearing air pollution and increased traffic of waste in the area. Calls to InEnTec and InEnTec's press representative, Ruder Finn, were not immediately returned Monday.

A letter was sent to both Tehama County Planning Director George Robson and Air Pollution Officer Alan Abbs announcing the company's cancellation of both its use permit and its authority to construct.

As recently as June 11, InEntec was accused of violating county code, which states that a use permit becomes inactive after six months of disuse. Red Bluff-based Citizens for a Healthy Community and San Francisco-based Greenaction both said because the company did not seek to renew its building permit or spend money on construction for more than six months the permit was no longer valid, a claim that was refuted by County Counsel Arthur Wylene

Though InEnTec's statement makes no mention of these accusations, Greenaction and CHC are sharing credit for halting InEnTec's construction altogether. "I feel that it's about time," said CHC member Richard Clapp. "We had been fighting them constantly for the past three-and-a-half years." Clapp attributed a threat he made on behalf of CHC to continue litigation against InEnTec to being the "straw that broke the camel's back," he said. Prior to that statement the company said it was undecided about construction.

Greenaction's Bradley Angel also issued a press release to counter InEnTec's and celebrate the company's withdrawal. "InEnTec's press release omitted key facts, including the intense public opposition, problems with their plasma technology, inaccurate claims made by InEnTec, and the abandonment of their permit months ago in the face of ongoing opposition," Angel wrote.

InEnTec first came under public scrutiny in July 2005 when Lupe Green, a former executive director for the Sacramento River Discovery Center, formed Citizens for Review (later to become CHC) after learning the Tehama County Air Pollution Control District approved a permit for InEnTec without asking for an Environmental Impact Report.

Green later bowed out formally after a head injury left her with fibromyalgia, she said. But, at their peak, the InEnTec hearings were drawing attendance in the hundreds. "It was people from all walks of life," she said. "A total blend of people who came together in opposition."

CHC and Greenaction will be holding a reception to commemorate InEnTec's departure from Tehama County at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Red Bluff Community Center.