Livingston MT, Incinerator
On January 20, 2004, County Commmissioners in Park County, MT,
announced their decision to shut down the county's municipal waste
incinerator and build a transfer station to send their waste to a
landfill. This was a landmark decision for the state of Montana
as it culminated months of hard work by WVE and the Park County
Environmental Council. In the Spring of 2005, the incinerator was
finally shut down and dismantled eliminating a major source of toxic air
pollution in that community.
For two years, WVE worked closely with Park County
Environmental Council to educate the Livingston community and local
decision-makers about the hazards of toxic chemicals associated with the
incinerator.
Until its closure, the Park County incinerator was the single largest
source of airborne lead and the second largest source of airborne mercury
and dioxin in the state of montana. It was built in 1981 to solve the
problem of trash blowing away from the local landfill at a time when
regulations for incinerators were minimal. No scrubbers or other
pollution control devices were installed on the incinerator stack and very
little monitoring was required.
In the last few years however, the Environmental Protection Agency passed
new federal regulations for municipal waste incinerators. Park County
was given until 2005 to upgrade their incinerator to meet the new
regulations. In addition to expensive new control equiptment, the new
regulations also require extensive monitoring and stack testing.
Although prone to its own unique problems, landfilling waste has many advantages over incineration. Landfills isolate waste and associated pollutants in one place, rather than emitting the pollution into the air where it is rapidly distributed by wind. Additionally, landfilling creates a financial incentive for counties to increase recycling. While incinerators need a constant input of garbage to operate most effectively, a landfilling contract operates on a cost per ton basis. Every ton of recyclable material diverted from the landfill can save money.
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