Lawsuits Over "Model" UK Incinerator

(Click title for original article).

Some comparisons between the

• Operational Model UK Incinerator

and the

• Promotors of the Dublin Bay Incinerator on Sandymount Strand at Poolbeg.

“Soon after the £32m plant opened in 2002, neighbouring residents complained of odours coming from it. “
>>> DCC’s Sewage Factory has generated best-available-technology odours since 2003 and now requires an extra €36 million of taxpayer cash. Homer would not employ this management culture.

“It was temporarily shut down for environmental breaches in 2003”
>>>2006: Covanta Repeatedly Fined for Dioxin Releases, Other Toxics http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/04/2006-covanta-repeatedly-fined-for.html

>>>EPA: 6,000 violations at Covanta Incinerator in 2 Years
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-epa-counted-6000-violations-at.html

“and later damaged by fire”.
>>> In 2007, residents were advised to tape their windows and to venture outdoors only if necessary, following a massive fire at a Waste-To-Toxics incinerator located south of Boston, Massachusets.
Housewives or househusbands were blamed by a city official or perhaps by the incinerator’s management for sending the wrong kind of thrash. Luckily there was no snow of the wrong type on the tracks nor any illegal radioactive waste. Or was there? Nobody knows says Homer.

Apparently asking the truck drivers for an ID did not work – the strategy to prevent illegal or dangerous toxins being incinerated, as outlined by Dong’s Senior Engineer at The Bord Pleanala Oral Hearing.

Locals claimed explosions are fairly common at the incinerator and can shake local houses – an official dismissed this saying the explosions are fewer than once a month.

Here’s another massive incinerator fire, this one is in Florida in June 2008:
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/06/inferno-at-incinerator.html

““The council is seeking damages following the failure of the materials recycling and energy centre to achieve anything like its contracted performance levels, particularly in terms of diverting waste from landfill, recycling and the production of compost.””
>>> Covanta, Florida: A Decade of Lawsuits. Recycling Undermined.
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/04/covanta-florida-decade-of-lawsuits.html

“But local authorities, who point out the incinerator has to comply with emission standards,… “
>>> The UK does not monitor deadly small particles (‘PM 2.5’)
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/04/uk-does-not-monitor-pm25s-increased.html

Were any environmental standards enforced at Cork shipyard? It seems to be full of deadly Chromium Six. The Director of EPA-Ireland (apparently at the time when papers were issued wrt Cork) is now a paid contractor promoting waste-to-toxics incineration for American offshore entities. This ethics issue is apparently kept quiet – by a company using different aliases, apparently. Google The Sunday Business Post and the Irish Independent to gain more background on EPA-Ireland.
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/07/environmental-enforcement-epa-300.html

_________________________________________

£54m claim turns up the heat over authority’s incinerator

Jul 12 2008 by Martin Shipton, Western Mail, Wales.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/07/12/54m-claim-turns-up-the-heat-over-authority-s-incinerator-91466-21328769/

WalesOnline, the best source for Welsh news, sport, business and entertainment. Powered by the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and Celtic Weekly Newspapers. Produced by Media Wales Ltd.

A LOCAL authority has launched a £54m lawsuit over a troubled waste plant that was once hailed as a model for the whole of the UK.

Neath Port Talbot Council has issued a High Court writ against two dormant companies in the Currie & Brown Group, which offered technical advice over the project at Crymlyn Burrows, near Neath. It is one of the largest sums ever claimed in litigation relating to the construction industry.

Soon after the £32m plant opened in 2002, neighbouring residents complained of odours coming from it. It was temporarily shut down for environmental breaches in 2003, and later damaged by fire.

The defendants in the action are Currie & Brown Project Management and Currie & Brown Consulting, both of which are dormant companies.

Currie & Brown Project Management produced a technical due diligence report on the project for investors in 2000. Currie & Brown Consulting was appointed technical adviser to the investors in 2000 and the division was also appointed technical adviser to the council in 2002.

The case is scheduled for April 2009 and will be tried in Bristol by a High Court judge.

Will Watson, corporate director for the environment at Neath Port Talbot council, said: “The council is seeking damages following the failure of the materials recycling and energy centre to achieve anything like its contracted performance levels, particularly in terms of diverting waste from landfill, recycling and the production of compost.”

A spokeswoman for Currie & Brown confirmed the two companies in the group were facing a £54m claim from the council.

“The matter is in the hands of our insurers,” she said. “We do not wish to comment further.”

In May it emerged that Neath Port Talbot Council was suing neighbouring Bridgend Council for around £5m in connection with problems relating to the plant, which is officially described as Crymlyn Burrows Materials Recovery and Energy Centre.

Domestic rubbish from both council areas is disposed of at the plant, which processes material for recycling and incinerates other waste.

It is understood that during legal arguments between the two local authorities, Neath Port Talbot threatened to ban Bridgend from sending waste to the plant.

The Crymlyn Burrows waste processing plant has been controversial since before it opened in 2002.

Residents opposed it on health grounds, claiming there was no truly safe limit for the dioxins emitted by the incinerator. Dioxins are associated with birth defects, heart disease, infertility, respiratory problems and cancers.

But local authorities, who point out the incinerator has to comply with emission standards, saw it as a way to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill in advance of targets set by the European Commission in 2010.

From the outset the plant processed around 150,000 tonnes of domestic refuse a year from Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend.

The plant was built and initially run by Portuguese operator HLC, but in 2005 Neath Port Talbot Council pulled the plug on HLC Neath Port Talbot after the firm went into administration.

Neath Port Talbot Council took over running the plant and in 2006 it was reported losses totalling more than £67m could accrue over 25 years unless a new operating partner was found. A legal tug-of-war ensued between the council and HLC’s creditor, the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was seeking to recoup some of its £40m debt with the plant’s assets. The dispute was settled out of court in November 2006, putting the plant firmly in the hands of Neath Port Talbot Council.

Early last year, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend councils said they were planning to award a new 25-year contract for operating the facility.

In late April the two authorities issued a joint statement, saying: “Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot councils are in discussions concerning a contractual matter related to waste disposal arrangements and both are hopeful that an early resolution will be possible. At this stage, neither council is prepared to make any further comment.”

Environmental Enforcement: EPA’s Piece of Paper

Waves paper to the crowd– receiving loud cheers and “Hear Hears”

EPA’s Piece of Paper

While the Environmental Protection Agency EPA issued an awesome piece of paper termed a draft Integrated Pollution Control licence in 2001, it was never implemented by Irish Ispat (Cork shipyard).

How many people in Cork are now dead or have compromised health from the Chromium Six and other toxins?

• Guess who directed the EPA at that time.
• Guess which incineration company has apparently hired that same Director to promote their proposed Waste-To-Toxics factories in Dublin.

An “attempt” by the EPA in 2004 to compel the liquidator, Ray Jackson (of KPMG), to fund the clean-up of the Cork site failed, leaving Irish Taxpayers to foot the clean-up bill, which at the time was estimated to be around €30 million but which the contractors claim is likely to cost taxpayers €300 million.

EPA-Ireland has already or will soon issue more valuable pieces of paper awesomely termed licences for incinerators in Meath, Cork and Poolbeg.

Guess who will pay for the 100’s of stroke victims or the 50 to 300 premature deaths across Dublin each year?

• Firewalled American Special Purpose Entities in the Caribbean?
• Firewalled American Special Purpose Entities in The Grand Duchy?
• Galway Tent Insiders protected by the HSE firewall?
• You.

Sources: Irish Times, Irish Independent, July 2008.

Once officials, Now consultants

Once Officials, Now Consultants

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/12/07/story257079427.asp

Unlike the United States, Britain and Canada, the Republic has no regulations governing the movement of state officials to consultancy positions in the private sector. [Sunday, December 07, 2003].

• Kevin McDonnell, a former Dublin inspector with the EPA, works as adviser to Ray Stokes, the Dublin businessman who recently bought a dump at Whitestown in west Co Wicklow. McDonnell’s company, Agritech Solutions, based in Dublin, is carrying out the work.

• Ted Nealon, another former EPA inspector,works for Dean Waste Co, which trades as A1 Waste, the waste company owned and controlled by Dublin businessmanTony Dean.

• Hubert Fitzpatrick, a former assistant manager of Wicklow County Council, was a consultant to A&L Goodbody solicitors. He works for the Construction Industry Federation.

• Frank Kavanagh, former county manager with South Dublin County Council, works as a planning consultant to multimillionaire property developer Jim Mansfield.

• Ciaran Ryan, formerly of Fingal County Council, runs a planning consultancy in Dublin with Mark Walsh, former deputy county manager and director of planning in Fingal County Council.

• Willie Murray, a former planning official in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, has been working for the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Light Rail Company, a private consortium backing a Luas extension from Sandyford to Cherrywood in south Co Dublin.

• Donough Murphy, who was a board member of An Bord Pleanala from 1989 to 1999, is an architect and planning consultant. He now works for property company Treasury Holdings.

• Jim Barrett, recently retired Dublin City Architect
• Jim Barrett gave evidence as part of Developer’s project team (Dunne/Ballsbridge, 2008).

Covanta Alias is Energy Answers?

James Joyce … Sandymount Strand … Long Kesh … The Maze … Ogden … Covanta … Energy Answers … Incinerator … Waste-to-Toxics … Waste-to-Energy … DCC … DDDA … DCC-DDDA … IRA … Fianna Fail … Sinn Fein … World’s Oldest Profession … Consultant
___________________________________

Why does Covanta-Energy-Answers-Rathcoole have an “office” in the Caribbean’s Virgin Islands?

Why does Covanta-Poolbeg have an office in Luxembourg?

• Why did Enron, also billed as an “energy” company, maintain Special Purpose Entities around the Caribbean?

In 2007, Energy Answers sold its U.S. operating company, EAC Operations, Inc., including all of its operating assets to Covanta Energy Corporation. This sale involves all of Energy Answers’ operating enterprises in the Northeast U.S.

Energy Answers International will continue to maintain offices in Albany, New York; St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands; and Dublin, Ireland; and continue to pursue new project development opportunities.

Why?

_______________________________________
NOTEs:

If true, why is Energy Answers International a separate legal entity to Energy Answers (USA) and to Covanta, and Covanta’s tens of similiarly named corporations ?

The Enron scandal was a financial scandal involving Enron Corporation (NYSE ticker symbol: ENE) and its accounting firm Arthur Andersen, that was revealed in late 2001. After a series of revelations involving irregular accounting procedures bordering on fraud, perpetrated throughout the 1990s, it left Enron on the verge of undergoing the lowest bankruptcy in history by mid-November 2001.

Former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, the mastermind behind Enron’s complex network of offshore partnerships and questionable accounting practices, was indicted on November 1, 2002, by a federal grand jury in Houston on 78 counts including fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy.

Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001.

http://www.energyanswers.com/our_company/history/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal

European Incinerators Import Mexican Dioxin Sources.

• The Beast Must Be Fed: Mexico now sends PCBs to Europe for incineration, exposing the compounds to loss at sea.

• “Incineration is a Dinosaur Technology.” : Neil Carman, a former Texas Commission on Environmental Quality inspector who now works with the Sierra Club’s Lone Star chapter. Carmen said the EPA’s position is “absurd” because “incineration is a dinosaur technology.”

• Carman said there are EPA-approved, non-burn technologies that could be used to dispose of the compounds in Mexico.

• Environmentalists say the Texas Incinerator released 1,933 pounds of PCBs into the air in 2006.

________________________________________
Full Article from Houston & Texas News is here:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5834705.html

June 12, 2008, 11:44PM
Port Arthur site set to burn toxic PCBs
EPA about to let Mexican imports be destroyed there

By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

<!– –>PORT ARTHUR — The west end of this Gulf Coast refinery town is a weedy pocket of poverty, with blocks of shuttered storefronts and blue tarps still covering the rooftops of houses damaged by Hurricane Rita nearly three years ago.

Hilton Kelley, 47, sees his neighborhood’s commercial activity moribund, its residents sick, its children with nothing to do, and he blames the fire-and-fume-belching cluster of oil and petrochemical plants around Port Arthur.

Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is poised to grant a request by the operator of a Port Arthur incinerator to import up to 20,000 tons of highly toxic PCBs from Mexico for their disposal. To many people living on the city’s predominantly black west end, the proposal is the ultimate affront.

“This adds insult to injury,” said Kelley, who heads the Community In-Power and Development Association. “Enough is enough already.”

Veolia Environmental Services’ petition comes nearly 30 years after legislation that banned the manufacture of PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, also prohibited bringing them into the United States. The EPA ruled in 1996 that the chemical compounds may be brought into the country for incineration, but a federal appeals court overturned the decision.

Agency officials, echoing the reasons for reversing the ban a decade ago, argue that the destruction of PCBs in this country is safer than allowing stockpiles to fester in Mexico and other nations.

But critics contend that there are cleaner, safer disposal methods for PCBs. When burned, they produce dioxin, which is linked to cancer, brain damage, reproductive problems and other ailments in humans.

Despite precautions, incinerators emit minute quantities that enter the food chain through meat, dairy products and fish — leading some to wonder why Port Arthur residents should again shoulder such an onerous burden.

“They’re getting all of the emissions and none of the prosperity,” said Jim Blackburn, a Houston-based environmental attorney who represented Port Arthur residents in a recent lawsuit over Motiva Enterprises’ expansion plans. “Why should we make an exception to put more pollution on a community that already has taken on more than its fair share?”

Environmentalists have dubbed the area “The Cancer Belt,” but there is no proven link to the refineries and Jefferson County’s cancer rate, which was 23 percent higher than the state overall, according to the Texas Cancer Registry’s most recent data.

Refinery to expand

The health problem is part of the plight of Port Arthur, where the median household income is about $35,000 a year, less than half of Sugar Land. While there isn’t much left of downtown, new houses, restaurants and big-box stores are sprouting along the corridor leading to Beaumont and away from the biggest plants.

Last year Motiva began an expansion that will more than double the capacity of its Port Arthur refinery to 600,000 barrels a day by 2010 and make it the largest in the country. The plant is across the street from the Carver Terrace public housing project.

The Army also began shipping 1.7 million gallons of a nerve gas byproduct called hydrolysate from Indiana to Veolia’s incinerator, located about five miles west of downtown on Texas 73. The contract is worth $49 million.

Veolia applied to import PCBs in November 2006 before receiving the Army contract. Under the proposal, the company would ship the compounds by truck through Houston to Port Arthur — a distance of about 460 miles from entry points in Brownsville and Laredo.

Mexico now sends PCBs to Europe for incineration, exposing the compounds to loss at sea. The transportation cost for overseas shipment is at least three times more expensive than moving the waste from Monterrey, Mexico, to Port Arthur, according to the company.

Plant’s estimate

The Veolia facility, permitted to handle up to 150,000 tons of hazardous waste per year, burns between 20 million and 30 million pounds of PCB wastes from domestic sources annually. Mitch Osborne, the plant’s general manager, said smokestack tests show the incinerator destroys more than 99 percent of the material.

But environmentalists are not so sure about the plant’s safety record, pointing to the 1,933 pounds of PCBs that it reported releasing into the air in 2006, the most recent data available.

The plant alone accounted for more than two-thirds of the PCB releases nationwide, according to the federal Toxics Release Inventory, which is based on industry estimates.

Osborne said the plant’s estimate is wrong because of a bookkeeping error. In correspondence with the EPA last month, company officials said the amount should be less than one pound.

“If we didn’t think we could do it safely, then we wouldn’t bring it here,” Osborne said. “We have proven our capability over 15 years. It’s safer to burn here than to leave it in place.”

The EPA apparently agrees.

Position called absurd

The agency is proposing a one-year exemption for Veolia to import and burn the PCBs because the company “has demonstrated that no unreasonable risk to health or the environment would result,” EPA spokeswoman Roxanne Smith said.

The agency also contends that because the proposal poses no unreasonable health hazards to Port Arthur’s residents, there is no “environmental justice” issue.

Neil Carman, a former Texas Commission on Environmental Quality inspector who now works with the Sierra Club’s Lone Star chapter, said the EPA’s position is “absurd” because “incineration is a dinosaur technology.”

Carman said there are EPA-approved, non-burn technologies that could be used to dispose of the compounds in Mexico. A process called chemical dechlorination, for example, treats the PCB waste with a liquid agent that breaks down the toxins by removing their chlorine components.

“It’s inexcusable for Veolia to burn PCBs because they don’t all burn up,” Carman said, adding that the Sierra Club would sue if the EPA grants the plant’s request. “This could set a precedent that opens up the floodgates.”

matthew.tresaugue@chron.com

West Dublin Incinerator

Rathcoole residents promise to fight thermal waste treatment plant plans

LOCAL residents in the Dublin suburb of Rathcoole have vowed to oppose plans by a US waste management company to build a waste treatment plant close to the main N7 route.

A spokesperson for the Rathcoole Community Council said last night that it has serious concerns about the threat that the proposed plant at Behan’s Quarry posed to people living in the area.

It follows formal notification issued yesterday by US firm, Energy Answers International, that it will lodge an application for planning permission for the €200 million facility with An Bord Pleanála.

The company was able to bypass seeking planning permission from South Dublin County Council after An Bord Pleanála ruled last December that the project could avail of a fast-track procedure which allows strategic infrastructural developments to avoid requiring planning permission from a local authority.

Energy Answers claims its plant, which it describes as “a resource recovery project”, is the first of its kind in Ireland. It will incorporate both mechanical and thermal treatment facilities.

It objects to the term ‘incinerator’ used by opponents of the plant, including the Rathcoole Community Council.

It plans to thermally treat 356,000 tons of non-hazardous municipal solid waste each year. The company claims the process will also allow for 10% of the treated waste to be recoverable and recyclable, which can provide electricity for 43,000 homes.

Energy Answers also claims the entire project will be privately financed without the need to seek guarantees of income from local authorities.

However, a spokesperson for Rathcoole Community Council said it was concerned about the company’s track record in operating a similar plant in the US.

She also claimed local residents were worried about that prevailing south-west winds would carry any emissions from the plant in the direction of large populations in nearby Rathcoole and Tallaght.

The Rathcoole Community Council has also questioned the need for the facility on the basis that the four Dublin local authorities are supporting a similar controversial project on the Poolbeg peninsula in Ringsend.

The spokesperson said locals were suspicious that the Rathcoole plant could give the Government an excuse not to proceed with the proposed incinerator in Poolbeg.

“It would suit [Minister for the Environment] John Gormley because of the opposition he is facing in his own constituency,” she remarked.

It is expected that An Bord Pleanála will hold a public hearing into the matter before making its decision.

Seán McCárthaigh
© Irish Examiner 28.05.08

____________________
Does EPA-Ireland Have Any Integrity?
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/07/does-epa-ireland-have-any-integrity.html

Covanta Alias Is Energy Answers
http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2008/07/covanta-alias-is-energy-answers.html

Judge Swoops On Incinerator Bosses

“Fuhgeddaboutit! No really Frankie, you keep the f*#kin’ money!”
__________

(AGI) – Naples, 27 May, 2008

Under house-arrest this morning, ordered by the Investigating Magistrate of Naples Court:

• Andrea Orazio Monaco – Caivano Incinerator Boss;
• Elpidio Angelino – Giugliano Incinerator Boss;
• Domenico Ruggiero – Battipaglia Incinerator Boss;

• Pasquale Moschella – Santa Maria Capua Vetere Incinerator Boss;
• Silvio Astronomo – Casalduni Incinerator Boss;
• Alessandro Di Giacomo – Pianodardine Incinerator Boss.

____________

__________________________
More:
http://www.agi.it/italy/news/200805271812-cro-ren0079-art.html

Front Companies & Dublin City Council

In the business world, front companies are used to shield the parent company from legal liability.

Front Organisation

See Also http://www.fiasco.ie/dublinincinerator/index.html

Is Dublin City Council a front organisation?
DCC has used €18 Million in Irish tax-payer money to promote business for foreign corporations.

The tobacco industry claims cigarette smoke is safe.
The incineration industry claims it’s pollution particles are safe.
So why hide behind legal firewalls in Luxembourg?

__________________
Wikipedia definition: A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, criminal organizations, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy groups, or corporations. Front organizations can act for the parent group without the actions being attributed to the parent group.

Many organized crime operations have substantial legitimate businesses, such as building construction companies, trash hauling services, or dock loading enterprises.

Zell Sells For $39 Billion.

Zell Sells

Billionaire mogul Zell sold his massive residential and commercial real estate empire in 2007 for $39 billion.

Zell has placed his waste-to-energy bet on one New Jersey company, Covanta Holding, which is up more than 23 percent in 2007.

It seems the Waste-To-Toxins (WTT) industry is not effectively monitored anywhere, especially for deadly PM2.5 & PM1.0 particles, nor for Dioxins which are only checked for a few hours each year.

German chemical companies, including IG Farben, aka BASF, and BMW, Daimler Benz and Porsche appear to strongly cripple effective European legislation on toxins generators such as incinerators.

http://www.tellzell.com/
Dioxins, Covanta Record, Deadly Particles (PM2.5), Dublin Bay Incinerator, Energy-Answers-Covanta, Money, Poolbeg Incinerator, Zell

Covanta – Sam Zell

Zell Sells

Covanta – Equity Ownership of Directors and Management

		Number of Shares				Approximate
Name		Beneficially Owned				Percent of Class

Samuel Zell (19)

23,225,534

15.0

%

Zell Shareholding in Covanta, 29-Feb-08: $666 million.

Covanta Book Value Per Share: $6.66
[Source: Yahoo! Finance]

Samuel “Sam” Zell (born September 1941) is a U.S.-born billionaire and real estate entrepreneur. He is co-founder and Chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm. With an estimated net worth of US$6 billion, he is ranked as the 52nd richest American by Forbes.[1]

On April 2, 2007, Zell bought Tribune Company, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, New York Newsday and owner of the Chicago Cubs.

Zell was born in Chicago in 1941 to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland who fled the country just before the Nazi invasion in 1939.

Zell, according to The Forward[6], is also “a major donor to causes in the Middle East. His donations include a $3.1 million donation to the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center in Israel and separate donations to the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, a right-wing Israeli think tank.

In 2008, Zell announced a plan to place the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field up for sale separately in order to maximize profits.

Cell Hell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Zell
http://investor.shareholder.com/cva/secfiling.cfm?filingID=950137-08-4913
http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/personinfo/FromPersonIdPersonTearsheet.jhtml?passedPersonId=941219