Activists Ask Bristol Ordinance Committee To Consider Air Quality Regulations

By Dean Wright, The Bristol Press

January 11, 2022

Activists with the Bristol Residents for Clean Air asked the Bristol Ordinance Committee Tuesday to consider air quality regulations for the municipality during the committee’s meeting.

“I am proposing that the ordinance committee recognize the need for strong air and water quality ordinances for our city given the presence of an active incinerator that could soon be incinerating biomedical waste and engage an environmental consultant,” said Bristol Residents for Clean Air member Dave Rackliffe.

Rackliffe, a former candidate for state representative, suggested the consultant understand the nuances of municipal and biomedical waste incineration and work with the city and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to create said ordinances.

Bristol Residents for Clean Air have been active over the last year in voicing their concerns with Bristol Covanta Resource Recovery Facility’s application to DEEP to modify its municipal waste incineration permit to include biomedical waste incineration. Covanta has said according to its studies, measurements and efforts, no additional hazardous fumes would be emitted with the changing of 8% of the facility’s municipal waste burning to include biomedical waste. The permit change has been pending DEEP’s approval.

Rackliffe and colleagues have said to their understanding that the Covanta facility in Bristol only monitors a few elements daily and elements like lead, mercury and others are measured during a stack test annually.

Colleague group member Jane Anastasio said she had compared previous EPA reports from 2011 to emissions data from 2017 where she noted significant increases in ammonia and cadmium emissions from the facility, among others. She said she was concerned about the facility because of the density of area residents living in the area and how emissions could be toxic to those residents.

Ordinance Committee member Cheryl Thibeault asked if those in favor of new air quality ordinances knew if the information they were citing had noted if the increases had surpassed state limits and Anastasio replied she did not know.

Energy Justice Network Director Mike Ewall spoke via digital conferencing software and introduced himself as an attorney and activist who seeks to promote environmental justice efforts and said he is capable of writing municipal laws such as the one the Bristol Residents for Clean Air would like to see passed. He said he has been working with the group and was available to work with the ordinance committee should it have any questions about what other communities have done in similar situations.

The Energy Justice Network looks to fight natural gas, coal power plants and incinerator iniatives of all sorts nationally.

The ordinance committee took no action on the comments of the residents asking the city to consider air ordinances.