Public’s Objections Prompt EPA to Ban Toxic Waste Burning at Sea

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency, citing strong public concern, denied a permit Wednesday for the experimental incineration of toxic waste off the Atlantic Coast.

Assistant EPA Administrator Lawrence Jensen said: “Our decision reflects the serious concerns expressed by many of the public commenters.”

The overriding theme of the pleas conveyed by opponents of the plan, Jensen said, was that “we should not issue a permit for the transportation and incineration of hazardous waste at sea for any purpose until the agency more fully addresses the many policy, technical and legal issues related to ocean incineration generally.”

EPA officials refused to rule out use of the technology in the future, but Jensen did say that any possible revival of the plan is “well over a year away.”

Hailed by Lawmakers

The EPA’s decision was hailed by Reps. Barbara A. Mikulski and Roy Dyson, both Maryland Democrats, who had fought the plan.

Mikulski said Jensen had told her that he would conduct further reviews of the proposal because of the public’s “perceived fears” of the plan.

Chemical Waste Management Inc. has tried to obtain federal permission to burn hazardous wastes in an incinerator aboard a massive vessel. But some state officials, along with business people and residents of shore areas, have expressed concern that there would be no way to contain the damage if the wastes leaked.

700,000 Gallons

The proposal called for trucking wastes contaminated with suspected cancer-causing PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, to a Philadelphia port. Up to 700,000 gallons of waste oil was to have been loaded on a ship and burned at sea.

Chemical Waste Management executives had hoped to conduct the first experiment of the incinerator this summer.

William Y. Brown, a company spokesman, said: “Every month we wait, it’s a month we can’t afford.” He said the company will await the new EPA guidelines, and that it is likely to reapply for a permit.