Neronha to RIDEM: Hold MedRecycler's Feet To The Fire

WEST WARWICK, RI — Attorney General Peter Neronha has asked the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management to halt further review of a proposed medical waste pyrolysis facility until the technology is thoroughly tested and all state and all state and municipal approvals are in place.

In an April 14 letter, Neronha criticized the state agency and said he has “numerous procedural and substantive concerns” regarding a plan by Medrecycler-RI to open a waste-to-energy plant in West Warwick near the East Greenwich line.

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The AG said the facility would process and dispose of potentially infectious waste adjacent to residential communities using an untested technology where 70 tons of medical waste per day would be heated in the absence of oxygen to produce ash, tar, and a synthetic flammable gas.

“Unmitigated, pyrolysis has the potential to emit many of the same toxic and noxious pollutants that necessitated the phase out of medical waste incinerators nationwide,” Neronha wrote. “Accordingly, in order to protect the health and safety of Rhode Island and its citizens, it is imperative that the State’s regulatory review hold MRI’s application to the most stringent applicable standards."

He said to date, RIDEM has not held the applicants to those standards.

Neronha said that under state rules, MRI must follow an “alternative technology” permitting pathway, and urged RIDEM to hold to that more stringent standard. He also said Medrecycler-RI has failed to seek municipal and state planning approval as required under the Refuse Disposal Act.

He took RIDEM to task for failing to engage the public in issuing a “minor source air permit” in May of 2020. Neronha also said RIDEM should post a copy of MRI's air permit to its website so people can understand the agency’s reasoning.

Neronha said RIDEM should make MRI resubmit its application after it has received all necessary certifications, and then review the application using the “alternative technologies” analysis.

MedRecycler CEO Nicholas Campanella has repeatedly asserted that the facility will be good for the region. In a statement said he agrees with Neronha that the application must be scrutinized.

“This is why we have submitted an 800-page application to DEM and worked with them and the West Warwick Planning Board for more than two years to make certain that we are a safe and valued neighbor in Rhode Island,” Campanella said. “We have also agreed to dozens of safety conditions already required by DEM, and anticipate that there will be more.”

Campanella said the facility will be safe, create jobs, contribute to West Warwick’s tax base, and generate renewable energy while keeping 70 tons a day of medical waste from Rhode Island’s Central Landfill.

The Conservation Law Foundation disputes the “renewable energy” claim and says the facility’s emissions would undermine the state’s climate goals.

The DEM received more than 600 public comments regarding the facility. A spokesperson said they “will carefully consider all of the issues and points that were raised among all of the comments that were submitted.”

RIDEM has provided MedRecycler with a “notice of intent” to approve the project. The agency this week closed its public comment period and now has 90 days to issue a decision.