By Corydon Ireland
/Staff writer/
(March 30, 2004) — Kodak Park faces extra public scrutiny in the next
month because of a proposed state permit to store, treat and dispose of
all hazardous wastes generated inside the facility’s fence line.
The original 10-year permit expired in 1996; a temporary federal permit
has been in effect since then. The new permit, which state officials say
is more stringent and comprehensive, will be for five years.
Kodak Park includes two chemical waste incinerators, 160 manufacturing
buildings, about 700 smokestacks and 721 places where solid or hazardous
waste is or has ever been; 403 need cleaning up or further study,
according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The DEC sponsored a two-hour public information session Monday evening
on the 5-inch-thick proposed permit, drafted in September and opened for
public comment Feb. 25.
The session drew 30 people to the Central Library of Rochester and
Monroe County. Half were state and county health and environmental
agency staffers.
There were sharply worded questions to officials from some of the
citizens, and from others there were equally sharp defenses of Kodak as
a good environmental neighbor.
Kodak officials were there “just to listen” at the DEC event, said
company spokesman James E. Blamphin, who attended.
The session is “an opportunity for the public to learn about
environmental problems at Kodak,” said Mike Schade of Buffalo, who was
there. He’s director of the western New York office of Citizens’
Environmental Coalition, a statewide group that opposes the incinerators.
Public written comments on the permit are being taken by the DEC until
May 3. Oral comments will also be accepted at an April 21 meeting.
The permit has already drawn fire from critics such as Schade, who for
years have taken aim at Kodak’s incinerating wastes so close to
neighborhoods.
Only one of Kodak Park’s two incinerators, at Building 218 near
Lancaster Street, is covered in the application. In an average year, it
burns about 60 million pounds of chemicals that cannot be recycled or
reused.
The other Kodak Park incinerator, which burns waste sludge from Kodak’s
private sewage system, will be incorporated into the permit after
further testing and risk studies.
The DEC started a formal test of the Building 218 incinerator Monday,
which continues April 26-29, with a test for heavy metals, organics and
dioxins.
Based on earlier tests in 1992 and 2002, the company says incineration
at Building 218 is safe. It underwent a $12 million upgrade in 2001.
Kodak and state health assessments say that each of the two incinerators
theoretically cause less than one additional case of cancer per 100,000
people.
CIRELAND@DemocratandChronicle.com
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*What's next *
A legislative public hearing on the Kodak permit will be held at 7 p.m.
April 21 at the Holiday Inn Airport, 911 Brooks Ave. Submit written
comments there or by mail to Peter Lent, NYSDEC, 6274 East Avon-Lima
Road, Avon, NY 14414.