City Government

City Council supports infectious waste initiative

by Phillip Honstein

The Ferndale City Council passed a resolution last week in support of the popular but controversial Initiative 1-99. At issue is the safest means of disposal for "infectious medical waste" such as microbiological cultures, blood products, used needles, and so on.

1-99 would restrict infectious medical waste treated locally to .3 percent of the total amount of solid waste produced in Whatcom County.

The resolution in favor of 1-99, passed at the Monday, July 12 council meeting by a margin of five to one, is simply a statement of position; the initiative would still need to be passed in the November general election before going into effect.

This is the first action to come out of the city council's committee investigation of complaints voiced last May of odors emanating from Recomp, a waste-disposal company located on Slater Road in Ferndale.

City council member Susan Cole said, "By supporting the county initiative, I feel we are supporting the protection of our citizens."

City council member Marianne Elgart agreed. She said the board is "willing to take a stand to investigate issues and concerns."

County Council member Barbara Brenner, told the Record-Journal, "We have a facility in Ferndale built to handle local municipal garbage... (that is) taking waste from as far away as Canada and California, and elsewhere that we don't know of." According to Brenner, local infectious medical waste production is between 120 to 244 tons per year.

Recomp processes between 135 to 675 tons of infectious waste yearly, which "is equivalent to the contents of a single garbage truck about once every four days," a Recomp representative told the County Council in October, 1998.

Another Whatcom County initiative was overturned in October, 1992 for violating the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. "That initiative treated imported waste differently than local waste," Brenner said. "This initiative treats all waste the same."

Brenner said that 1-99 has been studied by local attorneys as well as experts in Pennsylvania who have confirmed the initiative does not violate the Commerce Clause.

1-99 drew approximately 13,000 signatures in 12 weeks. The petitions were turned in on April 27, 1999, a month before they were due. The initiative will be on the November general election ballot.

 

Published August 1999 in the Record Journal Newspaper.