Opponents in CT town scramble to oppose medical waste burning. It could be up to 57 tons a week.

Already angered by a persistent and disturbing noise from a Connecticut trash-to-energy plant, many residents are now concerned because the operator is on the verge of state approval to burn medical waste there.

A group of homeowners from Bristol and a few surrounding towns banded together three years ago to block Reworld Waste’s medical waste plan, and the campaign was restarted a couple of weeks ago after the long-dormant proposal resurfaced.

Opponents worry that burning up to 57 tons of medical trash every week could risk air pollution from the Enterprise Drive incinerator.  Medical waste can include syringes, scalpel blades, surgical and renal dialysis waste, blood and bodily fluids, discarded surgical bandages, masks and more.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced July 5 that it has prepared a draft decision approving the plan by Reworld, the company that did business for years as Covanta before recently changing its name.

Neighbors of the plant near the Bristol-Southington line were surprised because the proposal hadn’t been discussed for the past two years.

“DEEP released this the day after the long July 4th weekend, and said we had only 30 days to give written responses,” said Francis Pickering, a Southington homeowner.

He said the agency won’t change the Aug. 4 cutoff for written comments about the draft decision. But it did agree to hold a public hearing after Pickering and others submitted more than 100 petition signatures, far above the 25 necessary to require a hearing. The date for the hearing hasn’t been set.

“The (opposition) organization that formed back then is gone; after everything fell silent two years ago, everybody moved it,” Pickering said. ” So we have to build awareness all over again. And a lot of people didn’t see the new notice because it came out right after the holiday. But we received far more signatures than were necessary to get a hearing.”

Opponents have revived the Facebook group called Bristol Residents for Clean Air , and are making their case on the Bristol Talks and Southington Talks pages on Facebook. They’ve already generated scores of comments, including a pledge Friday afternoon by Rep. Chris Poulos, D-Southington, to look into what the General Assembly can do.

“I have put a call into the town manager, requesting any information that he has related to this matter,” Poulos wrote. “Once I hear back, I will commit to working with town officials and the Southington legislative delegation to investigate this concern.”

Other posters called on Sen Henri Martin, R-Bristol, and Sen. Rob Sampon, R-Cheshire, to get involved, but as of late Friday afternoon they’d gotten no response.

Martin led a campaign to demand public information meetings in multiple towns around Greater Bristol several years ago when the medical waste idea first surfaced. At the time, Republican candidates slammed then-Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu’s administration for not doing more to inform residents about either the proposal or a city council letter supporting it. Zoppo-Sassu, a Democrat, and her Democratic council were voted out at the next election in favor of Republican Jeff Caggiano and an all-Republican council.

Caggiano said Friday that his concern at the time was that some Democratic councilors denied voting to endorse the Covanta project.

“That was about transparency,” Caggiano said. “The situation now is a tough one for us to be in. That previous council signed off on the permit, so people who have concerns need to go through DEEP,” he said.

Caggiano acknowledged that the current council could take up the matter and potentially approve a statement declaring the city no longer supports the plan, but he said he’s not convinced there’s a medical risk.

“I don’t think it changes the calculations about air quality. What they’re talking about burning is mainly gowns and needles, not body parts or radioactive material or anything experimental. I use the analogy of 2021 when thousands of people were putting surgical masks and gowns in the garbage,” he said.

“We got Covanta to publish their daily emissions measurements on their website, that’s not a DEEP requirement. They’ve burned waste there for 30 years. And they’ve spent $100,000 to address noise complaints and that work is ongoing,” he said.

But opponents disagree.

“Incinerators burning medical waste are particularly notorious for releasing high levels of dioxins and furans. These toxic compounds persist in the environment and accumulate in the food chain, posing long-term health risks to communities,” Bristol Residents for Clean Air said in a statement released through Coordinator Jodie Bechard-Maro.

Pickering is urging opponents to write to learn more about the draft permit approvals and then write to Brent.Madho@ct.gov and David.Lariviere@ct.gov by Aug. 4 with any comments against the plan.