Medical waste will sit in storage

Disposal option needed after incinerator shut

Tonnes of the province’s medical waste will sit in storage after the Wainwright incinerator closed to due air pollution concerns last week.

Alberta Health Services, which sends 90 per cent of its hospital waste to the facility, says it is up to Edmontonbased contractor G-M Pearson to find a way to deal with the waste.

“Hospitals and medical facilities will not be affected by the suspension of the Wainwright incinerator,” AHS said in an email.

“G-M Pearson will continue to retrieve all biomedical waste from AHS sites, transport and store it appropriately, ready for disposal.”

The Wainwright facility, owned by the municipality since the 1990s, is operated by G-M Pearson under a licence with Alberta Environment.

The aging facility was slated to close down in early 2016. But the municipal authority closed the plant last week after emissions levels for dioxins and furans were well above provincial limits in the last three tests.

A new, larger incinerator in Ryley was proposed by G-M Pearson last year and supported by AHS. The cost has not been revealed.

But the proposed facility was turned down by Beaver County this spring because of environmental concerns. An appeal hearing is underway with Ryley residents who are adamantly opposed to the project.

The provincially owned Swan Hills waste treatment plant — which operates at 40-per-cent capacity — could handle the medical waste stream and applied months ago to amend its licence to include biomedical waste.

Alberta Environment has not yet made a decision on the licence, according to Jamie Hanlon, spokesperson for the department.

“A decision will be made after a public and detailed technical review of the application,” said Hanlon in an email.

“If circumstances change,” Alberta Environment could issue a temporary licence to Swan Hills so waste could be sent there in the short term, added Hanlon. Details of what might trigger a temporary licence were not provided.

AHS declined to comment on any hazard that might arise in storing the waste while an alternative disposal solution is found.

The contractor G-M Pearson is “governed by environmental and safety standards and protocols when storing and disposing of this sort of waste.”

“AHS is continuing to work with the vendor to ensure plans are put in place to maintain ongoing safe disposal of biomedical waste.”

AHS spent about $3.9 million on biomedical waste removal and disposal in 201415.

G-M Pearson did not return phone calls.