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Show Infectious waste regs in place, plants to be built By SCOTT SUM ME RILL FARMINGTON The Davis County Board of Health adopted regulations for the control of infectious infec-tious waste handling and disposal Oct 2. The adoption of the regulations regula-tions has given the 'go ahead' to entities planning to build infectious waste treatment facilities in the county. The 30-page document defines what is to be classified as infectious waste, accepted procedures for handling and disposal, and maintenance requirements for facilities and transport vehicles. Browning Ferris Industries (BFI) of Utah and the Davis County Solid Waste Management and Energy Recovery Special Services District (SWMERS) are both planning to open infectious waste treatment plants in the area. BFI, which is one of the largest disposers of infectious waste in the world and currently owns and operates 19 plants in the United States, hopes to have its North Salt Lake facility open by mid-1991, according ac-cording to BFI of Utah District Manager John Volpi. Once operational, the plant, which will dispose of the waste by incineration, will be able to handle a maximum of 16 tons of infectious waste per day. "To put that into perspective, a typical trash truck that picks up garbage in residential areas holds about eight tons Volpi said. "This is going to be a very small unit." Volpi said BFI has been operating in the state for nearly four years and has been hauling infectious infec-tious waste to the company's treatment treat-ment plant in Kansas City. The Utah hub serves Utah, Wyoming and southern Idaho; and Volpi said there should be no influx of waste from areas outside those areas once the facility comes on line. However, that doesn't mean the company won't see an increase in customers. "We have about 280 customers," Volpi said. "There's still a large number of businesses out there that have been handling their own waste because there haven't really been any guidelines. The regulations will change that. 4 ! There's still a market that hasn't been tapped. ' SWMERS Director LeGrand Bitter said all the major points of the county's autoclave have now been worked out, and officials hope to begin construction on the plant within a month. "The request for bids has been put out," he said. "I don't see any material problems at this point." The autoclave will treat infectious infec-tious waste much like a giant boiler, subjecting it to extremely high temperatures and steam to sterilize bacteria and infectious organisms. After the sterilization process, the material will be incinerated. There are several differences between be-tween the two plants. One of the most prominent is the type of waste they are able to treat. BFI's facility will be able to dispose of pathological and chemo waste, where the county's autoclave will not. Other differences include maximum max-imum capacity, 16 tons for BFI and an estimated 400 tons for SWMERS. In addition, the autoclave must sterilize waste with steam before it can be burned, whereas BFI's plant sterilizes the waste by incineration. Because SWMERS is establishing estab-lishing itself as an infectious waste facility for the first time, there will be some competition with BFI for customers. In addition, SWMERS may have to go outside BFI's tri-state tri-state region for business. The result could be an increased radius of collection col-lection for infectious waste transport into the two Davis County based facilities. Whatever the final results are from a business standpoint, both entities agree that the county's infectious in-fectious waste regulations are very comprehensive and thorough and should provide maximum protection protec-tion to residents from infectious mishaps. "I think they've studied it very thoroughly," Bitter said. "Now we need to put it into action." "We feel it's very well done," Volpi said. "The state's now going to be able to go out and enforce the guidelines." |