Incinerator operator denies fetuses burned with waste

Lurid allegations that aborted fetuses from Canada were being burned with trash to generate electricity in Oregon shocked Marion County officials and created a nationwide controversy Thursday, April 24.

Marion County quickly ordered a temporary halt to the disposal of medical waste at the county's waste-to-energy garbage burner in Brooks after learning that human fetal tissue could be among the materials incinerated at the facility. But the company that runs the garbage burner for the county said the fetal tissue amounted to umbilical cords and placentas — not fetuses.

"We're not in the business of burning bodies, whether they are fetuses or adults," said Jill Stueck, a spokeswoman for Covanta Energy Corp, which operates the garbage burner. No human fetuses were delivered to the plant, she said.

Covanta spoke with Stericycle Inc., the company that collected the medical waste in question, and was assured that no fetuses were sent to the Brooks plant, Stueck said. The Statesman Journal was unable to reach Stericycle for comment.

Commissioners Sam Brentano and Janet Carlson called an emergency meeting after Canadian media reported that aborted fetuses from Vancouver, British Columbia, were being sent to Marion County's garbage burner. The commissioner said they were first made aware of the issue on Wednesday afternoon.

"No rule or law has been broken, but there is an ethical standard broken," Brentano said at at the meeting.

Brentano said he had not attempted to verify media reports, but he said county ordinances didn't specifically exclude fetuses from materials that could be burned at the facility.

When Brentano was informed that Covanta denied that fetuses were sent to the garbage burner, the commissioner said he still felt it was necessary revise county ordinances.

Covanta Marion, a subsidiary of Covanta Energy Corp, issued a statement that noted that the medical waste program is county managed.

Covanta is "shocked by these allegations and is cooperating with the county's suspension of its medical waste program pending further review," an email from the local plant manager stated.

Marion County has contracts with 15 to 20 companies that dispose of medical waste at the Brooks plant, county officials confirmed. It collects $300 a ton for medical waste brought in from outside of the county.

About 700 tons of medical waste a year is processed by the garbage burner, Brentano said.

Last month, The Telegraph, a British newspaper, exposed hospitals that incinerated aborted fetuses and miscarriages as clinical waste.

The Marion County Board of Commissioners told staff to begin investigating changes to county ordinances and contracts with medical waste customers to ban fetal material from disposal at the garbage burner.

"I am horrified," said Commissioner Janet Carlson. "There are not enough strong words to express how I am feeling."

The medical waste disposal contracts legally require 30 days notice before they can be terminated. Carlson demanded that the disposal of fetal material end immediately, even at the risk of lawsuit.

"In this instance, it would be worth the fight," Carlson said.

When asked to comment on Covanta's denial that fetuses were burned in Brooks, Carlson said the county still needed to do its own investigation. The medical waste arrives at the garbage burner in sealed boxes, she noted.

mrose@StatesmanJournal .com (503) 399-6657 or follow on Twitter @mrose_sj