EPA Backs Incinerator Permit for Plant Despite Neighbors’ Concerns : Health: The agency is convinced that Cargill Inc.’s burning of the hazardous waste is not a threat.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing that a Lynwood manufacturing plant be granted a permit to continue operating a hazardous-waste incinerator that neighbors have complained emits noxious odors.

The EPA is satisfied that Cargill Inc.’s incinerator is not a health threat, said John McCarroll, the federal environmental engineer overseeing the plant’s application for a permit, but city officials and residents will have an opportunity to voice their objections at EPA-sponsored public hearings on Aug. 29.

The firm, which is at 2801 Lynwood Road and employs about 80 people, is operating with an interim permit. The permanent permit would be good for five years.

In May of last year, the incinerator received the approval of the state’s Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Toxic Substances Control.

The plant manufactures resins that are used in fiberglass and paint products, and uses the incinerator to burn the waste gases and water generated from the manufacturing process.

Residents have complained that odors from the plant waft through the city, and have questioned whether emissions from the incinerator pose a health threat.

The EPA’s biggest concern, McCarroll said last week, has concerned the waste material that Cargill creates during the manufacturing process. The material is flammable if not incinerated, he said.

EPA standards specify that Cargill’s incinerator must destroy 99.99% of the waste material. When the firm performed test burns for the EPA in 1988, the incinerator destroyed only 99.85% of the waste, McCarroll said, so the firm was denied a permanent permit.

Cargill subsequently enlarged the incinerator so the waste material burned longer. Test results then showed that between 99.992% and 99.999% of the waste was destroyed, McCarroll said.

EPA documents relating to the Cargill permit have been sent to the Lynwood library so residents can study them before the public hearing day, said Al Zemsky, public affairs officer for the EPA.

The hearing is actually held twice on the same day so that the maximum number of residents can attend, Zemsky said. Both sessions feature informal, hourlong periods before the formal testimony begins. During the informal portion, residents can talk with EPA staff members to ask questions.

The informal sessions will begin at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., and the formal testimony begins at 2 and 7:30 p.m. All sessions will be held at Bateman Hall in the City Hall complex, 11331 Ernestine St.