South Carolina officials could hardly believe it was happening.

On Dec. 9, a tractor-trailer carrying 59 barrels of low-level radioactive waste from a New Jersey psychiatric hospital in Farmingdale rolled into Hampton, S.C., bound for an incinerator that specializes in burning medical waste.

This was the same truck South Carolina officials had ordered to stay out of the state. It was the same shipment a federal agency had directed elsewhere, because the Chambers Medical Technologies incinerator did not have a permit to burn radioactive material.

It was the same hauler New Jersey officials had hired for the bargain price of $5,000 – about 5 percent of the rate charged by other waste transporters.

Aghast, South Carolina officials halted the truck at the incinerator complex’s gates and threatened to fine New Jersey $25,000 for each day the waste remained in the state.

New Jersey officials "clearly should have known better," said Tom Barry, spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Protection Agency. "You don’t send radioactive waste to a…medical burner. You don’t send it anywhere unless you check out where you’re shipping it. From the looks of it, New Jersey never checked anything out."

South Carolina is considering a criminal investigation of the New Jersey Department of Human Services, which operates the Arthur Bribane Child Treatment Center in Farmingdale, in Monmouth County. There, on Oct. 30, a 14-year old patient smashed an emergency exit sign containing tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Afterward, New Jersey officials needed a place to get rid of contaminated floor tiles, bedding, and furniture.

Barry said a South Carolina official who learned of New Jersey’s shipment while it was en route called the Department of Human Services and warned it to summon the truck back. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission also warned New Jersey that the shipment would not be accepted in South Carolina. "That’s the part that’s hardest to figure," he said. "They had warnings, and they still tried to ship it."

In recent interviews, embarrassed New Jersey officials said they, too, are looking into what happened. The Department of Human Services has launched an inquiry and is considering a formal investigation of the hauler hired to dispose of the waste.

Vince Giampeitro, the department’s director of operations and supplies, said the hauler, SMI Medical Waste, had assured the department that the South Carolina incinerator could legally accept radioactive waste. He said the hauling company gave him "what appeared to be a manifest or some other kind of document showing that the waste could be burned there."

Craig Sanford, owner of the hauling company in Morrisville, Pa., said he did nothing wrong. He said a manager at the South Carolina incinerator told him over the telephone that low levels of tritium waste could be accepted at the plant.

It was only after competing haulers called South Carolina authorities and "started to stir up trouble" that the shipment was questioned, Sanford said. "They [the incinerator operators] would have accepted this stuff, but they got afraid. That’s why the whole story," Sanford said.

South Carolina officials, however, say they would never promise to accept a shipment based on a single phone conversation. They say all waste bound for disposal in the state must be visually inspected.

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection officials who specialize in control of radioactive materials say the incident never would have happened if the Department of Human Services had asked them to help with the disposal.

"We would have never sent that stuff to be burned in South Carolina. The obvious place to take it" is to a licensed burner in Oak Ridge Tenn., said Jill Lipoti, the DEP’s assistant director of radiation protection. "I can’t say why the state’s own experts weren’t consulted. We should have been."

Another high-ranking DEP official was more blunt. "This whole thing is a debacle that could have been prevented if someone wasn’t trying to save a few bucks," said the official, who asked not to be identified.

After the tritium release at the Brisbane center, the Department of Human Services collected bids from companies that dispose of hazardous materials. The bids ranged from $80,000 to $117,000 and all involved taking the materials to Oak Ridge.

Giampeitro said his department, looking for a cheaper price, sought a bid from SMI Medical Waste because the company already had a contact to haul medical waste for New Jersey. SMI agreed to do the job for $5,000. "We knew it was far under the other bids, but we thought it would be alright," Giampeitro said.

He acknowledged that no one in the department attempted to check with South Carolina officials to verify the hauler’s claim that the waste would be accepted, or respond to later warnings to send the shipment elsewhere.

Giampeitro said that after the warnings, he called the hauler and was told there would be no problem. "That’s why we were shocked as anyone when the stuff was rejected," he said.

It was only after South Carolina officials stopped the shipment at the gates, impounded the truck, and threatened fines that human services officials promised to find another place for the waste. South Carolina relented on the fines after the Department of Human Services found another hauler to take the material to Oak Ridge. The waste was scheduled to be burned there last week.

top of page

<< back to the resources index

Click here to request a product sample

Copyright © Safe-T-First 2000. All rights reserved.
Read our Privacy Policy | Retailers & Resellers click here