In a joint national letter today, 81 environmental and social justice organizations from across the U.S. and its territories are urging the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and U.S. EPA to immediately halt all open air burning and open detonation (OB/OD) of reactive, ignitable and explosive hazardous waste at the Clean Harbors Colfax commercial facility in Louisiana.
Reactive hazardous wastes, when open burned or open detonated, have the potential to release heavy metals, perchlorate, particulate matter, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), dioxins/furans, explosive compounds, and other contaminants to the environment.
Residents in the small enclave of mostly Black residents just outside of Colfax have reported a deep slate of medical issues, ranging from asthma and allergies to cancer. Many of their illnesses are on the list of presumptive conditions the Department of Defense provided to veterans exposed to burn pit victims.
“The facility has had literally decades to transition to commercially-available advanced alternative technologies that capture and treat toxic emissions – this tragedy must end,” the groups emphasize.
The letter – addressed to U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Louisiana DEQ Secretary Roger Gingles – also calls for an immediate halt to all receipt of additional onsite hazardous waste to protect public health and the environment and to prevent suddenly accelerated open burning by Clean Harbors.
The groups support the Louisiana DEQ proposal that a Notification of Closure of OB/OD be submitted within 30 days after cessation of OB/OD. “The facility must be required to immediately achieve clean closure including the removal of all wastes, equipment, structures and remediation of soils, sediments, impoundments, storm water, groundwater and surface water,” the groups wrote.
Separately, if a proposed Contained Burn Chamber System alternative is approved, the groups want the list of prohibited wastes to be greatly expanded to include highly toxic and persistent chemicals such as PFAS.
“PFAS should be specified as a prohibited waste – flares and incendiaries, for example, may contain as much as 45% PFAS. To date, thermal destruction of PFAS has not been demonstrated nor achieved,” the organizations stressed.
In addition to private industry, the Departments of Defense and Energy, and NASA are permitted by EPA to conduct routine OB/OD. The Department of Defense alone currently operates 38 toxic burn sites in the U.S. – almost all in low-income, rural communities. At these sites, the military collects excess, obsolete, or unserviceable munitions and treats them by adding diesel and lighting them on fire, or by blowing them up. In 2021 alone, the Department of Defense treated 32.7 million pounds of explosive hazardous waste on U.S. soil using these archaic methods.
The national letter was a cooperative initiative organized by the Central Louisiana Coalition for a Clean & Healthy Environment and Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger in Wisconsin.
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National Letter for Co-Signature DEQ EPA Ban OB OD Colfax Louisiana FINAL