An Illinois-based company that has operated a medical waste incinerator in North Salt Lake will close down the facility and not move it to Tooele County as previously announced. Stericycle has been working to move the facility since the Utah Division of Air Quality fined the company $2.3 million in 2015 for illegal emissions emanating from the incinerator.
But company spokesperson Jennifer Koenig said late last month that the planned 40-acre parcel in Tooele where Stericycle planned to build twin incinerators proved unworkable. “The challenges with water became too costly to make this economically feasible in the long term,” she said. Koenig said Stericycle notified the air quality and solid waste divisions with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality of its decision to abandon the Tooele County site on Feb. 20.
“We will keep our transportation operation in North Salt Lake,” Koenig said, so its metropolitan base of customers will still have an avenue for disposal of waste that is trucked out of state. Stericycle’s nearest waste incinerators will be in Kansas City following the closure.
The Utah Division of Air Quality agreed to waive half of its $2.3 million fine in 2015 if Stericycle agreed to relocate its incineration operations to a more remote section of the state away from residential populations. The company then had three years to complete the move from North Salt Lake. “The fine was dependent upon us closing the (North Salt Lake) facility once all the (state and local) permits had been issued. We intend to be compliant with the agreement,” Koenig said.
Stericycle incinerates medical waste that includes pathological materials, trace chemotherapy and nonhazardous pharmaceutical waste from clients such as hospitals and nursing homes.