BY ANDREW PETKOFSKY
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
CHARLES CITY -- Lawyers for Waste Management Inc. raised the possibility yesterday that bloody sheets, syringes and urine confiscated at the company's Charles City County landfill may not be illegal as alleged by the state Department of Environmental Quality and Gov. Jim Gilmore.
Under state law and regulations, regulated medical waste is any waste suspected by a health-care professional of being capable of producing an infectious disease in humans. The medical wastes specifically listed in the regulations include cultures of microorganisms, blood and blood products, tissues and other anatomical wastes, and all sharp medical instruments used in patient care or veterinary practice.
Medical wastes don't fall into the regulated category if they are mixed with other wastes including used personal hygiene products such as diapers and sanitary napkins, and other material "containing small amounts of blood or body fluids, but containing no free flowing or unabsorbed liquid," according to state regulations.
Sharp medical instruments that have not been used in patient care or veterinary practice and are not contaminated with organisms that could cause disease in humans are also not counted as regulated medical waste. Regulated medical waste that has been sterilized or disinfected no longer is defined as regulated medical waste and can be mixed with other waste.
After state inspectors on Wednesday discovered and seized medical waste dumped at the landfill, Gilmore showed it off at a Capitol news conference and said he will seek a fine against the company of up to $500,000. The discovery came at the end of "Trashnet," a three-day, multistate crackdown on trash haulers.
Lawyers in the office of Attorney General Mark L. Earley then filed a lawsuit in Charles City seeking a court order to block Waste Management from importing illegal medical rubbish and to assess fines against the company.
Circuit Judge Thomas Hoover yesterday granted a Waste Management request to postpone a hearing on the state's lawsuit until Feb. 26 so the company can study the confiscated medical waste and form its own opinion about whether the seized material was the type banned from landfills by state law. However, the judge also ordered the company not to import regulated medical waste from any source pending the completion of that hearing.
Earley later issued a statement praising the court's action. "The order not only prevents Waste Management from transporting regulated medical waste from New York into Virginia, as the company had previously agreed to, but also from transporting such material from any source into our commonwealth."
Gilmore, in a separate statement, reiterated his determination to take legal action in this case to enforce the environmental laws. "As governor, I will not tolerate the illegal dumping of medical waste in Virginia's landfills," he said.
Waste Management officials at the court session said they do not knowingly import medical waste from any source into Virginia. Former Virginia Attorney General William G. Broaddus, representing Waste Management, told the judge that the law makes specific distinctions between the sort of "regulated" medical waste that is prohibited from disposal in landfills and other medical waste that may be dumped there.
Broaddus said the allegations in the state's lawsuit did not specify that the confiscated blood was "free-flowing" as defined in the law or that the confiscated sharp medical instruments had been used before being discarded. "So we don't know if it's regulated medical waste," he said.
Mary Jo Leugers, director of enforcement coordination for the Department of Environmental Quality, said after the session that investigators and laboratory analysts had determined the confiscated trash fell into the "regulated" category. Regulated medical waste must be shipped and handled according to regulations designed to minimize the danger of spreading contagious diseases.
Assistant Attorney General Stewart T. Leeth told the judge that Waste Management had shown "callous disregard" of both state law and a consent order it signed Dec. 7 after three previous medical waste violations. The company had agreed in that order not to import regulated medical waste to Virginia from New York health-care facilities and to follow state laws and regulations in handling regulated medical waste within Virginia.
Broaddus contended that the court order being sought by the state will not subject Waste Management to any more controls or penalties in addition to those that it already faces under the law and existing consent order. The company is subject to a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per day for each violation. But Hoover said that both the temporary order he issued yesterday and the order being sought by the state government would place Waste Management under the additional possibility of being in contempt of court for violating the law or the agreement. "What we're dealing with is a real . . . serious risk to public health and safety," Hoover said.
John Skoutelas, Waste Management's vice president and general counsel for the eastern region, said after court adjourned that his company's top priority is to make the government and residents of Virginia feel comfortable that his company is handling trash "with the highest regard to their safety."
DEQ Director Dennis H. Treacy said late yesterday that state inspectors will step up the frequency of unannounced inspections at major landfills to ensure that medical waste is not dumped. The inspections, increased in December from quarterly to once a month, will soon become even more frequent, Treacy said in a news release.
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