As Opposition to an Alabama Medical Waste Treatment Facility Boils Over, a  Mysterious Facebook Page Weighs In

ONEONTA, Ala.—The names echoed down the halls of the Blount County courthouse Thursday morning like a child’s game of telephone.

“Darlene?” 

One of the county commissioners was reading from a list of those who’d asked to speak at a public meeting concerning the potential approval of a medical waste treatment facility in nearby Remlap. 

“Darlene,” a resident at the back of the room repeated to those outside. Community members opposed to the new facility, proposed by Harvest Med Waste Disposal, wouldn’t all fit in the boardroom where commission meetings are typically held. They also lined the hallways of the courthouse nearly to the building’s exit. One court employee said they’d never seen the facility packed with as many citizens. The woman’s name continued down the line. 

“Darlene,” someone further outside repeated. “Darlene,” a final resident echoed. 

One by one, community members from all walks of life—business owners, environmentalists, nurses, college professors, healthcare experts and retirees—made their way to the podium to tell their local elected officials in no uncertain terms: Remlap, Alabama, population 2,500, isn’t a dumping ground. 

Those living and working in and around Remlap, about 20 miles northeast of Birmingham, have rallied in opposition to Harvest Med Waste Disposal’s proposed medical waste processing facility on Highway 75, a stone’s throw from the Jefferson County line. The enterprise, to be housed in a former tire shop, would sit just feet from Gurley Creek, part of the Black Warrior River watershed, and is located within a FEMA-designated flood zone, according to government documents. 

Residents have been vocal in opposing the facility opening in Remlap, citing environmental and safety concerns. David Dyer, owner of Harvest Med Waste, has said many community members’ concerns are unwarranted. His company, he argued at Thursday’s commission meeting, will provide needed jobs in Blount County and bring a safe, environmentally friendly technology—ozone sterilization of medical waste—to Alabama for the first time. 

While supporters at Thursday’s meeting included only Dyer’s lawyers, friends and business associates, Blount County residents have found themselves the targets of paid social media advertising in support of Harvest Med Waste, though it’s unclear who is behind the online campaign. 

Both Dyer and a representative of Clean Waste Systems, a national company responsible for the sterilization technology Dyer’s facility plans to use, denied involvement with the advertising to an Inside Climate News reporter on Thursday. 

“I’m not even on social media,” Dyer said. 

Mountains of Medical Waste

Medical waste management is a more than $2 billion industry in the U.S., according to market analysts, and is projected to grow to over $3 billion by 2030. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that U.S. health care providers generate more than 3 million tons of such waste each year, including everything from used syringes and gauze to contaminated gloves and other personal protective equipment. 

All that waste must go somewhere. Historically, incineration has been the primary method of disposal. More than 90 percent of potentially infectious medical waste was incinerated before 1997, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Since that time, other technologies have helped fill the need for medical waste disposal, including the use of autoclaves—machines that use pressurized steam to treat waste—and other sterilization technologies. 

In the last decade, ozone sterilization has also become a growing technology, with proponents arguing that the method provides an environmentally friendly alternative to incineration, for example. 

Clean Waste Systems, based in Maple Lake, Minnesota, is slated to provide the ozone sterilization technology for Dyer’s Remlap facility, pending its approval. The company uses a technology called “humidizone” to sterilize shredded medical waste, which can then be trucked to a run-of-the-mill landfill for disposal. 

Kelly Prchal, CEO of Clean Waste Systems, was one of the handful of supporters of the project to speak during Thursday’s meeting. 

“I want to clarify some misinformation,” Prchal told commissioners. Residents in the audience groaned. “Our system is fully enclosed, contained and designed to meet and exceed all federal and state environmental standards,” she said.

Many of the concerns expressed on Thursday weren’t about the sterilization process itself, but instead involved the location of the facility and the risks imposed by trucking of medical waste material into and out of Remlap.

Warren Allworth, a nearby resident who moved to the area from South Africa, cited frequent traffic accidents in the area as a concern.

“Anyone who’s ever driven in Alabama knows that people don’t know how to drive,” he said. The audience laughed. “I love y’all, but it’s the truth.”

When there was a recent traffic accident at the Dollar General across from the proposed site, he said, the truck involved remained in the ditch for days before it was removed. 

“I dread the day it’s one of his trucks,” Allworth said, referring to Dyer. 

Dale Spain, another resident, lives a few hundred yards from the development site along Gurley Creek. He’s now retired, having worked for UPS for more than 40 years. During that time, he said, he witnessed many, large scale accidents that left hazardous materials scattered along roadways. 

“If there is an accident, which there will be, you’re putting all of the first responders at risk, all of the bystanders, all of the people trying to help. And if it’s a bad wreck, this stuff will be scattered everywhere, and they’ll have no clue how to deal with it. Bringing that in and through Blount County isn’t the right place to go.” 

Paul Gilbert, who serves as chief of Remlap Fire and EMS, would be one of the first to respond if an accident involving a truck with medical waste were to occur. He said his greatest concern is the sheer amount of potentially hazardous material involved. 

“They can do 400 pounds of medical waste an hour,” he said. “If you work an eight-hour shift, that’s 3,200 pounds of biohazardous medical waste. If you work a 40-hour week, that’s 16,000 pounds of biohazardous medical waste.”

Jim Braziel, an associate professor of English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who lives in Remlap, put it simply: “We don’t want to be a dump for the surrounding counties,” he said. “We don’t want to be the processor for these materials for the surrounding counties or the state of Alabama or the world.”

Braziel and his wife, Tina Mozelle Braziel, a renowned poet who also spoke at Thursday’s meeting, built a glass cabin in Blount County by hand and wrote a book about the process.

At the end of his comments Thursday, Braziel addressed Dyer directly. 

“We don’t want your facility here,” he said. “So why do you want to come here? Go somewhere else.”

Residents and environmental groups have also said that the facility’s location aside Gurley Creek, in a flood zone, poses unnecessary risks. 

“An individual from Birmingham is planning to put a medical waste processing facility in South Blount County,” an environmental nonprofit, Friends of the Locust Fork River, said in a statement ahead of Thursday’s meeting. “The waste is billed as non-hazardous in the application for permit, but FLFR believes that medical waste picked up at hospitals, doctor’s offices, etc. and transported to Remlap is hazardous waste…a bio-hazard.”

Locating the processing facility next to Gurley Creek, then, puts the watershed at risk, the nonprofit argued. 

“If a catastrophic flood should occur affecting the facility, the endangered Flattened Musk Turtle and Black Warrior Waterdog habitat could be greatly altered in a negative way,” the nonprofit’s statement went on. “If toxic waste enters the creek, the threatened Gurley Darter found only in that creek would be wiped off the face of the earth forever. FLFR believes the facility location is a stage for an accident waiting to happen.”

In his comments during the meeting, Dyer dismissed concerns about potential harm to the environment. 

“The creek’s a non-issue,” Dyer said. “Why in the world would I invest millions of dollars if I was worried about flooding a creek where I’d be sued to the end of time and probably put in prison if I was dumping into a creek?” 

An Online Mystery

Thursday’s county commission meeting hasn’t been the only venue for debate over the Remlap facility. An online petition opposing the facility has garnered hundreds of signatures, and residents have said they’ve been subjected to constant online advertising advocating for the business. 

A Facebook page called “Blount County for Safe Waste Solutions” has run multiple paid advertisements related to the project and the underlying technology, according to records reviewed by Inside Climate News. 

The page, launched in August, has run at least three paid advertisements in the days leading up to Thursday’s meeting. 

“Being a good neighbor always matters. That’s why Clean Waste Systems are small, safe, and designed to blend right in with the community or facility in which they’re located,” one paid post said, in part. “People living or working nearby ozone processing facilities often don’t even know the system is operating, but they feel the benefit of cleaner, safer, sustainable waste management through a smaller carbon footprint.”

According to Facebook records, the person or group responsible for the page hasn’t yet completed the company’s identity verification process. A message sent to the page by an Inside Climate News reporter went unanswered. 

Both Dyer and Prchal denied any involvement with the online advertising on Thursday. 

“We Will Fight”

After Thursday’s meeting, Mike D’Angelo, a local business owner, sat outside his business, located just a few yards from Gurley Creek and the proposed facility. He’s lived in Remlap for more than 50 years. For him, preventing the new development is about protecting a waterway that’s been a part of his life for decades. He said he’s watched the area flood many times over the years, with Gurley Creek’s waters lapping at the walls of the proposed treatment facility, which is visible from his business’ front door. 

“My grandchildren play in that creek,” he said Thursday morning. “I’d like to keep it clean so they can continue to.” 

D’Angelo and other residents present at the meeting said they don’t plan to back down in their opposition to the project, regardless of the commission’s ultimate decision when they vote on Oct. 2. 

“We’re not going anywhere,” he said, his eyes glancing over at Gurley Creek. “We will fight.”