Armed with placards and wearing face masks, protesters descended upon Monday’s Evanston City Council meeting, demanding that the city pass legislation that would force Evanston Hospital, 2650 Ridge Ave., to immediately close a medical waste incinerator.
There was no council discussion on the issue, but aldermen were presented with an ordinance that would ban medical waste incinerators from Evanston.
“The objective is in having the City Council members passing an ordinance prohibiting medical waste incinerators in order to ensure this is discontinued,” said Clare Kelly Delgado, an Evanston resident who lives near the hospital.
Residents say the incinerator, which burns plastics, releases harmful chemicals into the atmosphere around the hospital. There are several schools near the hospital, and residents want the hospital to close the 15-year-old incinerator before school starts at the end of August.
Hanging over any council decision is a rumored possibility that Evanston Hospital could sue the city should any legal action be taken, aldermen and residents said. But one alderman said even if the hospital threatened litigation, the city still might pass an ordinance banning the incinerators.
“People want to be reasonable but they also want to be safe, and as of this point I don’t know what this balance is,” said Ald. Gene Feldman (9th). “If I could be convinced that Evanston Hospital could without dramatic hardship end it tomorrow, I would be in favor.”
The hospital, owned by Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, has pledged to close the incinerator within a year. Ray Grady, president of Evanston Hospital, will present aldermen with a more detailed timetable at the August 2 meeting of the Human Services Committee, said Joan Trezek, assistant vice president for public relations for Evanston Northwestern Healthcare.
In the meantime, the hospital is looking for contractors to help replace the incinerator, Trezek said.
Ald. Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th), who has been facilitating talks between local residents and the hospital, said while she would like to see the incinerator close sooner, she doesn’t think that it will be possible.
“The big picture is that this thing has been there since ’89 and Evanston Hospital has voluntarily agreed to close it, which is something that is being missed in the debate,” Tisdahl said.
Ann Southworth, a lawyer who lives near the hospital, said residents are concerned that a threat of a lawsuit could affect the council’s decision, even though there has never been a successful lawsuit against such legislation.
“The question we have is: What basis would they have for suing the city? What kind of arguments would they make?” Southworth said. “There is a vague threat going around affecting the council’s deliberations.”
Other municipalities have passed ordinances banning incinerators in much less time than one year, Delgado said. Chicago passed an ordinance against incineration that gave everyone only 10 weeks to close their facilities. Some areas have given only two weeks.
There is no evidence showing Evanston Hospital’s incinerator has caused specific health problems to the surrounding community. But that’s just because no one has done that study, said Dr. Matthew Wynia, a physician who works at the University of Chicago and lives several blocks from the hospital.
Wynia said that in general, asthma and cancer rates have been found to be slightly higher in the immediate vicinity of medical waste incinerators.
“It just seems to me that this was a slam-dunk public health argument; and why would the hospital want to fight the neighborhood on something like this?” he said. “You don’t want to be fighting your neighborhood on public health.”
City Reporter Mike Cherney is a Medill sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected].
