IES says it plans to cut emissions; protests planned

One week after protesters blockaded the front gate of their incineration facility, Integrated Environmental Systems today announced plans to reduce incineration of medical waste by 70% within one year. The announcement came at a press conference chaired by Oakland City Council president Ignacio de la Fuente, a long time supporter of IES.

The announcement by De la Fuente and IES was an attempt to head off further protests by the Coalition for Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice, a coalition of local residents and community, health, labor, religious and environmental justice organizations. IES hopes to be able to keep burning millions of pounds of medical and non-medical waste, but will continue to face strong community opposition.

The Coalition considers today's announcement a big victory in the four year old campaign, but is vowing to continue protests to force IES to stop all incineration and to replace the incinerators with safer non-incineration technologies.

De la Fuente's press conference was met with protests by dozens of his own constituents, who blasted his collusion with IES and the exclusion of the public from this so-called "agreement." The Coalition had our own press conference after the politician/IES event ended to let the public know that the community is united in the effort for zero dioxin, safe jobs and a complete transition away from incineration to safer technologies.

A 24 hour vigil and protest is planned for August 21.