text: Two pro-life county commissioners in Oregon have reacted with horror to a Vancouver newspaper story that claims aborted fetuses from B.C. are routinely shipped to a waste-to-energy incinerator near Portland, where they are “burned to generate electricity.” 
   
   An article that appeared Monday in The B.C. Catholic newspaper, published by the Roman Archdiocese of Vancouver, reported that “aborted and miscarried children” are “ending up in an Oregon waste-to-energy plant, likely mixed with everyday trash” and “incinerated to provide electricity to the people of Marion County.” 
   
   The account was picked up by media outlets in Oregon, where it spread like wildfire. It caught Marion County’s two elected commissioners off guard; both expressed disgust and said steps are being taken to end the alleged practice. 
   
   “We are outraged and appalled that this material could be included in medical waste received at our facility,” Councillor Janet Carlson said in a statement Wednesday. “We did not know this practice was occurring until today.” 
   
   The two councillors held an emergency meeting Thursday morning and agreed that the county would temporarily stop all biomedical waste shipments to its waste-to-energy incinerator, and would amend local ordinances to bar any future shipments that could contain fetal tissue. 
   
   While county officials don’t know how much fetal tissue from B.C has actually been transported to the plant and then burned, they felt they had to take immediate action, says Marion County spokeswoman Jolene Kelley. “We don’t want to exclude all human tissue, but we want to draw the line somewhere,” she told the National Post. “This is a disrespectful way to dispose of remains.” 
   
   Ms. Carlson and her fellow councillor, Sam Brentano, are both pro-life and are particularly sensitive to the issue, Ms. Kelley added. Mr. Brentano is also familiar with waste disposal, having worked in the industry for 30 years. Neither councillor responded Thursday to interview requests. 
   
   Marion County’s incinerator is owned and operated by a private company, Covanta Marion Inc., and is located eight kilometres north of Salem, the Oregon capital, and about an hour’s drive south of Portland. The plant burns 500 tonnes of solid waste every day, “providing 11 megawatts per hour of electricity to Portland General Electric Company,” according to Covanta documents. 
   
   The 28-year-old incinerator was recognized by industry peers with a “waste-to-energy excellence” award in 2012. Covanta says the plant disposes of all kinds of refuse including confidential documents and law enforcement material, through a supplemental waste program. The program provides both the company and Marion County “additional revenues streams the [sic] support Covanta’s and Marion counties [sic] bottom line,” according to Covanta. 
   
   The biomedical waste may include lab cultures and vaccines, human fluid and blood products, and small amounts of human waste and tissue 
   
   In a statement Thursday, the company blamed Marion County for the fetal tissue controversy, and said it has “no responsibility” for the medical waste program at its incinerator. “Covanta is shocked by these allegations and is discontinuing the receipt of this waste stream until we have been assured by the County that this alleged material is not being delivered to the facility,” the statement reads. 
   
   According to The B.C. Catholic, 14,000 fetuses are aborted in the province each year, and “the likeliest destination for their remains is the Covanta Marion” incinerator. That was left uncorroborated. 
   
   But B.C.’s Ministry of Health did reportedly confirm — to the newspaper and to the Associated Press wire service — that regional health authorities in the province have contracts with a Canadian waste removal company that ships biomedical waste to the Covanta Marion plant, where it is burned. 
   
   The biomedical waste may include lab cultures and vaccines, human fluid and blood products, and small amounts of human waste and tissue. It may also include fetal tissue from miscarriages and abortions, according to the ministry. “All biomedical waste from B.C. hospitals is incinerated outside the province,” reads a ministry response to questions about disposal practices. 
   
   Stericycle Inc., the Brampton, Ont.-based company that ships B.C.’s biomedical waste to Oregon for disposal, did not respond to questions sent to it on Thursday. 
   
   National Post ||||| PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — County commissioners gave final approval Thursday to an order to stop an incinerator in Oregon from receiving medical waste until procedures are in place to ensure no fetal tissue is burned to generate power. 
   
   While taking the action, Marion County commissioners Sam Brentano and Janet Carlson said they were horrified to learn that the Marion County Resource Recovery Facility in rural Brooks might be burning medical waste that includes fetal tissue to generate electricity. Both strongly oppose abortions. 
   
   "We're going to get the bottom of it," Carlson said. "I want to know who knew, when they knew, how long they had known this was going on." 
   
   Brentano, however, noted that the county ordinance that sets the parameters for what can be accepted at the waste-to-energy plant allows for all human tissue. 
   
   "No rule or law has been broken, but there's an ethical standard that's been broken," he said. 
   
   The decision came about a month after reporters in the United Kingdom discovered that health authorities there used fetal remains to generate power at medical facilities. The Department of Health quickly banned the practice. 
   
   The Oregon facility is a partnership between the county and Covanta, a New Jersey-based firm that operates energy-from-waste power generation plants. The Marion County plant processes 550 tons of municipal solid waste a day, with only a small portion coming from medical sources. It sells the power to Portland General Electric. 
   
   Jill Stueck, a Covanta spokeswoman, said the company is cooperating with the suspension, and it does not seek out the waste that mortified commissioners. 
   
   "No one is saying bring us fetal tissue," Stueck said. 
   
   Some of the fetal material came from the Canadian province of British Columbia, where regional health authorities have a contract with waste management firm Stericycle and send biomedical waste, such as fetal tissue, cancerous tissue and amputated limbs to the Oregon facility, said Kristy Anderson, a spokeswoman with the British Columbia Health Ministry. 
   
   Stericycle, based in Lake Forest, Ill., has been criticized by anti-abortion groups for years because it disposes of aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics. Company officials did not return phone calls seeking comment. 
   
   Jeff Bickford, environmental services division manager in Marion County, said the facility there has been taking material from British Columbia for five to seven years. He said clinical waste providers such as Stericycle bring in medical waste ranging from syringes and body parts to laboratory cultures and bodily fluids after hospitals and clinics place it into red bags and sealed containers. 
   
   "You've got biological agent and infectious diseases in there, so they're never opened once they're sealed," Bickford said. 
   
   Brentano said the county plans to rewrite its ordinance to spell out that no tissue from fetuses can enter the incinerator, and the providers will have to develop a workable system. 
   
   He stressed that other medical waste would be accepted. 
   
   "So if someone loses an arm, loses a finger?" Carlson asked at the meeting. 
   
   "That should go in and be burned," Brentano replied. "As gross as that is."
target: – Two horrified anti-abortion county commissioners in Oregon have ordered a waste-to-energy plant to stop burning any medical waste until it can be sure that no fetal tissue is being incinerated. The Marion County plant burns large amounts of biomedical waste from British Columbia, and the commissioners say they were disgusted to learn from a report in a Catholic newspaper that some of the 14,000 fetuses aborted in the Canadian province every year are "incinerated to provide electricity to the people of Marion County," the National Post reports. The commissioners say there has to be "a process to figure out how we can accept legitimate medical waste," including amputated limbs and cancerous tissue, but accepting fetal tissue is out of the question, reports the Oregonian. "It's inappropriate to put them in the trash," one commissioner says. A spokeswoman for the incinerator firm says that while the medical waste may have contained fetal tissue including umbilical cords or placentas, it did not contain whole fetuses. She says the company is cooperating with the order to stop accepting medical waste while new procedures are put in place, the AP reports. Last month, the UK banned the incineration of fetal remains after learning that thousands of fetuses had been burned for power.