Officials Outraged Plant Burning Aborted Babies for Electricity: “Ultimate Disrespect to Innocence”

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 24, 2014   |   10:37AM   |   Washington, DC

Local officials in central Oregon are upset that an energy plant is reportedly burning aborted babies from Canada to generate electricity.

Following a LifeNews report that received national attention, the Marion County Board of Commissioners issued a statement indicating it will temporarily halt all burning of “medical waste” while it investigates. Today the Marion County Board of Commissioners is holding an emergency meeting to determine how the Covanta Waste-to-Energy Facility was authorized to burn medicate “waste” that includes the remains of aborted babies.

burningwaste4“We are outraged and disgusted that this material could be included in medical waste received at the facility,” said Commissioner Janet Carlson. “We did not know this practice was occurring until today. We are taking immediate action and initiating discussions with Covanta Marion to make certain that this type of medical waste is not accepted in the future.”

In a new interview with the Associated Press, Kristy Anderson, a British Columbia Health Ministry spokeswoman, said that, in addition to the bodies of aborted babies, the medical waste also includes amputated limbs and cancerous tissue. She said the provincial government agency has a contract with a firm that sends the waste to Oregon.

A local report from Oregon has more on the background and comments from outraged local officials:

The county has been using the Covanta facility in Brooks, to turn waste into energy for years. The county uses municipal waste from homes and businesses plus medical waste as incinerator fuel to produce power.

Marion County Chair Sam Brentano says if that is the case it cannot be tolerated. He immediately stopped the burning of all medical waste while the county looks into the report. An emergency commission meeting was scheduled for Thursday morning.

“Bottom line I’m not going to facilitate abortion,” said Brentano. “It’s the ultimate disrespect to innocence.”

The burner company Covanta told KGW Wednesday night that while they burn the waste, it’s the county that decides what trash gets incinerated.

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“Marion County contracts for and delivers medical waste to the facility and Covanta has no responsibility for the program,” the company said. “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.”

According to its website, it processes 550 tons per day of municipal solid waste, generating up to 13 megawatts of energy sold to Portland General Electric.

County spokeswoman Jolene Kelley said medical waste has been included in the program for some time, but the commissioners never had any indication that fetal tissue might be included. “We learned that today,” she said.