Lowery Will Offer Deal for RACE — Would Continue Operating, Minus Incinerator
By Tom Charlier charlier@commercialappealcom
Faced with two potentially difficult alternatives – approving a radioactive-waste incinerator or killing 200 jobs – the Memphis City Council today will be asked to consider a third way.
Council member Myron Lowery said Monday he’ll offer an amendment to a proposed special-use permit sought by the firm known as RACE. It would allow the firm to continue operating, but prohibit it from installing an incinerator.
“This allows the jobs to be protected, allows them to continue operating as they have been, and it stops them from moving forward and burning,” Lowery said.
“That’s what many people were concerned about and it’s why this matter is before us.”
RACE – which stands for Radiological Assistance, Consulting and Engineering – wants to install an incinerator to augment its operations at 2550 Channel Ave. on Presidents Island, where it decontaminates and processes low-level radioactive waste from hospitals, research labs and nuclear power plants.
Although the company has been operating since 2001, it wasn’t until the spring – after the incinerator proposal became publicized – that local code-enforcement officials notified RACE that it needs a special-use permit to continue handling radioactive material.
The company also needs a permit for a proposed storage facility on West Trigg.
The council is slated to vote on the permits at its meeting today, which begins at 3:30 p.m.
Under the application involving RACE’s main facility, a council vote rejecting the permit could not only kill the proposed incinerator but force the firm to shut down. RACE says it employs about 200 people.
Lowery says the council shouldn’t face such an all-or-nothing choice.
While he’s currently leaning against the incinerator, Lowery said, “I’m not in favor of shutting down the company.”
Lowery drafted his amendment after a conference call with council attorney Allan Wade and Richard Copeland and Louise Mercuro, director and deputy director, respectively, of the city’s Division of Planning and Development.
Mercuro said Monday that the council can set conditions to its approval of the permit. For instance, it could allow the company to continue operating, she said, while opting to “delete” the incinerator.
However, Richard Spence, an attorney representing RACE, questioned the council’s authority to make such a stipulation.
He said incinerators and radioactive materials are regulated by the Memphis-Shelby County Health Department and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation – both of which have granted their approvals to RACE. What’s before the council is a “zoning matter,” Spence added.
“The City Council doesn’t license incinerators. … I guess my question (to the proposed amendment) would be, under what jurisdiction?”
However, Lowery said council has the right to modify the permit “any way we want.”
– Tom Charlier: 529-2572
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Council meetings
City Council committees meet today in the fifth floor conference room of City Hall. Hot topics on the agenda:
8:30 a.m. Public services and neighborhoods, discussion of Yo! Memphis audit report.
9 a.m. Public safety and homeland security, discussion of city code violations regarding trucks parked in residential areas.
10 a.m. Housing and community development, discussion of code enforcement concerns.
10:30 a.m. Operations and maintenance budget, financial update.
12:45 p.m. Personnel, intergovernmental and annexation, discussion of reserve firefighters and EMT program, update on fleet services office, police promotions
2 p.m. Planning and Zoning, discussion of special use permits for radioactive waste plant and storage facility on Presidents Island.
3:30 p.m. Regular council meeting in first floor chambers, vote on radioactive waste plant and storage facility; vote on beer ordinance to relax 500-foot rule prohibiting sales near schools and churches.
– Jacinthia Jones: 529-2780
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