Despite strong objection from Sevier County residents, the Utah Bureau of Solid and Hazardous Waste will issue a permit for an asbestos solid waste dump south of Monroe providing the Great Basin Environmental Safety Corp. adheres to specified restrictions.
The bureau will limit the Delta firm to receiving only waste asbestos from local government sources, said Roger A. Foisy, district engineer with the Environmental Health Division of the Utah Department of Health in Richfield. Great Basin has been advised by letter of the restriction.Foisy said additional information about markets and benefits of the facility will be required if the facility wants to accept waste from sources other than local governments.
Great Basin faces other hurdles. It must get permission for its operation from the Sevier County Planning and Zoning Commission and the Sevier County Commission. Officials have indicated they may not support the state issuing a permit because of objections voiced at a meeting by some 400 county residents, mostly from the South Sevier area.
The corporation applied for a permit to establish the asbestos dump on 200 acres in the Poverty Flat area.
Its officials claim the operation would be safe, promising asbestos would be buried in double-layered bags filled with water. But residents voiced fears that the material might get into the atmosphere and said they don't want the county to become a dump site for other people's waste.