0102_INSP_20230118

FACILITY COMPLIANCE INSPECTION REPORT
Division of Waste Management
Solid Waste Section

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UNIT TYPE:
Lined MSWLF LCID YW Transfer Compost SLAS COUNTY: Alamance
Closed MSWLF HHW White goods Incin X T&P FIRM PERMIT NO.: 01-02
CDLF Tire T&P / Collection Tire Monofill Industrial Landfill DEMO SDTF FILE TYPE: COMPLIANCE

Date of Site Inspection: January 18, 2023 Date of Last Inspection: June 8, 2021
FACILITY NAME AND ADDRESS:
Stericycle, Inc. Medical Waste Incinerator Facility 1168 Porter Avenue Haw River, NC 27258 GPS COORDINATES: Lat.: 36.06599 Long.: -79.34881 FACILITY CONTACT NAME AND PHONE NUMBER: Stericycle, Inc. Kirk Yarbrough, Plant Manager w. 336-578-8904 x 39 c. 336-380-7440 f. 336-578-8903
[e-mail] FACILITY CONTACT ADDRESS:
Stericycle, Inc. Don Nuss, Regional Environmental Manager – Atlantic Region 3614 Hoskins Court
Hamilton, OH 45011 c. 513-543-7073 [e-mail]

PARTICIPANTS: Chuck Kirchner, Environmental Senior Specialist – Solid Waste Section (SWS) Robert Pike, Environmental Senior Specialist – SWS
Don Nuss, Regional Environmental Manager - Atlantic Region – Stericycle, Inc. Kirk Yarbrough, Facility Manager – Stericycle, Inc.
Jimmy Overton, Operational Supervisor – Stericycle, Inc. STATUS OF PERMIT:
Permit To Operate (PTO) issued February 17, 2017 PTO expired on November 30, 2021 Permit Renewal Application submitted January 21, 2022.
PURPOSE OF SITE VISIT: Comprehensive Inspection STATUS OF PAST NOTED VIOLATIONS: None
FACILITY COMPLIANCE INSPECTION REPORT
Division of Waste Management
Solid Waste Section

Page 2 of 4

OBSERVED VIOLATIONS:
None
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
On January 18, 2023, Chuck Kirchner and Robert Pike met with Don Nuss, Kirk Yarbrough and Jimmy Overton to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the Stericycle, Inc. Medical Waste Incinerator Facility on Porter Avenue in Haw
River, Alamance County. 1. The facility is a medical waste treatment operation consisting of two incinerator units. 2. Non-conforming medical waste received at this facility, that is not suitable for processing at this facility, is transferred from this facility to other Stericycle facilities that are able to accept that waste stream.
3. The office is open Monday through Friday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Facility operation/incineration occurs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 4. The facility permit, site plan, operations plan, and contingency plan were discussed. 5. The facility incinerates medical waste (regulated and non-regulated), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - Plant Protection and Quarantine (APHIS-PPQ) regulated garbage, controlled substances, chemotherapeutic waste, healthcare industry
documents, and pharmaceuticals. 6. During the inspection, incinerator number 1 was in operation. Incinerator number 2 is down for an upgrade. Incinerator number 1 was upgraded at the end of 2022. 7. Incinerator number 2 should be completed and back in operation in April or May according to Mr. Yarbrough. 8. Mr. Yarbrough stated that Stericycle, Inc. vehicles transport ~ 100 percent of the material received. 9. The facility uses Road Net to track drivers dispatched on local routes from the Haw River facility. The system uses GPS to obtain real-time information regarding route, driver status, truck location, etc. 10. Mr. Yarbrough stated that the out of state trailers and customer loaded trailers are refrigerated. Local route trucks are commonly not refrigerated. Temperatures on refrigerated trucks are usually kept between 40℉-45℉ according to Mr. Overton. 11. The facility provides incinerator operation training for plant personnel. 17 employees were trained and certified on incinerator operations either on November 15, 2022 or November 28, 2022. 12. All employee training requirements appear to be up to date and in compliance with permit requirements. 13. Mr. Overton stated that there are typically three employees operating the incinerator each shift.
14. The facility provides clients with boxes, totes, labels, and plastic bags to conform with packaging and transportation of regulated medical waste. 15. Medical waste boxes observed had a label with generator and transporter/treatment facility information and
a barcode containing the required information. The boxes contained the universal biohazard symbol and medical waste statement. Box barcodes on client-loaded trailers (refrigerated trailers stored at businesses) are scanned upon incineration. Individual box barcode is scanned at pickup and upon incineration. Scanned
information is sent to the facility database to include date received, number of boxes per generator, weight of each box, date treated, generator billing, etc. 16. Three boxes were selected at random on the facility floor. Stericycle was able to locate the origin of the box and show the boxes current location.
The item(s) listed above were observed by Section staff and require action on behalf of the facility in order to come into or maintain compliance with the Statutes, Rules, and/or other regulatory requirements applicable to this facility. Be advised that pursuant to N.C.G.S. 130A-22, an administrative penalty of up to $15,000 per day may be assessed for each violation of the Solid Waste Laws, Regulations, Conditions of a Permit, or Order under Article 9 of Chapter 130A of the N.C. General Statutes. Further, the facility and/or all responsible parties may also be subject to enforcement actions including penalties, injunction from operation of a solid waste management facility or a solid waste collection service and any such further relief as may be necessary to achieve compliance with the North Carolina Solid Waste Management Act and Rules.
FACILITY COMPLIANCE INSPECTION REPORT
Division of Waste Management
Solid Waste Section

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17. The facility maintains records of the amount of solid waste received, origin of loads and disposition of ash. Throughput for 2022 7,934.42 tons of material was incinerated. A total of 1,608.05 tons of ash were sent to the Upper Piedmont Regional landfill (73-04) during this timeframe.
18. The Facility Annual Report (FAR) was last submitted on July 08, 2022. Medical Waste incinerated at the facility from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 was 5,460.69 tons from in state and 4,191.80 tons from out of state (9,652.49 tons total). The amount of ash hauled to Upper Piedmont Regional Landfill (73-04) is
2,422.64 tons. 19. The facility throughput is currently ~1.20 million pounds per month which is about half lbs/month since last inspection. The monthly throughput decreases during incinerator maintenance according to Mr. Nuss. 20. Dental and Mercury containing waste is shipped to another autoclave Stericycle facility (13-05) in Concord, NC. 21. Incinerator ash is stored on site in 20 yd3 roll-off containers. Mr. Yarbrough stated that one container is currently filled with ash daily and hauled to the landfill. 22. During the inspection, four roll-off containers were in the dewatering area (one was currently being filled and three were empty). 23. The facility has two floor scales and two belt scales. The scales were previously tested/calibrated by JA King. Carlton Scale has taken over the testing and calibration of the scales for Stericycle.
24. The facility has a Division of Air Quality (DAQ) Title V permit, number 05896/T25, issued 12/19/16 – expiration date of 11/30/21. Maximum charge rate for the incinerators is 1,870 lbs. per hour per incinerator. Stericycle is in the process of renewing their DAQ permit. The Division of Air Quality and Stericycle are
currently working on a Special Order by Consent (SOC) agreement according to Mr. Nuss. 25. The facility was inspected by the DAQ on June 15, 2022. 26. The DAQ permit states that the maximum charging rate for each incinerator is 1,870 lbs/hour. 27. Facility usually sets the charge rate of each incinerator at 1,860 lbs/hour. The charge rate is set lower at times if needed according to Mr. Yarbrough. Usually 180 pounds of waste is loaded into each incinerator at the rate of 10x/hour to achieve this charge rate. 28. The facility maintains continuous monitoring records of the primary and secondary chamber temperatures. The primary chamber is required to be > 1200 °F and the secondary chamber > 1800 °F [for a minimum of > 1 second]. 29. During the inspection incinerator unit No. 1 was operating at 1940 °F in the lower chamber and 1987 °F in the upper chamber.
30. Mr. Yarbrough stated that the incinerator reduces material in ~ 3 – 4 hours, is batch-fed ~ every 6 minutes, and the ash represents a 70 percent volume reduction. 31. The facility has an Industrial User Pretreatment Permit (IUP, No. 0030) from the City of Graham issued July
1, 2021 – expiration June 30, 2026. 32. Reusable containers are washed with a mycobactericidal disinfectant. The containers are washed on the floor adjacent to the incinerators. Mr. Yarbrough stated that the process water is recycled in the incinerator ash
water-quench process and any wastewater is routed to the municipal sewer/the City of Graham WWTP. 33. Vehicle trailers are cleaned with a pressure washer and mycobactericidal disinfectant in the truck wash bay, when required. Floor drains for the truck wash bay are piped for reuse in the incinerator ash water-quench process. 34. Each incinerator is equipped with an ash removal process. Ash drops from the rear of the incinerator into a water-quench tank. A mechanical arm rakes the ash from the quench tank dragging it up a dewatering ramp. The ash is deposited into a 2 yd3 container. Facility personnel sort-out large pieces of ash (2 - 4 times/hour), raking it into a 30-gallon cart. The sorted ash is re-incinerated. 35. The 2 yd3 containers of ash are dumped into 20 yd3 roll-off containers. The roll-off containers are dewatered on a covered cement slab. Floor drains for the dewatering process are piped for reuse in the incinerator ash water- quench process.
FACILITY COMPLIANCE INSPECTION REPORT
Division of Waste Management
Solid Waste Section

Page 4 of 4

36. The facility takes two representative ash samples annually. Composite samples are gathered from a 20 yd3 roll-off container. The facility has a toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) for the eight RCRA metals [arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium, and silver], paint filter test, and pH
analysis conducted. Mr. Nuss stated that Stericycle has recently started testing for sulfur as well. Records for the last sample taken on August 22, 2022 was provided by Mr. Yarbrough. Samples were analyzed by Environmental Conservation (ENCO) Laboratories.
37. The initial facility waste screening process consists of: generator requirements to properly package and label boxes, drivers are trained to reject boxes if inaccurately packaged and/or labeled, client contract requirement to abide by waste acceptance rules, Stericycle, Inc. sales personnel educate clients about medical waste requirements, additional related information available online or in print and employees undergo training regarding unacceptable waste, routine screening of ash, and the reburning of ash when applicable. 38. The universal biohazard symbol was displayed on trailers stored at the facility. 39. During the inspection, the facility had 5 refrigerated trailers on site containing medical waste. An additional ~9 empty trailers were observed on site. Several maintenance trailers are kept on site and used as a warehouse for extra boxes and supplies according to Mr. Yarbrough. Two trailers containing medical waste were observed this inspection. Trailer 32005R was at 41°F with a full tank of fuel and trailer RF53438 was at 42°F
with a ¾ tank of fuel. Both trailers observed were properly labeled and secured. 40. All trailers observed this inspection appeared to be processed within regulation timeframes. 41. The facility has three back up facilities that can be used in the event waste is not able to be handled at this
facility. 42. No leaking containers were observed this inspection. 43. No putrescent odors were noted this inspection.
44. No exposed or improperly packaged waste was observed this inspection. 45. Mr. Yarbrough stated that Orkin Commercial Services comes out on a monthly schedule to provide vector control. 46. The contingency plan if the incinerator becomes non-operable is any medical waste that can go to the autoclave can go to the Stericycle facility down in Concord, NC and any medical waste that would need to be incinerated can go to competitor incinerators located in Apopka, Florida or Curtis Bay, Maryland. 47. Access roads are of all-weather construction. 48. The facility is secured by a locked gate. 49. The facility had a proper signage. 50. The facility permit number is posted on the gate. An intercom system is accessible. Personnel are at the facility 24 hours, 7 days a week.
51. The permit to operate (PTO) expiration date is November 30, 2021.
52. The PTO renewal application submitted to the SWS on May 12, 2021. Permit renewal currently under review. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns regarding this inspection report.
________________________________________ Phone: [phone] _ Chuck Kirchner Environmental Senior Specialist Regional Representative
Sent on: January 19, 2023 X Email Hand delivery US Mail Certified No. [ _]

Copies: Deb Aja, Western District Supervisor - Solid Waste Section