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Kaiser Permanente Medical Center is edging closer to approval of a proposed medical-waste processing system, air pollution officials say. But neighborhood activists continue to fight the project.
The system at Kaiser's Allied Gardens hospital will use electricity to turn waste into an inert, glassy slag, said Marlin Springer, vice president of Plasma Energy Applied Technology, Inc., the Alabama-based firm bidding to build the system. The process is technically called plasma pyrolysis.
The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District is close to finishing its review of the project, said Richard Smith, deputy director of the APCD.
Studies have shown the system operates within allowable pollution limits, Smith said. The district is now reviewing public comments and questions about the project's operation.
Once a separate review by the county Department of...