"Al Gore's Conscience" Radio Spot

Contact:

Jennifer O’Donnell, area director, Ohio Citizen Action 330/329-6208 (mobile, in LA through 8/18) or 330/375-5277 (Ohio office)

Terri Swearingen, registered nurse from Chester, WV and winner of the 1997 Goldman Prize (by phone 330-374-8987)




Opponents of the Waste Technologies Industries (WTI) hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio are in Los Angeles to remind Vice President Al Gore of his 1992 promise to stop the incinerator from operating. Ohio Citizen Action has produced a 30-second radio spot, “Al Gore’s Conscience,” and is working to raise funds to run the spot this fall. The radio spot can be accessed through Ohio Citizen Action’s home page, www.ohiocitizen.org.

In 1992, on the campaign trail and after winning election to the vice presidency, Al Gore promised that he would not allow the WTI hazardous waste incinerator to open:

"Serious questions concerning the safety of an East Liverpool, Ohio, hazardous waste incinerator must be answered before the plant may begin operation, Vice President-elect Al Gore said today, announcing that he and his colleagues...are asking the General Accounting Office for a full investigation. And, Gore said, the new Clinton-Gore administration would not issue the plant a test burn permit until those questions are answered.”

— Office of the Vice President-elect, press release,December 7, 1992

Yet, within weeks, the plant received the green light for commercial operation. Gore did nothing to stop it, even though legal experts and EPA officials said the Clinton-Gore administration could have revoked the permit as soon as they took office.

WTI sits on the bank of the Ohio River. Four hundred children attend East Elementary School 1,100 feet away, on a hill slightly below the top of the incinerator’s stack.

The incinerator’s permitted emissions include lead, mercury and dioxin. http://www.ohiocitizen.org/campaigns/prevention/wti/goreradio.html