Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Aegis Offers City Royalties If Facility Located On Property

A medical waste company is literally begging the Prescott City Council to allow it to operate in the city.

Jim Rayburn, with AEGIS Bio-Medical, told the council at its regular meeting Monday, July 17, the company is based in Edmond, Okla.

This, he said, is a good situation for both the city and the company. Medical waste is a heavily regulated industry having to follow guidelines established by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Arkansas Department of Health.

Aegis, Rayburn told the council, would treat medical waste generated by area hospitals, clinics, funeral homes and veterinary offices, among others, and take it to the landfill for burial.

The treatment process sterilizes the disposed waste by a steam process and grinds it up making it 85 percent smaller than when it was first hauled in.

According to Rayburn, the company is asking the city for about two acres of land near the old landfill for the operation to be set up. The company also requires all utilities be available and installed at the location.

In return, he said, the company will put a building on the property, keep the site clean and pay the city royalties amounting to 1.75 cents a pound on all amounts up to 100,000 pounds per month. This would generate about $21,000 a year for the city's coffers.

Studies, Rayburn said, show the company should be generating about 100,000 pounds of treated waste after about six months of being in operation in the area.

Aegis, he said, uses a patented system for treating the waste, and is the only company in the nation using this process.

The waste is sterilized in an autoclave at 250 degrees Fahrenheit at 15 pounds per square inch for 30 minutes. It is then tested to make sure all bacteria is dead. If not, the process is repeated until there is no bacteria present.

From there, the waste is ground up and discharged from the side of the machine into storage bins for transportation to the landfill.

In this case, the landfill would be in Nashville, with the company paying the tipping fees for the waste it generates. "This is the cleanest thing going into the landfill," Rayburn told the council.

The waste, he said, will be hauled to the site in Department of Transportation approved enclosed trailers. These trailers will be small enough to be pulled behind pickup trucks.

According to Rayburn, the trailers will be sealed to prevent any spillage and won't be opened once they leave the medical facility until they reach the treatment site.

Once emptied, the trailers are sprayed with a sterilizing agent to prevent any possibility of any kind of contamination.

Rayburn said the waste would be treated in Prescott twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays.

In addition, the trailers will be screened for any type of radiation before leaving the initial pick-up site. Should radiation be present, the trailers will be treated in a hospital decay room.

"If materials are radioactive," he said, "they couldn't be loaded because an alarm would go off. We go to great lengths to put safety in our machines."

Aegis, he said, has been operating in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas since 1985 in different capacities.

The company installed the first mobile magnetic resonance imaging machine in Texas, has a cancer treatment center in Oklahoma and has a history of operating high-tech medical equipment.

Aegis, Rayburn said, is looking to contract with clients within a 100 mile radius of Prescott if the city approves the deal, adding 100 clinics were found to be located within a 26-mile radius.

Another benefit the company would be providing, he said, would be taking unused land and making it useful, while hiring people to haul waste.

At first only five or six people would be hired, but, he said, within five years this would be increased to 20, with salaries ranging from $9 to $16 per hour. All employees would be hired locally as well.

Rayburn said the city may also be eligible for CDBG grants with the facility located in Prescott.If the council approves the company coming in, Rayburn said it could be operational in 60 to 90 days.

When asked why Prescott was selected as a site for the facility, Rayburn said one of their employees is from Prescott and recommended the company locate there.

In addition, he said, Prescott provides a central location in the region the company is looking to expand into.

Those facilities generating the medical waste, he continued, are now having to have it hauled to either Memphis, Tenn., or Springhill, La. The shorter hauling distance to Prescott could also save them money in transportation costs.

Once the waste arrives at either Memphis or Springhill, he said, it is burned in an incinerator. However, the problem with this is the EPA is working to close incinerators because of the pollutants they put in the air, many of which are carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents.

The system will treat all types of waste, including sharps, bandages, cotton balls, cultures, culture dishes, wipes and fluids.

For the fluids, he said, the company has a 200 gallon holding tank. This is also treated before being discharged and there will be no contamination of ground water once the waste has been buried in the landfill.

Sue Casteel, with the ADH, said from what she's seen this is a safe process, but the permit requires the landowners in the proposed site area be contacted to see if they have a problem with it.

Then a public meeting will be held to give others a chance to voice their opinion on the matter.

Rayburn, on further questioning, said the company will offer its employees full medical and dental benefits and is working on a 401k retirement plan.

Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor created a Health Committee to look into the situation and report to the council at its August meeting. This committee includes Karen Ward, Dick Bright, Howard Austin and James Cornelius.

At this time, Aegis is working with St. Michael Medical Center and Wadley Regional Hospital in Texarkana, along with St. Paul Hospital, John Peter Smith Hospital, Harris-Methodist HFB, Baylor-Richardson Hospital and Doctor's Hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The equipment used to treat the waste is the JYD-1500 mobile biomedical waste treatment system, a van-trailer configuration about 46 feet long, 8 = feet wide and 13 = feet tall.

It is composed of a hydraulic container lift, hopper and feeder, primary shredder, secondary shredder, two conveyors, an autoclave vessel, steam generator, discharge conveyor and a control system.

It is capable of treating a minimum of 1,500 pounds of waste per hour under normal field conditions.

Should the council approve the company locating in Prescott, the next step would be for the city and company to submit an application to the State of Arkansas, with Aegis submitting a site plan.

When the site plan is approved, the company will acquire the required permits and begin operation once the permits have been approved.