RICHARD STEPHENS / PVT Visitors to the new facility enjoy a tour. RICHARD STEPHENS / PVT Beatty High and Middle School band members made sure there was some good music on hand. RICHARD STEPHENS / PVT Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley cuts the ceremonial ribbon to mark the official opening. RICHARD STEPHENS / PVT Site Manager Bob Marchand, in blue hat, explains the site arrangement to visitors. Advertisement

BEATTY -- US Ecology Nevada, south of Beatty on Highway 160, recently opened a new $3 million facility for processing liquid hazardous waste.

Steve Romano, CEO of the parent company, American Ecology, said that it was, at the moment, "the best state-of-the-art hazardous waste facility in the United States."

Members of the Beatty High and Middle School bands played music for the occasion, and Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley was on hand to do the honors in the ribbon-cutting ceremony. She called US Ecology a "good citizen of our county."

US Ecology is a major employer in Beatty, and several employees also commute from Pahrump in a company van.

Invited guests, many of them customers, were given a tour of the new plant, which is housed in a 15,000-square-foot, 34-feet-tall steel building.

Site manager Bob Marchand explained the function and safety features of the major pieces of equipment. He also took guests outside for a look at some of the site's other facilities, particularly the vacuum ovens used to remove organic contaminants from waste.

Treating and disposing of hazardous waste is a complex process governed by strict legal guidelines. Waste must be chemically analyzed before treatment to determine what materials are present and to help devise a "recipe" for neutralizing, stabilizing, or eliminating hazardous components.

After treatment, it is analyzed again to verify it meets required standards. Liquid wastes must also be solidified before being permanently stored.

High performance dust control systems and other measures are employed to prevent escape of hazardous materials during treatment.

Romano said that one of the selling points of the Beatty site for customers is that its favorable geology and remote location greatly minimized waste producers' "risk profile" for legal action and constitute "the best liability protection you can get."

The site is on state-owned land, and is surrounded by a buffer zone leased by the state from the Bureau of Land Management.

The new facility increases US Ecology Nevada's waste processing "throughput," and will alleviate some scheduling problems experienced in the past. The site, which opened in the 1960s, is projected to be able to operate another 20 to 30 years before reaching capacity.