Trash Industry Feels Left Out of Critical Infrastructure List – CQ Homeland Security
When the federal government decides which critical infrastructure workers should have priority access to influenza vaccines during pandemic outbreaks, it forgot one sector – trash collection, according to a group that represents the industry.
The problem dates back to 2003, when President George W. Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7, according to Jamie Conrad, a lawyer representing a coalition of waste management entities. The directive identified several areas of “critical infrastructure,” from drinking water and wastewater treatment to energy production, banking and agriculture. Solid waste, however, didn’t make the list, a factor Conrad attributed to the fact that the order was concentrating on a terrorist attack, not a widespread disease.
