Disposal services’ trash talking spills over into litigation

Bill Gang

Thursday, March 26, 1998 | 10:28 a.m.

The trash war is heating up between Silver State Disposal Service and US EnviroMedical Corp. (US Med) over control of medical waste disposal in Clark County.

A lawsuit filed by Silver State in February contends that US Med is encroaching on Silver State's trash turf by luring away customers with bio-medical waste that must be specially treated before it can be taken to a landfill.

US Med retaliated with a counterclaim filed Tuesday charging Silver State is trying to "destroy" US Med's business by denying it access to Silver State's Apex dumpsite north of Las Vegas unless an unusually high fee is paid.

According to the counterclaim filed by attorney Michael Singer, Silver State has violated its franchise agreement with Clark County that the landfill be open to the public.

The cost to US Med to have its waste transported to an Arizona landfill is more than $1 million a year, the legal documents state.

"This is a very political issue," said David Chesnoff, one of US Med's attorneys at a recent court hearing.

Silver State's attorney John Moran alleged when the lawsuit was filed in February that the handling of bio-medical waste by US Med has been improper and a "health hazard."

US Med is in the spotlight after a makeshift dump, filled with apparently untreated medical waste, was discovered under a concrete pad in the North Las Vegas company's yard at 3890 Walnut St.

Ironically, North Las Vegas Police called in Silver State's medical waste division, Environmental Technologies of Nevada Inc., to clean up the site.

Although Moran has claimed that the waste was mishandled, Silver State's lawsuit actually focuses on the allegation that US Med improperly lured away customers that legally belonged to Environmental Technologies.

"Since 1995, US Med has actively and wrongfully ... coerced the medical waste generators into contracting with US Med through misrepresentations and untruths," the lawsuit stated.

The counterclaim contends it is Silver State that is making misrepresentations.

The legal document claims that after US Med began collecting University Medical Center's waste, Silver State alleged that the refuse wasn't being treated and transported according to the contract.

"Part of the information provided to the county commissioners was a photograph purporting to depict the improper handling," the counterclaim stated.

But the photo was taken several days before the UMC contract went into effect, Singer noted in court documents alleging that Silver State has been illegally interfering in US Med's contracts.

In addition to UMC, US Med also handles the waste for such hospitals as Sunrise, Valley and North Las Vegas.

One alleged misrepresentation by US Med, according to the Silver State lawsuit, is that its waste elimination process is cheaper, safer and quicker than that of Environmental Technologies and that waste is properly sterilized.

"US Med's alleged medical waste elimination process is technologically improbable and, at a minimum, incapable of processing a finished non-contaminated product," the lawsuit contends.

Moran alleged that US Med also is illegally recycling products when only Silver State has the right to do that in Clark County.

US Med's Chief Executive Officer Dennis Danzik countered last week, "They want to protect a monopoly ... but we've knocked them out of the medical waste business. That's the reason for the lawsuit."

The counterclaim is asking that Silver State's lawsuit be dismissed and that US Med be awarded in excess of $3 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

The case has been assigned to District Judge Nancy Becker, but no date has been set for a hearing.