Nesquehoning officials are allowing a second proposed medical waste processing facility to move forward with its plans.

Nesquehoning Planning Commission recently granted conditional approval for Bio-Haz Solutions' plans for installing a medical waste processing facility at its location off Tonoli Road along Route 54 between Lake Hauto and the Hauto Valley Estates.Bio-Haz, owned by David Henritzy, currently operates out of that site as a medical waste transportation company, but does not process any medical waste at this time.During the meeting, the planning commission focused mainly on the difference in processing procedures between Bio-Haz's proposal and Alpha Bio-Med/Sharp's Compliance, another medical waste processing facility that opened this month about a mile east.Henritzy explained that the Clean Waste Systems OMW-1000 machines purify the medical waste using ozone, a commonly occurring element found in nature, through a process called HumidiZone.He best described ozone as the after-product of an electrical storm, when the air smells "clean."The cutting-edge processing uses ozone to kill the bacteria in the medical waste, much like Sharp's autoclave/steam process, but without the need for excessive water and discharge and with no smell at all."In our system, we chop up the waste and mix ozone in while it goes into the container," he told the planning commission. "Ozone is a better way of killing (bacteria) than steam."Henritzy said he also chose using an ozone method because it can be a "one-man operation," and credited Carbon Engineering of Summit Hill for being instrumental in getting the ozone system certified in Pennsylvania.Henritzy plans to submit an application for a permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. He said that his timeline for the project was pushed back indefinitely due to a number of factors, including the DEP permit.About the companyBio-Haz Solutions was founded in 1995 in the Lehighton area by Henritzy, a lifelong resident of Carbon County.It currently serves as a medical waste transportation company throughout the state and in parts of Maryland and Virginia, and employs 15 people and serves approximately 4,000 customers, picking up medical waste from doctors' offices, nursing homes, hospitals, veterinarian offices and other medical facilities.If the plans go through, the company will expand to approximately 30 jobs at the site and operate 16 hours a day, five days a week.Henritzy said previously that he chose the Nesquehoning site because it met the company's needs, which included three-phase electricity, water and sewage.Henritzy took ownership of the building in 2014.Proposed plansThe plans for the site call for building a 50-by-54-foot addition onto the existing building for the installation of two medical waste treatment units, improving access and paved parking areas.Waste expected to be processed at the site is regulated medical waste, meaning injection needles and medical waste from doctors' offices and other medical facilities, as well as nursing homes or veterinarian offices.The medical waste comes in containerized either in reusable plastic containers or bagged and boxed for transport.The waste is put into a cart, which is pushed into the Clean Waste System machine.From there, according to Clean Waste System's step-by-step description of the process, the only step humans have to take after loading a cart into the machine is to push the start button. Once that button is pushed, the cart filled with waste is hoisted, weighed and dumped into the system.Items are shredded into small particles and ozone is pumped into the container to begin the purification process.The shredded materials are transferred into a sealed treatment bin, treated again to ensure sterilization before being hauled to a municipal landfill for disposal.