Some 140 barrels of Ebola-related waste taken from the North Dallas apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan stayed with his fiancée and three children has been moved to a different, undisclosed location, according to leaders in North Texas.
Video from Chopper 5 showed Dallas County sheriff's deputies providing security at the site until the barrels can be taken away for incineration at a separate, unnamed location.
The U.S. Department of Transportation granted a special permit last Friday which allows one company, Stericycle of Illinois, the exclusive right to transport any and all Ebola-related waste in Texas through the end of November.
Stericycle is the largest transport and treatment company in the country, according to the company's website.
In late September, the governor of Utah called for a criminal investigation into alleged emissions violations at a medical waste incinerator Stericycle owns and operates north of Salt Lake City.
The criminal investigation is one of three the state of Utah is conducting on the Stericycle incinerator. An investigation by the Department of Environmental Quality is looking into possible regulatory violations relating to Stericycle's permits, and the Utah Labor Commission is looking into potential violations of occupational safety and health standards that would endanger workers at the site, according to a statement on the official website for Utah Gov. Frank Herbert.
"The governor has directed the investigations to be completed as soon as possible. If any of the allegations are ultimately substantiated, he intends to use his full authority take swift and aggressive corrective action," said a statement from Herbert.
As of this writing, a Stericycle spokesperson has not returned a request for comment regarding the investigations. The company had told other news organizations late last month that the allegations were "inaccurate and unfounded."
A Department of Transportation spokesperson told NBC 5 the agency is aware of the Utah allegations, but added that the DOT did not select Stericycle for the handling of Ebola waste.
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Instead, according to the agency, the DOT only reviewed and approved Stericycle's permit application.
The DOT referred any questions to the selection of Stericycle for the contract to Texas Health Resources, which runs Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where Duncan is receiving treatment.
Texas Health Resources has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Stericycle has had recent, prior experience handling Ebola-contaminated medical waste. The company holds a medical waste removal and disposal contract with Emory University's Hospital in Atlanta, the same hospital where Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, the two American missionaries who were among the first to contract Ebola, were taken for treatment in August.
The Reuters news agency reported in September that Stericycle initially refused to honor its waste hauling contract, specifically in regard to Ebola waste. It wasn't until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stepped in after nearly a week that Stericycle ultimately complied, according to that report.
