space Press Releases, News Stories

by Mike Barber and Scott Sunde, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A container ship carrying highly toxic waste from U.S. Army bases in Japan arrived in Seattle last night, but Longshore workers warned that they would not offload the Hazardous cargo.

Union members and environmentalists had been waiting for the Wan He to arrive and demanded that the cargo remain on board.

Last night's protests culminated a day of angry words and hasty negotiations between the governor's office, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Defense Department in Washington, D.C.

The ship's cargo consists of transformers, electrical equipment, oil, circuit breakers, packing material, rags and other debris that contains PCBs, a suspected carcinogen. Accumulations of the chemical can cause hormonal and neurological damage.

Yesterday, the EPA decided that the 14 containers Holding the waste would be unloaded in Seattle. They would be stored here for no more than 30 days. The decision angered environmentalists.

"It's outrageous that the EPA would approve this when it's quite clearly illegal," said Dave Batker of the Seattle-based Asia-Pacific Environmental Exchange, which tracks shipments of toxic waste around the world.

Last night, amid chants of "Don't dump on Seattle," the mood among the 30 or so protesters took on a festive tone: One man played a banjo, another a tuba.

They sang and chanted and skipped to keep warm. One person wore a gas mask while someone else passed out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

But their message, they said, was important: The Highly toxic materials should not be allowed to be stored in Seattle.

"We're out here to try to convince the brother longshoreman not to unload the waste," said Miguel Guzman, of the Teamsters Local 174.

The ship's cargo has been the center of controversy throughout the week. It was supposed to be unloaded in Vancouver, B.C. But Canadian officials refused to allow the material to Be disposed of at an Ontario site. On Monday, the Vancouver Port Authority said it would not allow the cargo in its facilities.

Last night, longshoremen in Seattle were saying they would not offload the dangerous cargo. At 10:15 p.m., one longshoreman, who did not want to be named, said the union and the company that hires them to unload the ships were negotiating.

The union has a long history of refusing to unload cargo for political and other reasons. Last summer, a similar threat helped to stop toxic waste from being shipped to Tacoma from Taiwan.

Local 19 President Scott Reid confirmed that the union had discussed the issue all day with the shipping company and Port of Seattle officials, but he declined to comment about the union's decision.

No one, it seemed, from Gov. Gary Locke to Greenpeace and other environmental groups that picketed Terminal 18 last night, wanted the stuff in Seattle.

The Defense Department's contractor, Trans-Cycle Industries, must perform tests on the material and find a place to dispose of it, the EPA ordered.

Locke and his top aides spent much of yesterday afternoon protesting the EPA decision to federal officials. Locke, who spoke to Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Sherri Goodman late in the afternoon, said the Defense Department assured him that it would find permanent disposal within 30 days.

"We want it out of here as soon as possible," Locke said. "This waste was produced in another country, and it has no business being in Washington."

Officials for Locke's administration said they learned of the EPA's decision about noon and protested. They said they were still looking at options, but it appears the state has no authority to block shipment.

Locke said yesterday the state would nonetheless monitor the storage of the contaminated materials "very, very carefully" to ensure it meets the criteria set by the EPA.

At the Ecology Department, the manager of the state's toxic-materials program expressed frustration at the decision to allow the cargo to remain in Seattle.

"We don't want them to store it there. We want them to have a long-term solution," said Greg Sorlie.

The Port of Seattle did not want the business. But spokesman Doug Williams said it had little choice.

"The port is kind of between a rock and a hard place," he said.

Activists in the environmental community rallied against the shipment yesterday near Harbor Island's Terminal 18. The Wan He of the China Ocean Shipping Co. berthed at that terminal.

The groups' goal is to have the ship return to Japan with its controversial cargo, and to go through the proper public accountability process before transporting it, said Batker.

He spoke at a press conference with Greenpeace and other environmental groups last night.

"This is our port, it is not a hazardous waste storage site," Batker said.

"This was supposed to go to Canada but was refused when their government found out. This is an example of what happens when toxic waste is refused in one country; it's dumped in a port of opportunity."

Darryl Luscombe of Greenpeace International called the issue "a major international problem."

"It calls attention to the millions of pounds of waste the U.S. Department of Defense has stockpiled in Japan. The Department of Defense has the responsibility to clean the waste up and to do it in a responsible manner," he said.

Leslie Ryan of the Tacoma-based Citizens for a Healthy Bay, said: "These issues aren't going away, this is the reality of the global economy. NIMBY (not in my back yard) is not just community vs. community anymore; it's country vs. country."

Meanwhile, the Defense Department tried to allay concerns, suggesting that the public had little to fear. Gerda Parr of the Defense Logistics Agency said the PCB concentrations were less than 50 parts per million.

That was little consolation in Seattle. "It may be low concentration," said Sorlie, the Ecology Department manager. "It's still toxic waste, and it's DOD's problem to deal with."

Parr said the concentration was low enough that Trans-Cycle Industries did not need Canadian approval to dispose of the cargo at the company's Ontario site.

But Canadian officials decided the permit for the Ontario site barred it from disposing of waste generated Outside Canada, said Emmanuel Mendoza of Canada's environmental agency.

"The Department of Defense and TCI needed to communicate with us. They didn't. That's why there's the mix-up," Mendoza said.

The Wan He left Yokohama, Japan, on March 24. The company did not learn until after that date that it could not take the material to Ontario, said Parr.

The ship arrived in Long Beach, Calif., earlier this month, then Trans-Cycle Industries learned that it could not take the material to Vancouver. Officials with the company at its Pell City, Ala., offices refused to comment yesterday.

The EPA regulates PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), and its rules bar the substance from being imported into the United States without an exemption.

In fact, the Coast Guard in Seattle issued an order Monday forbidding the cargo to be unloaded here without EPA approval. The Coast Guard's order refers to the PCBs as "a severe marine pollutant."

So the Defense Department and the EPA tried to work out a solution. The result was a letter sent to Trans-Cycle Industries' president yesterday by Steven Herman, an EPA assistant administrator in charge of enforcement.

He wrote that the agency won't take enforcement action and will allow the cargo to be unloaded and stored. But the company must:

Put the cargo in a bonded warehouse at the Port of Seattle that meets the requirements for PCB storage and that will allow EPA inspectors access to check the cargo.

Provide the EPA with any sampling data on the cargo within 48 hours.

Not store the cargo for more than 30 days and use the time to test it for PCB concentrations and find a site for disposal.

For those who carried picket signs outside Terminal 18 last night, the issue brought home the realities that were discussed and disputed during the volatile WTO conference here last fall.

"This is an example of the U.S. trading away our environment," said Robin Denburg.

And Chris Cain, of the Post-WTO Coalition, said, "The whole gist of WTO was that a lot of people came together to protest the wrongs and issues that have been going on in secrecy. We're not going to take it anymore."