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ARMY WASTE ARRIVES IN SEATTLE

by Erin Van Bronkhorst, Associated Press

SEATTLE, U.S.A., 6 April 2000 -- A ship carrying PCB-contaminated transformers from U.S. Army bases in Japan has docked in Seattle, where the material was to be unloaded for a temporary stay.

The Wan He arrived Wednesday with 110 tons of transformers, other electrical equipment, oil, circuit breakers, packing material, rags and other debris, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Campbell said.

PCBs, or polychlorinated bipheyls, are used in heavy electrical equipment and other industrial applications. Banned by the federal government in 1977, the have been linked to cancer in laboratory animals.

The Pentagon needs to store the Army waste while the contractor, Trans-Cycle Industries of Pell City, Ala., and defense officials figure out how to dispose of it. It will put in a Seattle-area warehouse.

The environmental group Greenpeace said the waste should never have left Japan and protesters were on hand when the ship arrived.

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

"It's common for toxic junk to be refused at ports and then offloaded in the first convenient port, usually in Asia, Africa or Latin America, he said, but "today it's happening in Seattle."

Batker said he believes the waste should be returned to Japan to be destroyed or placed in the United States after a permitting process.

Trans-Cycle had planned to unload the waste in Vancouver, British Columbia, for shipment to the company's recycling operation at Kirkland Lake in northern Ontario.

But that site is limited to handling waste generated in Canada, said John Steele, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

Michael Zarin of New York, a lawyer for Trans-Cycle, downplayed the risk from the shipment, saying the transformers are "essentially scrap metal."

FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a `fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond `fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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