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PHILADELPHIA INCINERATOR ASH TO RETURN FROM HAITI TO THE U.S.

For Immediate Release

Oct. 29, 1998, Basel Action Network -- Over 11 years after 4,000 tons of Philadelphia incinerator ash were dumped on a beach in Gonaives, Haiti, work starts tomorrow to clean up the ash return it to the United States. The ash was dumped there in January 1988, after a 16-month odyssey around the east coast of the U.S. and the Caribbean on board the cargo ship Khian Sea. On Oct. 30, 1998, U.S. and Haitian workers will begin excavating the ash and preparing it for shipping.

The Khian Sea scandal was the first documented case U.S. waste dumping in the Third World, and helped lead to the negotiation of an international treaty to ban such exports.(1) The dumping caused an immediate outcry in Haiti, yet despite repeated efforts by environmentalists over the years, both the City of Philadelphia and the U.S. government refused to take responsibility for what happened.

Efforts to repatriate the waste were re-ignited in the spring of 1997, when the New York City Trade Waste Commission conditioned a trash hauling license for Eastern Environmental Services on a contribution to clean-up of the ash. Eastern is a successor company to Joseph Paolino and Sons, which was the contractor to Philadelphia for the Khian Sea ash.

Eastern has contributed $225,000 to the project, in funds controlled by the Trade Waste Commission. Mayor Ed Rendell of Philadelphia has pledged $50,000. (2) The balance, some $75,000 - $150,000, will be paid by the Government of Haiti.

"This is a day of accomplishment and hope for the people of Haiti, who have never given up the effort to clean up this waste," said Bill Walsh, director of Greenpeace's toxic campaign. "The City of Philadelphia simply refused to take responsibility for its own waste, and Mayor Rendell was content to leave the toxic ash in Haiti forever. Fortunately, there are individuals and agencies with a more developed sense of right and wrong, and they have come to the rescue. We congratulate the Government of Haiti, the New York City Trade Waste Commission, the environmental group COHPEDA and many other people who helped make this happen."

The ash is scheduled to leave Gonaives on board the bulk carrier Elena Marie for the U.S. in mid - November. The ash, which contains toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium, is classified by the USEPA as non-hazardous special waste and will be disposed of at a landfill licensed to accept such waste.

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(1) The Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste prohibits export of hazardous waste from industrialized countries to developing countries. The U.S. has not ratified the Convention.

2) The City of Philadelphia still claims it bears no responsibility for the ash in Haiti, but made the contribution of $50,000 under pressure from activists last spring. The City saved $630,000 in disposal fees for the ash on board the Khian Sea.

Note: A full chronology and background information about the history of the Khian Sea and Project Return To Sender can be found at www.essential.org/action

contact Kenny Bruno 718 788 4402

Damu Smith 202 319 2410

 

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