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BARGE CARRYING WASTE ASH FACES LONG DOCKING DELAY

By Ed Anderson Capital, Times-Picayune

BATON ROUGE, LOUSIANA, USA, 10 May 2000 -- State environmental officials said Tuesday that it could be "weeks or months" before a barge carrying 14-year-old incinerator ash from Philadelphia might be allowed to dock in the Lake Charles area and deposit its cargo at the Chemical Waste Management landfill.

"This is a unique situation," Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Dale Givens said. "I want to make them realize that we have a situation that has caused controversy and that has alarmed citizens."

Givens said he has ordered Chemical Waste, which is licensed to accept and treat industrial and hazardous wastes, to provide him with a history of the ash's 14-year odyssey; it has been "dug up and reburied and dug up and reburied" several times since it left Pennsylvania and had a lengthy stopover in Haiti.

He said he wants the Chemical Wast to test the ash again to ensure that the material does not violate the terms of the state's permit that lets the company operate in the state. Givens said he also wants Chemical Waste to outline its methods of disposing the ash, show an analysis of its contents and certify that the Cartlyss facility can properly "handle, process and store" the ash.

"The ball is in their court," Givens said. "It could take them several weeks to get these reports to us, and then we will have to verify them. ... The process could take from weeks to months. We must be absolutely certain that the ash is safe for storage in Louisiana and that proper precautions are taken if the waste is to be shipped to this state."

There is no deadline for the company to perform the test or submit its plan of disposal to the state, Givens said.

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