space Press Releases, News Stories

by Elise Hamner, The World Newspaper, Coos Bay

Idaho-based American Ecology Corp. officials decided Friday to cancel plans to bring the mercury-laden sludge to a hazardous waste dump in Nevada for recycling. Plans were to possibly ship it into the country through Coos Bay.

In fact, the sludge produced at a Formosa Plastics plant in Taiwan won't be headed for any U.S. port for now.

``The Taiwan project has been withdrawn it is no longer under consideration for importation into the United States,'' American Ecology Vice President Steve Romano said Monday.

This was the third time private companies have tried to bring the waste through West Coast ports for disposal or recycling in Nevada. The first two attempts were canceled following opposition in California and Washington.

Friday's decision followed a letter from Gov. John Kitzhaber in which he told company officials it was not appropriate to bring the waste through Oregon.

``Apparently, the only reason to use an Oregon port is to avoid the negative publicity and protests that could occur at California ports,'' Kitzhaber said.

The governor also said Formosa Plastics, one of the world's largest petrochemical companies, should solve its own pollution problems in Taiwan, where it created them.

American Ecology sent out letters of its own Friday, including one to Kitzhaber and a second to the state of Nevada. In the letter to Nevada, Romano wrote that American Ecology's subsidiary US Ecology values its status as a good corporate citizen of Nevada and was canceling its plans. The company rescinded a permit request through Nevada's Environmental Protection Division.

``While we firmly believe this waste could be transported and managed in a safe, environmentally sound manner in compliance with existing laws and regulations, US Ecology respects the input it has received from Nevadans,'' Romano said.

In writing to Kitzhaber, the company said no final decision had been made to ship the wastes through Oregon. Company officials went on to say they were disappointed the United States and world's other developing nations had refused to help Taiwan with its public health problem. They also vowed to continue working with Formosa Plastics to find a solution.

The San Francisco-based environmental group Greenaction, which fought every effort to bring the waste to California, was quick to claim a win in the latest battle to keep the sludge out of the United States.

``This is a victory,'' the group's Executive Director Bradley Angel said Sunday. ``Hopefully now Formosa Plastics will decide to keep its own wastes and deal with it at the plant site.''

That ultimately may not be the case. The environmental groups Greenpeace and the Basel Action Network alleged Monday the Dutch government secretly allowed 32 shipping containers of the toxic waste into the country for incineration. In a press release, the groups said the shipment represented just a fraction of the estimated 9,300 metric tons of the toxic waste stranded on a dock in Taiwan.