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ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS PROTEST SHIPMENT OF MERCURY TO INDIA

Associated Press

ORRINGTON, Maine, USA, 28 December 2000 -- Environmental groups are protesting the shipment of tons of mercury from the shuttered HoltraChem Manufacturing Co. plant to an undisclosed location in India. Forty tons of mercury already have been shipped to a licensed facility, Mercury Waste Solutions Inc., in Albany, N.Y., said plant manager Dave Baillargeon. Eventually, the mercury is expected to be transported to India. The Penobscot Alliance for Mercury Elimination says that it and other activist groups in the United States and India are joining forces "to prevent the export of a 130-ton stockpile of used and toxic mercury."

Greenpeace, Toxics Link and Basel Action Network were cited as groups joining the Penobscot Alliance, the Maine People's Alliance and the Natural Resources Council of Maine in the protest. "This import can pre-empt fledgling attempts by Indian groups to frame rules to handle existing mercury contamination and to find alternatives to mercury," said Basel Action Network spokeswoman Ravi Agarwal in in New Delhi.

Although the exact destination of the stockpiled mercury is not known, one of the world's largest manufacturers of mercury-containing thermometers is in India, said Michael Belliveau of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Baillargeon said Wednesday that the protests have been ineffective in keeping mercury from being shipped. He anticipates an additional 15 tons to 18 tons of mercury will be removed over the next several weeks. "I haven't seen where the protests have deterred the process,"

Baillargeon said. "Mercury is a marketable commodity and we are well within our legal rights to move it."

The Orrington plant was shut down on Sept. 15 after coming under fire for years because of mercury emissions. That criticism from environmentalists intensified when the company had seven mercury leaks and spills within 13 months in 1997 and 1998. The company cited high energy and transportation costs and low prices for the plant's output as some of the reasons for closing the plant.

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