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by Chris Stetkiewicz, World Wire, Reuters SEATTLE, USA, 7 April 2000 -- The container ship Wan He sits at Terminal-18 in Seattle's Elliott Bay after the ship arrived late Wednesday from Yokohama, Japan, carrying 14 containers (110 tons) of toxic waste from U.S. military bases in Japan. Local longshoremen said they would not unload 110 tons of toxic U.S. military waste aboard a ship at the Port of Seattle Thursday after environmental groups threatened to sue to keep it out of the country. Local 19 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) lost an arbitration hearing overnight, forcing it to unload the cargo, laced with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), from U.S. military bases in Japan. But a filing of intent to sue by Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund convinced the ILWU to stall again, Local 19 President Scott Reid said. "We're surprised by the lawsuit, but we're not unhappy that somebody took action to stop this from happening," Reid said. The United States prohibits imports of foreign-produced PCBs, even from its own military facilities overseas, but the Environmental Protection Agency had granted a special permit to store the containers in Seattle for up to 30 days. The environmentalists say the EPA has no legal authority to make exceptions and the lawsuit would name the longshoremen, the EPA, the Defense Department and its contractors plus the port and shipping companies as defendants. "The big issue is waste traveling around looking for a home. People don't know how volatile it is and federal law prohibits its disposal here," said Patti Goldman, an Earthjustice attorney. Chris Cain of the Post-WTO Coalition wears a gas mask and carries a sign reading "EPA Do Your Job!" near the container ship Wan He in Seattle's Elliott Bay. Asked about the potential hazard of leaving the cargo on board the ship, the Panamanian-flagged Wan He operated by China Ocean Shipping Co., during any legal proceedings, Goldman said she did not have enough information to comment. An Ontario disposal company had originally agreed to accept the 14 containers of electrical equipment but Canada refused to allow the Port of Vancouver to handle the shipment after complaints from environmentalists. Washington Gov. Gary Locke had urged federal officials to keep the waste on the Wan He until the state could verify Pentagon claims that the material was safe. "The governor does not favor unloading this boat," Locke's press secretary Dana Middleton told Reuters. "We don't want it assumed that when hazardous cargo is destined for another country and that country doesn't take it that we will." EPA inspectors have found the cargo to be stable with no potentially toxic leaks, said Richard Mednick, a lawyer with the local EPA office. But Mednick agreed that the EPA may have overstepped its authority in exempting the shipment, a normally lengthy process requiring a public comment period. "It's a way of doing business that I'm not familiar with," Mednick said, adding that legally the waste should return to Japan, but that it may be safer to store it in Seattle, whether legal or not. The Pentagon and its contractor, Trans-Cycle Industries, insist that the PCB content is extremely low and no more dangerous than that in refrigerators and other equipment routinely handled by disposal crews. "My understanding is that this is safe and not something that will be disposed of in (the Seattle) area," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Campbell told Reuters. Campbell said the waste would not stay in Seattle for more than the 30 days sanctioned by the EPA. He could not say where the shipment might ultimately wind up. If the safety claims prove true, the state would likely drop its objections and allow the cargo to be sent by truck or rail to disposal facilities in Oregon and Idaho. A Coast Guard official Wednesday said the shipping agent handling the cargo had found at least five countries willing to take the cargo.
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