space Press Releases, News Stories

Waste Policy Alert, Washingon DC

A coalition of environmental groups based in the United States and South Africa, as well as the state of Minnesota, Jan.20 called on the Department of

Justice to file indictments against the Borden Chemical and Plastics company for alleged violations of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act international waste shipment notification requirements.

Sources close to the issue say the Congressional Black Caucus is weighing whether to send a letter to DOJ in an effort to have charges brought against the company, one caucus source says, noting it is still too early to tell whether the letter will be sent.

The coalition-- including Greenpeace and Sierra Club-- argue that Borden knowingly violated RCRA's notification laws when it shipped thousands of gallons of mercury-bearing waste to a South African chemical plant. According to sources with the coalition, the groups are making a major push for indictments because the statue of limitations on the case expires Jan.27.

A Borden official says that while the company sent waste to South Africa for recycling, when the South African company no longer recycled the waste, Borden terminated the contract. Federal hazardous waste management rules exempt from manifest requirements transboundary shipment of waste for recycling purposes.

The environmentalist' and state' request comes as EPA officials are considering what form of disposal the agency should recommend the South African government use to dispose of the nearly 10,000 barrels of mercury-containing wastes stored at the facility (see related story).

Between 1986 and 1994, Borden allegedly shipped hundred of thousands of gallons of mercury-bearing organic wastes from its Geismar, LA, plant to Thor Chemicals' Cato Ridge, Natal, South Africa for recycling.

But Greenpeace and South African environmentalists allege Thor was not recycling the waste but was instead storing it on-site. Greenpeace charges that Borden should have known that the waste was not being recycled and should have halted shipments to the facility after Greenpeace made its concerns public in 1994. In the Jan.20 letter, the group also points to "widespread news reports of contamination at Thor," similar problems at the facility in the 1980s and an on-site visit conducted by Borden officials as further evidence that the company should have known the waste was not being recycled.

Because of the "evidence," environmentalists are pressing DOJ officials to bring formal criminal charges against the company. "U.S. companies should not be allowed to export their waste and poison people and environments in other countries," one source with the South African Exchange Program for Environmental Justice argues. According to a second source with the coalition, environmentalists also want DOJ to require Borden to help mitigate any contamination that may have occurred at the Thor site and pay disposal costs.