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HAITI-TOXIC WASTE

by MICHAEL NORTON of the Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP), March 13, 1998--A U.S. church group protested in front of the American Embassy on Friday, demanding the removal of 4,000 tons of allegedly toxic ash dumped in Haiti a decade ago. The ash, from a garbage incinerator in Philadelphia, had been transported aboard a cargo ship which wandered the oceans between 1986 and 1988, seeking to dispose of it. At least 10 countries refused.

In December 1987, the ship's crew unloaded about 4,000 tons of the ash, labeled "soil fertilizer," near Gonaives, Haiti. Its captain later testified that he was ordered to dump the remaining 10,000 tons into the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

A 12-member Witness for Peace delegation visited the dump site this week in Lapierre, a seaside town about 100 miles north of Port-au-Prince, and protested outside the embassy on Friday.

Eight of the protesters were from the Philadelphia area.

"My garbage was burned in Philadelphia. Now it's in Gonaives," said Ray Torres, 46. "It's a moral outrage."

In 1987, the U.S. Embassy tried to dissuade Haiti from accepting the ash, arguing it didn't have proper facilities to handle it. Haitian officials tried to seal the ash in concrete but were interrupted by a June 1988 coup d'etat. Since then, three men employed to handle the ash have died as a result of contamination, said Alex Beauchamp, secretary-general of the Haitian Collective for Environmental Protection and Alternative Development. His claim couldn't be immediately verified.

National and international ecology groups claim that hundreds of goats died after wandering near the ash heap. Greenpeace says the ash contains harmful metals such as lead and mercury, Beauchamp said.

"If the ash isn't toxic, why wasn't it dumped in Philadelphia?" he asked. The U.S. government said a 1996 investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency concluded the ash wasn't hazardous. U.S. officials have, however, offered to help Haiti remove it.

Shipping the ash back to Philadelphia would cost $300,000, and Haiti has agreed to pay $50,000, Beauchamp said. Eastern Environmental Services, a Mount Laurel, N.J., garbage hauling company, has offered to foot $100,000 of the bill. Its top executive, Louis Paolino, used to run the waste company that hired the Khian Sea cargo ship in 1986 to dispose of the ash.

Philadelphia, however, has refused to pay for the repatriation of the ash.

FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a `fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond `fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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