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By Sally D. Swartz and Srah Eisenhauer, Palm Beach Post

Federal authorities are taking the word of Waste Management Inc., the firm transporting the ash, that it's safe.

But Florida Department of Environmental Protection scientists, mindful of Greenpeace reports the ash contains hazardous levels of arsenic, lead and mercury, took new samples to test. And until the results, expected Monday, are available, authorities are baby-sitting the waste and following its every move.

If the ash turns out to be safe, officials could identify a disposal site in Florida, said Melissa Meeker, southeast Florida DEP director. Meanwhile, she has called in extra DEP law enforcement from Orlando to watch the waste in shifts over the weekend.

The ash, from Philadelphia municipal incinerators, has been on the move since 1986, when city officials first began trying to get rid of it. The Treasure Coast is the latest stop on a journey with ports-of-call that sound like an exotic travelogue.

Two barges loaded with the ash were tied up at Maritimes Tug & Barge, just west of the St. Lucie Lock near Stuart, late Friday, and a third was on its way there from the Port at Fort Pierce. The remaining two barges probably will be moved to Stuart over the weekend, said Joe Lurix, DEP engineer who has been monitoring the operation.

Some of the ash was to be transferred to a bigger barge Friday night, and another large container barge is en route to the Treasure Coast. The ash is supposed to be kept wet so it doesn't blow into the water, and environmental officials say they don't want to see any spills or other accidents.

The ash may be moved to a landfill in St. Charles, La., but environmental officials there haven't yet cleared it for disposal.

That's typical in the ongoing saga of the waste nobody wants.

Waste Management Inc., the firm now in charge of the waste, tried this week to place it at the regional landfill it owns in Okeechobee, County Administrator George Long said. But the county's contract won't allow dumping of out-of-state waste, "and we're not changing it," he said.

Martin County Administrator Russ Blackburn said Martin County won't take it, either, and he has warned employees at the county landfill. "I told them if they see trucks filled with ash, don't let 'em in," Blackburn said.

The international saga of Philadelphia's ash heap started out as a venture to sell incinerated ash to countries that needed fill for development projects. But it ended up becoming the first documented case, outside of Mexico, of U.S. dumping waste in a Third World county.

The incident led to the negotiation of an international treaty to ban such rich-dumps-on-poor exports, according to Greenpeace, the environmental organization that has been monitoring developments with the ash in Haiti.

The saga began in 1985 when Philadelphia was searching for a place to put ash from a Roxborough incinerator. More than 14,000 tons of it was eventually loaded onto a cargo ship, named the Khian Sea, which in late 1986 began its ill-fated journey crisscrossing the globe.

For more than two years, the vessel roamed the Caribbean searching for a dump site. Crew members later reported they were turned away at gunpoint from two ports and threatened with attack from environmental groups, according to 1993 newspaper accounts.

The ship's crew almost mutinied as the Bahamas, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guinea-Bissau and the Netherlands Antilles refused the ash. On New Year's Eve in 1987, the Khian Sea anchored in Gonaives, Haiti, and began unloading the ash on a beach. The Haitian government thought it was receiving fertilizer. But a few weeks later it revoked its permits allowing the ash and told the Khian Sea to leave the country, according to Greenpeace documents.

The ship left with about 10,000 tons of ash, but neglected to reload the 4,000 tons it had dumped on Haiti's beach. The New York Times later reported the ash was left partly in an open heap and the rest in an unlined pit in the seaport.

Several newspaper accounts from the 1980s and Greenpeace documents say the ash contains harmful metals and is considered toxic. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified it as nonhazardous special waste that can be disposed of in landfills licensed to accept it.

Still looking for a place to dispose of about 10,000 tons of ash, the rogue freighter crossed the globe to Yugoslavia for repairs. It next passed through the Suez Canal, but eventually it arrived in Singapore without its infamous cargo. Federal investigators now say it was dumped into the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, the Haitian ash sat - open to the weather - for more than 10 years. An effort to remove the ash from Haiti gained momentum in 1996. A waste company, run by one of the original contractors hired to find a dump spot for the Philadelphia ash, applied for a license to haul New York City's commercial trash. The city granted the application as long as the company, now a part of Houston-based Waste Management Inc., agreed to help retrieve the ash.

This month, the New York Trade Waste Commission received permission from several federal agencies to return the ash to the U.S.

The ash was loaded onto a Greek-owned ship in Haiti earlier this month that traveled to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. It sat there 21 days awaiting approval from Waste Management to unload.

From there, the boat moved to Fort Pierce, where the ash was loaded on to five barges earlier this week.

* sallyswartz@pbpost.com

* saraheisenhauer@pbpost.com

Saga of the Philly waste ash

* 1. 1985-1986

During the Philadelphia trash crisis, more than 14,000 tons of ash from a waste incenerator is put aboard a cargo ship named Khian Sea

* 2. Sept. 1986-Aug. 1987

The Khian Sea is turned away from six different Caribbean islands.

* 3. Dec. 1987-Jan. 1988

Khian Sea unloads the ash on a beach in Gonaives, Haiti.

* 4. April 10, 2000

New York state waste officials get approval to bring the ash back to the United States.

* 5. April 28, 2000

Five barges carrying 2,000 tons of the ash sit in the Port of Fort Pierce and near Stuart awaiting word of where it will be disposed.