space Press Releases, News Stories

by Scott Sunde, Robert Gavin and Mike Barber, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Three members of Washington's congressional delegation said they are working on an agreement to make sure the waste, if unloaded here, would be stored in Seattle for no more than two weeks.

But Gov. Gary Locke said that unless the state receives written assurances today that a final destination has been found, the ship would not be unloaded at all.

The waste would then be sent back to Japan.

The unions, meanwhile, have refused to unload the cargo, fearing they would face large fines after an environmental group filed a threatened lawsuit.

Workers also said they were concerned about their safety and the dangers the containers would pose to the public if they were unloaded.

"Nothing will happen to those containers until we make the decision," said Scott Reid, president of International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Local 19.

He was flanked by leaders from the Teamsters Local 174 and environmental organizations, who held a daylong vigil at Terminal 18, where the ship, the Wan He, arrived Wednesday night.

The 110 tons of waste -- discarded electrical equipment from U.S. military bases in Japan -- has been the focus of legal wrangling and negotiations in both Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Accumulations of polychlorinated biphenyls can cause hormonal and neurological damage.

The ship was supposed to have unloaded the material in Vancouver, B.C., but Canadian officials refused to accept the cargo.

Because the ship stops in Seattle before heading to Vancouver, U.S. authorities have been forced to deal with the problem here.

Nothing in writing

Yesterday, in the nation's capital, three Democratic congressmen from Washington -- Jim McDermott, Norm Dicks and Jay Inslee -- met with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Defense Department.

Inslee said the Defense Department hopes to find a permanent site to dispose of the waste.

"Frankly, we've had too many experiences with toxic material that was meant to be temporary that ended up permanent," said Inslee, referring to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

In Olympia, Locke said he understood that the state had reached a deal that the cargo will be in Washington for no more than two weeks.

"That's what we asked them to do," Dicks said. "But there's nothing in writing. We're going at this one day at a time."

Joe Dear, Locke's chief of staff, said he expected the Defense Department would confirm in writing today that the deal was discussed.

The Defense Department also has agreed to meet EPA conditions for storing the cargo in a bonded warehouse to which inspectors have access.

In 1997, a federal appeals court ruled that PCBs cannot be imported to the United States for disposal. So the 14 containers probably are destined for another country.

Cranes may have 'problems'

Back on Seattle's docks, the containers remained piled high in the middle of the ship yesterday as longshore workers removed other containers.

An arbitrator ruled that the containers were supposed to have been unloaded by 1:30 p.m., but they remained throughout the day.

Outside Terminal 18, Teamsters wearing blue-and-gold jackets joined longshore leaders and protesters. Rock, country and reggae music blared from a microphone.

Workers declined to identify themselves, but said the containers would not be unloaded.

One man, who identified himself as a dock boss, hinted that the cranes might just develop a mechanical problem at an inconvenient time if the workers were ordered to take the containers off the ship.

The containers were the subject of debate before the sun rose.

About 4:30 a.m., an arbitrator ruled that reluctant longshore workers could not refuse to unload the 14 containers.

But eight hours later, unions and others received formal legal notice from the Earthjustice Legal Fund that the Sierra Club and the Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange, an environmental umbrella of several organizations, would sue them.

The groups said they could seek fines of $25,000 a day if the containers are unloaded and stored.

The environmental groups contend that the EPA exceeded its authority by deciding the waste could be unloaded and stored for up to 30 days in Seattle.

The notice of a lawsuit points to an EPA decision that says unloading the PCB-contaminated waste would be against the law, but that the agency will not enforce the violation.

Stevedoring Services of America, which has been contracted to unload the ship, also was served with notice that a lawsuit might be filed.

The company was seeking a legal opinion yesterday and wouldn't unload the containers until it was to determined to be legal, said Dan Flynn, Stevedoring Services senior vice president.

"There's some question whether it's legal to take them off the ship," Flynn said. "If it's illegal, we're not to to unload it."

Flynn and Reid, president of longshore union Local 19, said the containers would not be removed until at least today.

And a Teamsters local whose members were supposed to truck the containers to a nearby warehouse said they would not move the cargo.

"We will not be a party to bringing toxic materials into our community or exposing our workers to them," said Bob Hasegawa, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 174.

"Our members are concerned about the integrity of the loads on the streets," he said.

"How would you like your family to be in a car behind a container with a leak?"

An unusual decision

The Teamsters' decision gave longshore workers another reason not to unload. The latter do not want the containers left on the piers.

Meanwhile, workers at the port warehouse that is supposed to store the contaminated waste had similar safety concerns.

"I don't feel all steps have been taken to ensure that there's a safe working environment," said Tony Hutter, business agent of Local 9 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Hutter's members work in the warehouse.

Hutter noted that the EPA's statement calls for the material, if it is unloaded, to be stored in a bonded warehouse and transported by port-owned vehicles.

An area that authorities were considering as a storage site, the Foreign Trade Zone south of Terminal 18 off state Route 99, is outdoors, he said.

The controversy surrounding the containers began last month, when the Wan He left Yokohama, Japan. Aboard were the 14 containers, which carry discarded transformers, drums of oil, rags and other waste.

The PCB concentration in the waste is supposedly low -- less than 50 parts per million. The cargo inside the containers is in crates, and a preliminary EPA inspection has found no leaks.

An Alabama company, Trans-Cycle Industries, was hired by the Defense Department to transport the waste to its site in Ontario, Canada, and dispose of it.

But authorities in Ontario said the waste could not legally come there.

With no place else to go, the Defense Department asked the EPA for permission to unload the cargo in Seattle and store it here temporarily.

The EPA agreed, though it said the cargo would have to be subject to inspections and sampling and kept in a special warehouse.

"Offloading the ship in issue without a confirmed foreign destination would, therefore, be considered a violation of the statute," Steven Herman, the EPA's assistant administrator in charge of enforcement, wrote in a letter to Trans-Cycle.

But because of circumstances, he wrote, the "EPA has determined that it will not take enforcement action."

Mark MacIntyre, an EPA spokesman in Seattle, acknowledged that the decision is unusual.

"I don't know of it happening before," he said. "We're just trying to fix the problem.

"The analogy I use is that it's like running up to a fireman who is fighting a blazing fire and saying, 'We need to talk about fire prevention.'

"We do, but right now we just need to fight the fire."

But David Batker, of the Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange, said groups have drawn a line in the sand to use this issue to force the government to adhere to policies and stop ad hoc dumping of waste.

Earlier yesterday, the Sierra Club and Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange sent out notices to unions, Stevedoring Services, the Port of Seattle, Trans-Cycle and the owner of the Wan He that it intends to sue.

But that, too, is complicated.

The federal Toxic Substances Control Act does not allow citizens to go to court immediately and seek a court order, such as getting a judge to stop the cargo from being unloaded.

Instead, the law requires citizens to give 60 days' notice that they intend to sue, which is what the two environmental groups did yesterday.

Generally, federal law prohibits the import of PCBs.

Although the EPA can make exceptions, the agency must go through a rule-making process and determine that there is not an unreasonable risk in allowing the PCBs to be imported, said Patti Goldman, a lawyer for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, which offers free legal services to environmental groups.

The EPA did not go through that process in allowing the 14 cargo containers to be imported.