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By Keith Rogers, Las Vegas Review-Journal  

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, USA, 8 May 1999 -- Thousands of tons of mercury-laced sludge that's been blamed for two deaths in Cambodia might be destined for US Ecology's dump in Beatty if the company can convince Nevada officials it can be disposed of safely.

But Allen Biaggi, administrator of the state Environmental Protection Division, said Friday he has doubts about the waste from Formosa Plastics Corp. that's currently stored in a shipyard in southern Taiwan.

"We're concerned about the levels of mercury in the waste. We want more answers before we make any decisions with regard to acceptance at the Beatty facility or in the state of Nevada," Biaggi said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency had tentatively approved a plan by another company, Safety-Kleen Corp., to dispose of the waste in a landfill in California's Imperial Valley. But environmentalists led by Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction, a San Francisco-based group, produced documents that showed the waste was more toxic than Safety-Kleen's application indicated.

As a result, Safety-Kleen dropped its proposal and the federal EPA rescinded its approval.

"We demand that this waste be cleaned up (in Taiwan) immediately and that the company (Formosa Plastics) keep it at the factory where they made this poison," Angel said Friday.

Late last year, the waste was hauled by ship from Taiwan to a crude dump near Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

In a panic, thousands evacuated the town when a link was made between the waste and a man who died after he cleaned the hold of the ship.

The death of another man, who used the sludge's shipping sacks as bedding, also was blamed on mercury poisoning.

To quell the hysteria, the waste was excavated, put in barrels and returned to Taiwan in March.

Documents under review by the Nevada Environmental Protection Division show that US Ecology wants to import 7,233 tons of the waste. The bulk of it is in a cake or soil form.

Biaggi said the division is wondering why samples show mercury concentrations to be higher than what would be expected from the manufacturing process that produced it.

"We want to look into this much more thoroughly before we're satisfied it's an acceptable material," he said.

Zaki Naser, a US Ecology vice president and manager of the Beatty facility, 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, said company officials traveled to Taiwan to take samples of the sludge and contaminated soil.

In a telephone interview Friday, Naser said his company is discussing with regulatory agencies the possibility of stabilizing the waste and recovering mercury from it before it would be placed at the Beatty facility. Naser said US Ecology views the problem as a "global, human issue" and the United States has the best technology to resolve it.

"The waste needs to be in a stable place. It needs to be stored and managed properly. I think we will be doing an environmental service to ourselves and human beings regardless of where they exist."

He said his company is also in discussions with Formosa Plastics about developing a proper disposal facility in Taiwan.

He said the sludge cake and contaminated soils that await shipment to Southern California are stored in 321 sea-land shipping containers, which each hold 56 drums for a total of 17,976 drums. Some samples contained mercury levels about seven times greater than the EPA's threshold for waste with high levels of the contaminant, according to an April 29 letter to Naser from Nevada Waste Management Bureau Chief David Emme.

Naser said the company wants to begin importing small loads beginning in three to six months. Angel said Greenaction, however, will object to any plans by US Ecology or its parent company, American Ecology Corp., to import the waste.

"If they want trouble, they've got it," Angel said. "We believe our communities in the United States should not be international dumping grounds. We're not going to tolerate it."