space Press Releases, News Stories

by Charlie Angus, Straight Goods

The same shipment of PCBs originally bound for Kirkland Lake, is now headed for Guam, after being rejected by Canada, the U.S., and Japan. According to a news report being circulated by Greenpeace Japan, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to ship 90,000 kilos of PCB- contaminated military waste out of the harbour in Yokohama, Japan to the Johnston Atoll. The waste, which originated in a U.S. military depot in Sagami, Japan, was refused access to the ports of Vancouver and Seattle early in April.

That decision to dump U.S. military waste in Canada touched off an international incident that ultimately involved the Province of Ontario, the governments of Canada, U.S. and Japan, and the ports of Vancouver, Seattle and Yokahoma, as well as organizations such as Greenpeace and the Teamsters Union.

On April 16, the waste returned to Japan, only to be the subject of another political showdown - this time involving the DoD and the Japanese. Apparently to lessen tensions in Japan, the U.S. is looking at storing the waste in Guam, followed perhaps by a more permanent disposal at the Johnston Atoll, 1300 kilometres southwest of Hawaii.

But already, Guam has objected to its assigned role. Madeline Z. Bordallo, Acting Governor of Guam, has written a letter to President Clinton protesting the decision to store the waste in Guam.

"The ship and its deadly cargo does not belong here," Bordallo has said.

Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network says that if the Johnston Atoll is indeed the final destination it raises "serious red flags for Pacific Islanders who are worried about the Pacific being used as dumping ground for the U.S. military."

 The United States, for its part, does not allow the imports of any PCB-contaminated waste - even its own military waste. 

The Johnston Atoll has been used by the military for the destruction of other unsavory toxics - mainly chemical weapons. Puckett is worried that the DoD is simply looking for an "out of sight-out of mind" location which will remove the homeless shipment from the public eye.

Speaking from Seattle, Puckett says, "My fear is that this is a tactic to get this shipment out off the headlines. - get it back in the military fold, drop the veil of secrecy. Send it off to the Johnston Atoll and hope that everything quiets down."

 The Cheapest and Dirtiest

At first glance, it seems a very long road from Kirkland Lake, Ontario to the Johnson Atoll. But in U.S. overseas politics and policies, both locales have apparently been identified as "out of sight" solutions. The large stockpiles of toxic waste on U.S. military bases has long been a sore spot between the United States and Japan. The Japanese do not want the waste disposed of in Japan, and the United States, for its part, does not allow the imports of any PCB-contaminated waste - even its own military waste.

Apparently to lessen tensions in Japan, the U.S. is looking at storing the waste in Guam, followed perhaps by a more permanent disposal at the Johnston Atoll, 1300 kilometres southwest of Hawaii

Officials at DoD might have believed they had a solution to the problem in the form of Alabama-based Trans Cycle Industries (TCI).

Even though TCI was unable under U.S. law to handle the waste at its two U.S. plants, the company took the contract of disposing of PCB-contaminated metals. Soon after, TCI set up a Canadian branch plant in Kirkland Lake, Ontario.

Straight Goods has kept readers abreast of TCI's failed attempt to obtain an international import license from the Provincial government. Despite being turned down by the province in late December, TCI decided to go ahead with the first shipment of waste - the 90,00 kilos now sitting in Yokohama harbour.

When news of this impending shipment leaked out at the end of March, the province of Ontario immediately announced it would not allow the shipment into Kirkland Lake. This put the federal government in the hot seat. Not only did federal officials apparently not know the shipment was coming, but they lacked any strong policies for dealing with such shipments.

Are we seeing the start of "an international shell game where toxic wastes will be shuttled around the world according to the dictates of a free market"?

Darryl Luscombe, a Greenpeace campaigner, says the federal government was caught napping. "This shipment obviously embarrassed the Federal government because it shows they have no idea what is coming into this country." On April 4, the Canadian government announced that the container ship - the Wan He - would not be allowed to unload the waste in Vancouver. U.S. officials thought they had the situation under control by arranging for a temporary storage site at the port of Seattle. Within days, however, it was clear that this plan was also being blown out of the water - Seattle dockworkers and Teamsters refused to unload the cargo.

Jim Puckett says the blockading of the Wan He was a major victory in the fight against the international exports of toxic waste. He wrote in the Seattle Times: "The current 'ship and burn' response to the global problem of POPs (persistent organic pollutants) destruction ... creates an international shell game where toxic wastes will be shuttled around the world according to the dictates of a free market, seeking out the path of least resistance - the cheapest and dirtiest incinerators and landfills available."

With nowhere else to go, the Wan He made an ignominious return voyage to Japan. It entered the Port of Yokohama on April 16, where according to the BBC World Service, it was boarded by protesters. They unfurled a large banner which read "U.S. - Toxic Criminals."

The protest unleashed the anger that exists in Japan over the U.S. failure to deal with its own toxic stockpiles. Japan has apparently been unwilling to let the ship unload, which has lead to the search for another destination - hence the Johnson Atoll.

End of the Line

The voyage of the Wan He has been a serious blow to the DoD. Jim Puckett explains, "I've heard rumours that this (the international backlash) has rattled their (DoD) cages, all the way up to very high levels. They want to get this out of the headlines as quickly as possible. Keeping it in Japan makes it too much of a hot potato. But I don't think they anticipated that Guam would respond as quickly and strongly as they have."

Guam, a U.S. protectorate, is heavily dependent on the U.S. military, and probably seemed like a politically safe alternative to the charged atmosphere in Japan.

But the response from Guam officials has been quick and unequivocal. Governor Bordallo has personally written to President Clinton demanding that Guam be subject to the same import protection from PCBs that exists in the domestic United States.

But if opposition closes down the options of Guam or the Johnston Atoll, what then? Puckett says the military would then be forced to do what they should have done in the first place. "They need to sit down and talk with the interested groups and companies that offer safe disposal methods. But so far dumb decisions continue to get made without any public involvement."

Visit the homepage of the Basel Action Network, which monitors the movement of PCBs throughout the world - www.ban.org/first_page.html.

Visit Greenpeace Canada's website at www.greenpeacecanada.org.

For some basic information about the Johnston Atoll, visit the CIA's World Factbook site on the island at www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/jq.html.