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by Mike Gordon, Reuters

And guess what: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not amused even though the island has been used for incinerating chemical weapons. It is worried that the PCBs could leak into the sea during one of the many hurricanes that lash the island.

The saga of the wandering PCBs that nobody wants took a new twist on Tuesday as two U.S. government agencies argued with each other over what to do with the contaminated waste.

The shipment of contaminated military garbage from a U.S. military base in Japan has already been rejected by the two West Coast cities, and has crossed the Pacific twice in search of a home.

Now the Department of Defense is looking at the possibility of storing it on Johnston Island, a remote wildlife refuge about 700 miles (1,126 km) southwest of Hawaii, according to the Defense Logistics Agency in Virginia, which is supervising the shipment.

But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the wildlife refuge, is opposed to sending the military waste to the 650-acre (263-hectare) island. A rich variety of seabirds nest there and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal has been seen on the island.

``The haste that surrounds this action worries me,'' said Robert Smith, Pacific Islands Operations Manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The contaminated waste, which originated at U.S. military bases in Japan, consists of surplus electrical transformers, circuit breakers and other electrical equipment that contain traces of polychlorinated biphenyls, also known as PCBs. The chemicals are considered a carcinogen and their manufacture is prohibited in the United States.

The shipment left Japan in March, but dockworkers and government officials in Vancouver and Seattle refused to let it enter their cities last month, forcing the military to send the waste back to Yokohama, Japan, where it currently sits in limbo.

Johnston Island is currently being used by the U.S. Army for a program to incinerate chemical weapons. The weapons disposal program, begun in 1990, is scheduled to be finished and off the island by January 2001.

At one point, the United States stored 6.6 percent of its chemical munitions stockpile on the island, including deadly sarin gas and mustard gas.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's Smith said he is concerned about leakage of PCBs on to the island and into the ocean.

``Has anyone given any thought to the fact that the PCBs are going to Johnston Island right at the beginning of hurricane season? Will the wastes be contained in a manner where there is absolutely no chance that if there is a wave over-wash that none of these chemicals will wash into the lagoon?''

Smith said the incinerator on the island is not capable of burning the PCB-contaminated waste. He also said the wildlife service can only offer opinions on the move and cannot over-rule a military decision to ship the waste to Johnston Island.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency, which approved the Army's permit to destroy chemical weapons, apparently has no authority over the shipment, said David Schmidt, a spokesman the agency's Pacific Southwest Region. He said the EPA is trying to get more information on the shipment and exactly what defense officials want to do with it.

Gerda Parr, a spokeswoman for the Defense Logistics Agency, said a final decision had not been made on Johnston Island and that other locations, which she declined to name, were being considered.