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SHIP CARRYING PCBs WILL NOW HEAD TO WAKE ISLAND

by Scott Sunde, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

SEATTLE, USA, 9 May 2000 -- PCB-contaminated waste that bounced from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C., to Yokohama, Japan, will soon be on the move again -- this time to Wake Island.

The Pacific island, once the scene of a fierce World War II battle, has some limited use to the military and to commercial planes, which make emergency landings there. Wake Island also will provide an emergency landing strip for the 14 containers of electrical waste, which must leave Japan by May 18.

The waste, generated at U.S. military bases in Japan, will leave that country no later than that date, said Gerda Parr, spokeswoman for the Defense Logistics Agency.

The waste will be stored on the island temporarily, then shipped again when the Defense Department finds a final disposal site, she said.

Last week, the Defense Department acknowledged that it was considering sending the waste to Johnston Island, a wildlife refuge in the Pacific surrounded by coral reefs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service objected to using Johnston Island, as did environmental groups.

Parr said she doesn't know why the Defense Department chose Wake Island over Johnston Island.

Environmental groups also are not happy with the choice of Wake Island. An environmental group that tracks toxic waste has accused the Defense Department of "global hide and seek."

Wake Island is a U.S. territory but outside Customs authority. That means the Defense Department can bring waste there without having to seek the permission of the EPA, said David Schmidt, an EPA spokesman in San Francisco.

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