space Press Releases, News Stories

NBC Nightly News, Reporter Kerry Sanders

KERRY SANDERS reporting: On an out-of-the-way canal along Florida's east coast, crews transferring garbage, the tons of incinerated ash all under the watchful eye of environmental police. The surveillance, to make sure this load is not dumped in Florida.

Sergeant PAUL LASKA (Martin County, Florida): Want to make sure it doesn't get sloppy. That there's no accidents.

SANDERS: This load has been rejected by several states and at least a half dozen countries. It's tons of household garbage incinerated in Philadelphia at a time when the city said it had no room in its landfills. And so a bulk cargo ship began a global odyssey, from Philadelphia to the Bahamas, on to Panama, then the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa, to Singapore to Yugoslavia. After awhile, rejecting the ash became the thing to do, even though US government tests show it is nontoxic and safe to bury.

Mr. KRIS McFADDEN (Florida Department Of Environmental Protection): There's a stigma attached to it because it is the infamous incinerator ash from 14 years ago and has been rejected from other countries. So I think that's--people have this idea that it must be something wrong with it.

SANDERS: This load of ash, what's left of 14,000 tons. In 1987, the captain hauling testified he was ordered to dump 10,000 tons overboard, some of it in the Indian Ocean, some if it in the Atlantic. This footage from the environmental group Greenpeace shows some of the ash being offloaded in Haiti later that year. Here, an employee trying to illustrate it's not dangerous, tastes some.

Unidentified Man: (From file footage) This is how worried I am of its toxicity. That's how worried I am of its toxicity.

SANDERS: The garbage sat in Haiti for more than a decade. Finally, officials there decided it should become someone else's problem. Waste Management Incorporated inherited the job company. Officials won't comment, but there are reports that a plan to dump the cargo somewhere in Louisiana is in the works.

Mr. KENNY BRUNO (Earth Rights International): Finally the ash is off the beaches of Haiti and back in US waters, so from that point of view it's a tremendous victory.

SANDERS: And tonight it sits in Florida. It's traveled more than 30,000 miles, but it still has no final place to go. Kerry Sanders, NBC News, Martin County, Florida.