space Press Releases, News Stories

by Keith Rogers, Las Vegas Review-Journal

A letter sent from US Ecology Executive Vice President Zaki Naser to Nevada Environmental Protection Division Administrator Allen Biaggi says, "While we firmly believe this waste could be transported and managed in a safe, environmentally sound manner in compliance with existing laws, US Ecology respects the input it has received from Nevadans."

The letter said the company wants to continue to be "a good neighbor to the Beatty community." The town of about 1,600 residents lies 115 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and just west of the Nevada Test Site.

Steve Romano, vice president of US Ecology's parent company in Boise, Idaho -- American Ecology Corp. -- said officials ultimately decided that they didn't want to jeopardize their relationship with Nevadans.

"We care about what the people in Nevada think," Romano said in a telephone interview. "It seems clear to us there are larger issues that Nevada is concerned about."

American Ecology sent a similar withdrawal letter to Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber that said, "While no decision had been made to arrange shipment of these waste through Oregon, please be informed that importation into the United States is no longer under consideration by our company."

Opponents of the company's proposal expressed surprise and elation.

U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., who sent a strongly worded letter to the company about a year ago bemoaning plans for disposing the 18,000 drums of sludge cake in Beatty, declared US Ecology's decision "a wonderful victory for the people of the state of Nevada."

"I think its an example of when a state takes a strong public policy position, it can be successful in protecting its citizens," he said.

He noted that if he and other opponents had shown "any sign of weakness, they probably would have pressed forward."

"The state of Nevada continues to send a message that Nevada is not the home of the world's hazardous and nuclear waste. This is a special place and we don't want this to be the world's garbage bed," Bryan said.

Another staunch opponent of the company's plans, Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction -- an environmental justice watchdog group headquartered in San Francisco -- said he was thrilled by the company's decision.

"This proposal had the potential to endanger the health of the people of Nevada. We will continue to protect Nevada from dumping schemes like this. It's a great victory," he said.

On Thursday, regional Environmental Protection Administrator Felicia Marcus pledged to work closely with the state "to make sure to the extent of our collective authorities that this waste has to jump through every legal hoop."

The waste from Formosa Plastics Corp. is sitting on docks in Taipei, Taiwan, awaiting disposal. Some of it contains toxic mercury levels that are 77 times more than what is allowed for disposal in U.S. hazardous waste dumps. There are also questions about whether levels of cancer-causing compounds such as PCBs are within the threshold for import guidelines.

US Ecology had wanted to heat the sludge cake to extract all the mercury and recycle it. But emissions from the process would have probably triggered the need for air permits.

US Ecology had expressed an interest in shipping the waste to Nevada last year after it caused a scare in Cambodia, where Formosa Plastics had taken it for disposal. Cambodians, in an uproar, blamed the death of two men on exposure to the waste.

To quell the hysteria, the waste was excavated, put in barrels and returned to Taiwan in March 1999.