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by Florangela Davila, Seattle Times

Hazardous waste, especially the transportation of it, has always been a controversial subject. But this batch of mercury-laden waste from the Formosa Plastics Group, one of the world's largest petrochemical producers, has drawn international scrutiny after the company secretly dumped it in Cambodia in December, where it led to mass hysteria, several deaths and accusations that Cambodian port workers had accepted bribes allowing the shipment.

Taiwan authorities forced the company to clean up the Cambodian site and place the waste, a byproduct in making polyvinyl chlorine (PVC) pipe, in steel drums, then package those into 20-foot containers.

In a letter dated May 18 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an official with Taiwan's EPA said the country does not have landfills capable of receiving this kind of hazardous waste. It asked the EPA to approve Formosa's application to bring the waste, which looks like broken-up concrete, from Kaohsiung Port in Southern Taiwan to the United States.

In recent months, environmental groups, community activists and elected officials in California and Nevada raised concerns over the possible shipment to sites in those two states. Regional offices of the EPA raised more questions, thwarting, at least for the time being, the arrival of the waste there.

Safety-Kleen, a waste-disposal company that sought to import the waste to California, has since bowed out of negotiations with Formosa, EPA officials said.

But Formosa has entered into tentative contractual agreements with Virginia-based Chemical Waste Management to ship approximately 5,000 tons of waste to either the port of Seattle or Tacoma, and then truck it across Interstate 90 to the Envirosafe Services of Idaho facility in Grand View, Idaho, said Mike Spomer, Envirosafe's general manager.

The waste, in 20,000 55-gallon drums, would be treated and eventually ground up and buried on the former Titan missile site, 35 miles south of Boise. Processing such waste usually costs $75 to $125 per drum of material, Spomer said.

According to EPA officials, Formosa also is considering shipping the waste to a facility in Texas.

Local environmentalists last week met with EPA officials in the Region 10 office in Seattle urging the shipment not be allowed through Puget Sound.

Region 10 comprises Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Idaho. Chuck Clarke, administrator with this region's office, said yesterday his office has not made a decision and still has questions about what is contained in the waste, other than some known high levels of mercury.

The regional EPA offices have reviewed largely the same data, but each has characterized the Formosa waste in different ways.

Until now, Taiwan, which has industrialized quickly, has not been forced to consider what to do with its toxic waste, said Jim Puckett of the Seattle-based Basel Action Network (BAN), which monitors hazardous waste around the world.

"Taiwan has to take responsibility," he said. "First, they tried to dump it in Cambodia, then in California. They now want Idaho."

Moreover, waste-disposal companies here, situated in a country that's producing less hazardous waste, sees the economic opportunities of importing waste from other parts of the world.

By law, the EPA must receive notification by foreign companies of their intent to import hazardous waste to facilities here. But unless there is an international agreement stipulating such importation, such as those with Canada and Mexico, the EPA does not have the authority to regulate such imports, said agency officials.

In theory, said Dave Bartus, a senior policy analyst in the Region 10 office, the Formosa waste could go to Envirosafe or any other U.S. facility without the agency granting its approval.

However, in the wake of the Cambodian scandal, Taiwan agreed not to let the waste leave Taiwan until it had secured approval from the host country. That approval would be from the EPA.

BAN and other environmental groups say the Formosa waste not only contains mercury - which they say would severely harm marine life in the case of a spill - but also other toxics, such as furans.

Formosa first dumped the waste in the port of Sihanoukville in Cambodia. A dock worker died after coming into contact with the material. A teenager died after sleeping on one of the plastic bags that held the waste. Villagers were terrified; in the hysteria, four people were trampled to death.

But EPA officials said the World Health Organization tested villagers in Cambodia for mercury contamination and found none. At this point, explained Bartus, the Formosa waste material is not of the kind that will kill people on contact.

"We certainly agree it's a hazardous waste and needs to be managed as such," Bartus said. "But we're not sure yet if it's inappropriate for this to be sent to the U.S."