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by Stacey Burns, Tacoma News Tribune

Possible shipment from Taiwan has environmentalists, dockworkers upset

A shipment of 30 crushed barrels [BAN Editorial Comment: Actual amount in this consignment is 10 sea-going containers containing many hundreds of crushed barrels] coated with potentially hazardous waste might be on the way from Taiwan to the Port of Tacoma.

That possibility has upset environmentalists, who say the shipment is dangerous. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, on the other hand, says there is no hazard.

Formosa Plastics Group planned to ship the barrels, which once held mercury-contaminated toxic waste, from a port at Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Ten barrels aboard the ship Astoria Bridge were to go to Tacoma and then to an Envirosafe Services of Idaho Inc. plant near Boise.

Remaining in Taiwan for now are the 5,500 tons of sludge and 2,200 tons of soil the barrels once contained.

The barrels were to have been shipped from Taiwan on Thursday - Wednesday in the United States - and arrive in Tacoma on Aug. 5. But officials at the Port of Tacoma and with the EPA weren't sure the barrels were on board the ship when it left the country.

Not all of the barrels would make it to Tacoma. The others were to be unloaded in California and shipped to a waste site in Nevada.

If the barrels arrive, it would mark the first shipment of waste to the United States from Formosa Plastics.

The plastics manufacturer wants to ship millions of pounds of toxic waste, stored in 350 20-foot cargo containers, to facilities in the United States, including Envirosafe's plant near Boise.

The waste contains a compacted combination of graphite pellets, brine sludge from the chlor-alkali manufacturing process and dirt contaminated when the waste was dumped in Cambodia last year.

Several groups, including the EPA and the shipping company operating the Astoria Bridge, have tried to stop the initial shipment of barrels until more is known about whether they are lined with toxic residue.

The possibility of the shipment coming through the Port of Tacoma has environmental groups and longshore workers worried. They contend the residue has not been tested and is a hazard to workers and the environment.

"It's never been sampled," said Jim Puckett of the Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange and the Basel Action Network, both environmental groups based in Seattle. "Nobody did any cleaning or decontamination."

Longshore workers have similar concerns.

"The residue is the same to me as the waste itself," said Scott Mason, business agent for the Tacoma office of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. "It is not about the amount of toxic waste but that it is toxic."

EPA officials in Seattle contend the crushed barrels are not a hazard to the environment and are OK to ship to Tacoma.

"What it is they are talking about is solid waste and not hazardous waste," said Mike Bussell, director of waste and chemical management in Seattle.

Still, the EPA has asked Envirosafe to delay the shipment from Taiwan until more is known about the residue. As of late Wednesday, Bussell had not heard whether Envirosafe had agreed to the request.

The barrels were used several months ago to retrieve toxic waste dumped in Cambodia by a company hired by Formosa Plastics Group. That waste later was transferred to new barrels and the old ones were crushed, Bussell said.

Ship crews placed the crushed barrels in large, woven plastic bags used for shipping bulk materials, then lowered them into shipping containers, said Dave Bartus of EPA's Seattle office.

EPA officials said the residue lining the barrels was not tested for the presence of toxins before the barrels were sealed in plastic bags.

"(The barrels) are exempt from testing because they don't have anything in them," Bartus said. "I don't think there's an environmental issue here."

The EPA continues to study what should be done about the larger shipment and plans to gather public input before making a recommendation to Taiwanese regulators, Bartus said.