space Press Releases, News Stories

by Elise Hamner, World News

Boise-based American Ecology Corp. is proposing to ship in mercury-laden sludge to either the port at Coos Bay or one in Los Angeles. The concrete-like scrap, to be sealed in 50-gallon drums packed in shipping containers, would then be offloaded and trucked to southern Nevada, according to American Ecology Vice President Steve Romano.

Nothing is finalized

US Ecology, American Ecology Corp.'s subsidiary, has approached private docks in Coos Bay to use their facilities. Dock owners and managers, stevedores and longshoremen had little to say about the proposal Thursday. Some said they knew very little about the proposal and wanted to learn more about it.

"I'm waiting for them to tell us what's required," said Ingvar Doessing of Jones Stevedoring Company in North Bend.

If the company were to hire Doessing's firm, he would in turn hire the workers to unload the ship or ships.

"I think it's important that we talk about it," he said.

His first concern would be to know the shipper and companies involved fulfill all safety and environmental regulations.

"If all state and federal requirements are fulfilled, then we can unload it," he said.

Waste is highly regulated

The project hinges first on whether the state of Nevada will approve a permit for US Ecology to remove mercury from the sludge and dispose of the remains in a company dump north of Las Vegas. Romano said the mercury recovered would be sent to a recycler, further purified and then possibly sold for commercial use.

Nevada's Environmental Protection Division isn't the only bump in road. The company must meet stringent regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Transportation, Oregon Department of Transportation and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Those regulations deal with every aspect of shipping the sludge, from the moment it enters U.S. waters, sails into Coos Bay, is handled by longshoremen, tracked in reports, loaded on trucks, and on down the highway to US Ecology's hazardous waste dump in Beatty, Nev.

"They want to meet with us," DEQ's Bob Danko, senior policy analyst in waste and cleanup programs, said Thursday.

That meeting won't happen, though, before US Ecology's representatives have information detailing every single applicable federal and state law in hand, since the waste is considered hazardous. Danko expects his agency to send the company the information Monday.

Even if US Ecology convinces regulatory agencies it can meet all environmental and safety requirements, Oregon officials still have concerns about the sludge ever sailing into Coos Bay or any other port in the state.

It's somewhat political and makes DEQ and the governor's office uncomfortable, Danko said. Oregon has a waste management system that has worked well for 15 years and the public has a lot of confidence in it.

As Danko explains it, the system works like this: Oregon and Washington are a team. The two states essentially share the hazardous waste dump at Arlington on the north Oregon border. They also share the radioactive waste facility at Hanford, Wash. The two states have a cooperative agreement to allow wastes to cross each other's borders so they are dealt with appropriately, safely.

A year ago, when Formosa Plastics Corp., the company that owns the 18,000-plus barrels of sludge, was forced to remove it from Cambodia, Taiwan refused to allow the barrels back into the country. At the time, the landfill operators in Arlington were approached and asked if they would take it. Public agencies said no.

There's another issue that has state officials worried.

"The logical route for this sort of thing is not through Oregon," Danko said.

"The question is why would it have to go through Oregon to get to the site?"

The sludge has a history

This isn't just simply a load of mercury-laden sludge. This kind of sludge isn't produced in the United States. It was a by-product from an old mercury chlorination process in the manufacture of plastics. The sludge has been around for awhile.

In 1998, the cargo was taken to Cambodia and illegally dumped in fields near a village. Two deaths have been blamed on mercury poisoning from the sludge. People living nearby rioted and Cambodia demanded Formosa Plastics remove it. The sludge ended up aboard a ship again in barrels. However, Taiwan didn¹t want it.

A company first proposed to import the sludge through Los Angeles to be dumped near a small community near the Mexico border. Environmentalists, state and federal officials nixed that idea.

Next, it was proposed to bring the sludge through Tacoma, Wash., for disposal at a hazardous waste dump in Idaho. Intervention by dockworkers, environmentalists and federal officials prompted the sludge owners to ship it back to Taiwan.

Ultimately the sludge was off-loaded at dock in Taiwan and it's still there. The country won't allow Formosa Plastics to move it anywhere within the nation.

Environmentalists want the sludge taken back to Formosa Plastic's plant and stored above ground and monitored until the company treats it and disposes of it properly.

"Nobody in the world wants this stuff. Not only is it extremely toxic, but it¹' been re-packaged with nobody knows what," said Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction, a San Francisco-based environmental group.

"What if there is an accident and a truck spills?" Angel asked. "Mercury is a potent neurotoxin. It affects the human nervous system," he said.

The environmental group has fought every effort to bring the cargo into California and he said the group will organize a protest in Coos Bay if it must.

"They see Coos Bay as the least path of resistance," Angel said. "If it was so safe, they would treat it in Taiwan and keep it there."

Coos Bay's possible role

The project is strictly a proposal between private entities and the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay is not involved, the port's Marketing Director Martin Callery said Thursday.

The port has no rules prohibiting the shipment of hazardous wastes through Coos Bay, Callery said.

The agency did adopt a policy in 1995 objecting to the shipment of explosives through Coos Bay. While the state does not give ports the authority to dictate what private docks can load or unload, at the time U.S. Coast Guard policy was to refuse clearance for such shipments without port approval.

In this case it's a matter of business and maintaining jobs in an area that's watched its ship traffic slow to a trickle in the last few years.

Longshoremen and local stevedores met to talk about US Ecology's proposal Thursday, but they all want more information. The state of Nevada's decision on whether to allow in the sludge is at least three months away. If Nevada says no, any shipments are a moot issue for Coos Bay.

Whose problem is it?

That depends on whether the sludge is disposed of legally, illegally or dealt with at all.

It could disappear. It could be dumped in the ocean, or it could sit on the dock in Taiwan forever. American Ecology Corp.'s Romano said those three options are unacceptable to him. Before anything happens, Romano wants an independent lab to do more extensive tests to see what else might contaminate the sludge, such as PCBs, dioxins and other cancer-causing substances.

Regardless, the sludge is toxic and the threat still exists.

"At a certain level there is an environmental injustice here," Romano said. "The U.S. has some of the strictest laws in the world for dealing with toxic wastes and there's no reason a business in this country shouldn't find a solution for Taiwan's problem," he added.

"It's not as if there aren't solutions," Romano said. "If the U.S. says, 'we don't want anything to do with it,' then I have a problem with it."