space Press Releases, News Stories

by Joshua Robin and Hal Bernton , Seattle Times 

But with Gov. Gary Locke, three U.S. congressmen and union leaders representing hundreds of workers demanding that the Defense Department quickly decide the final destination of the 89 tons of waste, the containers might not be in Seattle for long.

At a news conference yesterday, Locke said the Pentagon must figure out a final destination for the waste by this afternoon and that the containers must remain in Washington state for no longer than two weeks. U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, and Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, echoed that call in meetings with Defense Department officials, Inslee said.

Two environmental groups and Teamsters Local 174, which represents drivers who move all freight that comes through the Port of Seattle, might be wielding more power at the moment, however.

"Because of serious safety concerns about that cargo, we're not going to haul it," said Bob Hasegawa, secretary treasurer of Local 174.

Yesterday, the Sierra Club and Asia Pacific Environmental Exchange threatened the Port of Seattle, the shipping company and the longshore workers with a lawsuit if the containers are unloaded from the Wan He.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union union decided yesterday not to remove the military waste from the ship.

"Our position is we're not accepting liability for that waste," said Scott Reid, president of the Seattle chapter of the union.

The Department of Defense said Trans-Cycle Industries is responsible for disposing the materials.

Trans-Cycle officials have declined to comment for the past two days, referring reporters to the Defense Department.

At the center of the controversy is a collection of surplus electrical transformers, circuit breakers and other electrical equipment that contain traces of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

These are long-lived, hard-to-destroy chemicals that act as carcinogens, and their manufacture is banned in the U.S. Under a 1997 federal court ruling, the importation of these chemicals is

prohibited unless the federal government has given a special authorization.

Defense Department officials say the equipment aboard the Wan He has only minimal traces of PCBs, tested in their laboratories at less than 50 parts per million. Anything more than 50 parts per million in considered toxic.

If the officials are correct, this equipment - if it had originated in the U.S. - wouldn't be considered a toxic waste subject to federal regulation. At those levels, the PCBs "will not generally represent an unreasonable risk to health and the environment," according to an EPA document.

The saga of the 14 containers has been monitored by the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security Sherri Goodman.

The trouble began when the defense contractor, Trans-Cycle Industries of Pell, Ala., failed to secure permission from Ontario, Canada, to process the equipment at a provincial recycling center. Even without that permission, the contractor sought to unload the containers in Vancouver, B.C.

While the Wan He was en route to North America, the Canadian press learned of the shipment and broke the news of what appeared to be an attempt to sneak U.S. military waste into Canada.

Ontario officials then reaffirmed that their province would not be a dumping ground for the U.S. military. And Vancouver port officials said they would not allow the cargo to be unloaded without the proper authorization.

As of yesterday, that permission had not been obtained, according to Jamie Lamb, a spokesman for the Vancouver Port Authority.

A second Canadian facility in Alberta has expressed interest in processing the waste. But as of yesterday, Vancouver port officials said there were no plans to process the waste, according to Lamb.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporter Dionne Searcey is included in this report.