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IPS

Starting in the 1980s, American Cyanamid, Louisiana-based Borden Chemicals and Plastics, and other corporations sent waste containing mercury to Cato-Ridge in KwaZulu/Natal. The material was sent to a plant owned and operated by a British firm, Thor Chemical, to be reprocessed into usable mercury.

In 1994, after several workers at the British plant died from mercury poisoning and environmental contamination was reported, the South African government prohibited the plant from operating. Since then, the stockpiled waste has been sitting on the property, leaking toxic chemicals.

"This is a classic case of industrialised nations sending their unwanted hazardous waste to developing countries," says Heeten Kalan, director of the Boston-based South Africa Exchange Programme on Environmental Justice.

Environmental watchdogs, including Greenpeace and the US-based Sierra Club, say US companies should not be allowed to export waste that poisons people and environments in other countries. "These atrocious crimes need to be brought to justice," says Kalan.

After several government inquiries on the safety of the plant and its impact on the surrounding environment, South African officials are now deciding what to do with the stockpiled chemicals.

In the meantime, the mercury waste that would have been reprocessed is sitting in steel barrels and leaking hazardous toxins which could further contaminate the soil and a nearby river used for fishing and swimming by local residents, say environmentalists.

In 1990, when the plant was still in operation, Greenpeace found high levels of mercury in the river several kilometres from the plant.

Samples of sediment at the head of the river near the plant contained more than 8 000 times the US standard for classifying a waste as hazardous, says the environmental group.

The coalition is focusing its pressure on the Louisiana-based ompany, Borden Chemicals and Plastics, which sent about 2 500 drums of mercury waste to South Africa between 1991 and 1994.

Borden was charged in 1994 with shipping over 300, 000 pounds of hazardous waste to South Africa without notifying the US Environmental Protection Agency, as required by law. The company agreed to a seven-million dollar settlement in April last year, which included $ 3.6 million in fines in combination with other charges of regulatory violations.

Environmentalists are urging the US Assistant Attorney's office to press forward with a criminal investigation of Borden that would perhaps force the company to take back the chemicals it sent to South Africa. The statute of limitations, or expiry date, for filing such a federal suit is January 27.

"Borden and the US government are partly responsible for the toxic catastrophe at Thor in South Africa," says Kenny Bruno, a toxins specialist with Greenpeace. "The case against Borden is one of the only hopes we have to protect the South African environment from massive mercury contamination."

In a written statement released by Borden to IPS, the company says it chose the more expensive route of reprocessing the chemicals because it was the best environmental practice. It says that when it became aware in 1994 that some of the material it sent had been stockpiled instead of reprocessed, the company recalled a shipment in transit.

But it says the remaining chemicals at the site are now owned by Thor, even if they originated from Borden.

"It is our understanding from press reports that Thor is working with the government on reprocessing that and other materials they have on site, but that really is something best addressed by Thor Chemical or the South African government," says the statement.

Environmentalists fear that government officials are considering having the company incinerate the waste. The group says this would only contaminate the surrounding area with airborne mercury and toxic chemicals known as dioxins.

"Using incineration to tackle mercury contaminated waste is highly problematic because mercury is an element and cannot be destroyed and comes out the stack as a gas," says Paul Connett, a chemistry professor at St. Lawrence University in New York.

Connett, who specialises in hazardous waste, recently visited the site.

Michael Bender, executive director of the Mercury Policy Project, adds that when mercury is airborne it travels long distances, sometimes contaminating ocean and overseas environments.

Barrie Longden, the managing director of Thor Chemical's South African facility, told IPS that it would be inappropriate to comment at this time since the South African government is currently deciding how to proceed with the chemicals.

But, he said the mercury-recovery process was a safe and effective method and that the stockpiled chemicals were regularly inspected and not leaking. He added that sending the chemicals back to the companies they came from would not get most of the waste out of South Africa because more than half of the drums came from South African companies.

While environmentalists continue urging that the waste be returned, Connett says the stockpiled chemicals need to be moved out of the old drums and into proper storage facilities as soon as possible in order to avoid further contamination. He also says corporations should be prohibited from producing chemicals they cannot safely dispose of.

"If you cannot look after this waste yourself, you shouldn't be making it," says Connett. "You've got to re-examine your manufacturing processes so that you don't produce waste that your own citizens can't deal with and then solve the problem by exploiting other countries and other communities, which is clearly happening in this case."