| |
| San Jose Mercury News
| Firm Cancels Plan to Ship Toxics to California PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Nearly 3,000 tons of mercury-laced sludge dumped in Cambodia will be sent back to Taiwan rather than shipped to a U.S. dump, a disposal company said Thursday. California-based Safety-Kleen Corp. said in a statement that the waste produced by the Taiwanese petrochemical giant Formosa Plastics Corp. was "more complex than initially believed,'' forcing it to end plans to dispose of it at its landfill in Westmoreland, California, near Los Angeles. "Formosa Plastics Corporation has made the decision to move the material back to Taiwan where it can be segregated and thoroughly analyzed,'' Safety-Kleen said. "At that point, arrangements can be made for appropriate disposal.'' The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday rescinded approval of the waste's import after it received information disputing Safety-Kleen's initial claim that its mercury content was below required safety standards of 0.025 parts per million. Several independent tests of the waste produced a wide range of toxicity levels, suggesting that its mercury content is not uniform. In Taipei, however, Formosa Plastics President Lee Chih-tsun said the EPA had only suspended approval while requesting more data on the mercury content. "Up to now, there has been no such thing as a termination of contract,'' Lee said at a news conference. "Instead, Safety-Kleen has promised full cooperation with our company so we can meet the requirement of the U.S. authorities.'' The reversal was the latest chapter in the scandal-filled history of the waste, which was secretly dumped Dec. 5 a few miles from Cambodia's only seaport, the sleepy southwestern town of Sihanoukville. Its discovery and the subsequent death of a dock worker who handled it sparked hysteria and rioting. Four people were killed in traffic accidents when panicked residents fled. A sixth death was that of a man who rummaged through the waste, but environmental officials seeking compensation from Formosa say they still don't have evidence to connect deaths to the waste. Formosa apologized to Cambodia but refused to accept responsibility or pay compensation, blaming the fiasco on an unidentified third party and the Cambodian importer. The company agreed to clean up the waste last month, an operation expected to be completed Thursday. The last of 357 freight containers packed with the waste and about 2,000 tons of topsoil were being loaded onto a ship in Sihanoukville, customs officials said Thursday. California environmentalists hailed the EPA's decision. "This is an enormous victory for health and environmental justice, and a big defeat for Safety-Kleen and Formosa Plastics who had hoped to turn tiny Westmorland into an international toxic dump,'' Bradley Angel of Greenaction said Thursday. |
