Canada permits U.S. waste to flood in Report cites open-pit dumping regulations that allow disposal of untreated pollutants MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT Monday, June 25, 2001 Lax provincial environment policies that allow open-pit dumping of untreated toxic material make Canada, and particularly the Ontario city of Sarnia, a haven for U.S. hazardous waste, a draft Environment Canada report says. The Canadian disposal practices have been banned in the United States because they are considered unsafe. In the United States, hazardous materials must be treated through expensive processes such as incineration, to diminish their toxicity, before landfilling. The study concluded that the tough U.S. rules encouraged many companies to move their waste to Canada for cheap disposal, rather than spend money treating it. According to the Environment Canada report, 30 per cent of all the dangerous U.S. waste shipped into Canada during 1998 ended up in Sarnia to be disposed of in a landfill or incinerator that was owned by the Safety-Kleen company. The low value of the Canadian dollar and the location of the site near the United States contributed to the waste flow, the report said, but it wasn't the only reason. "The fact that specific wastes shipped to Sarnia for landfill are restricted from landfilling in the U.S. indicates that a significant factor in the decision of U.S. generators to use this facility was the lower cost of landfilling as compared to incineration," it said. According to figures provided by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, the Safety-Kleen landfill accepted 115,000 tonnes of U.S. hazardous waste in 1998. The figure rose to 205,000 tonnes in 1999, but then fell to 90,000 tonnes last year. However, it cautioned that many other companies received U.S. waste covered by the land-disposal ban. The report, which was obtained by the federal New Democratic Party using the Access to Information Act, reviews the hazardous-waste traffic between Canada and the United States from 1989 to 1998. It was compiled in March, 2000. It further highlights the role of Canada as a North American dumping ground for hazardous industrial waste. Another study, released last month by a Texas environmental-policy group, found that in 1999 Quebec and Ontario each imported more toxic waste from the United States than did Mexico. But it says Canadian hazardous-waste importers use such broad classifications when they report what is in the dangerous materials they receive that "it is difficult to quantify wastes imported by other Canadian treatment facilities for ultimate disposal in a landfill." Canada doesn't have a federal rule similar to the U.S. landfill ban and disposal practices here are regulated by the provinces. Ontario and Quebec allow the dumping of untreated hazardous waste in landfills, contending that well-designed dumps offer a safe way to dispose of toxic materials. The United States changed its laws because dumps sometimes leak, allowing their contents of cancer-causing and other toxic materials to leach into groundwater. The threat to water is reduced by the U.S. treatment requirement. The federal report was titled Analysis of Canadian Imports and Exports of Hazardous Wastes. It was compiled by Jacques Whitford Environment Ltd., an Ottawa-based consulting firm. The federal government also identified a questionable activity by some unnamed Canadian companies that mixed toxic chlorinated solvents and pesticides with waste fuel, then shipped this material to the United States to fuel cement kilns. U.S. rules require pesticides and chlorinated solvents to be destroyed in hazardous-waste incinerators at greater cost. "It is not uncommon for waste materials to be blended, and shipped to a cement kiln in the U.S. where a similar practice would not be permitted if the waste had been generated in the U.S.," the report says. Canadian companies can get away with the practice because of sloppy tracking of the source and content of hazardous waste, according to the report. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/gam/National/20010625/UTOXIN.html Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ THE END ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrHhl.bVKZIr Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
