CANADA - WORLD'S TOXIC WASTE DUMP? by Bill Morris DAYS BEFORE THE Canadian Environmental Protection Act came into effect on March 31, news broke that 150 tonnes of U.S. military waste containing toxic PCBs had left Japan, destined for a facility in Ontario. Fortunately the Port of Vancouver, under pressure from unions and citizens groups, has refused to accept the shipment. Until the Port denied access it was not clear that the federal government would act. Federal Environment Minister David Anderson had said that if the shipment exceeds Canada's PCB level threshold of 50 parts per million "we'd send it back to Japan, or, which is probably more likely as this is coming from an American military base, the ship would be diverted." By April 6, the ship was diverted to Seattle, where the Longshore Workers refused to handle the shipment. U.S. defence officials admitted they lacked permission from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard. On April 10, after unloading other cargo in Vancouver, the ship returned to Japan. Greenpeace's Dr. Darryl Luscombe feels that "Canada should not accept responsibility for the disposal of PCB waste from the U.S. military. We should not be importing the US Department of Defense's toxic waste problems." This shipment was to be the first wave of offshore U.S military wastes sent to Trans- Cycle Industries (TCI) in Kirkland Lake, Ontario. However, TCI lacks a permit to import PCB-contaminated waste. Ontario's Ministry of the Environment and Energy rejected TCI's application to import PCBs, fearing that it "could result in a hazard to the health or safety of the public," and was "not in the public interest." A subsidiary of an Alabama-based waste disposal company, TCI set up Ontario operations with a $1.25 million HRDC Jobs Transition Fund grant. The Ontario plant allows the parent company to avoid stricter U.S. regulations regarding the destruction or disposal of PCBs. The system used by TCI does not destroy PCBs, but extracts them and then ships the concentrated PCBs to Swan Hills, Alberta, for incineration. Swan Hills is the site of a protracted dispute involving a First Nations band and local residents opposed to the incinerator."It's a ludicrous situation," said... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/canadaworld/canadaworld.html
