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Plan to store PCB-tainted garbage in Pacific opposed
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Posted on May 04 2000
CNMI Representative to Washington Juan N. Babauta yesterday voiced protests against U.S. military’s plans to store polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated garbage on Guam or any other Pacific island.
“When is the U.S. going to stop thinking of our islands as a dumping ground for poisons that had to be removed from Japan and won’t be accepted in Canada or the mainland U.S.?” he said in a statement.
Mr. Babauta described the move as “ridiculous” as he noted that the military has failed to deal with the expense and legal complications of PCB clean-up on Guam and in the CNMI.
Over 100 tons of transformers, circuit breakers, oil and other military waste contaminated with PCB have been sailing across the Pacific since March aboard the Panamanian-registered vessel Wan He.
The shipment was first destined for a recycling plant in Canada, but protests at the port in Vancouver forced the ship to sail towards Seattle. There dock workers refused to off-load the containers of hazardous waste, forcing Wan He to return to Yokohama in Japan where it originated.
Pentagon is reportedly considering sending the PCB waste to Guam or to Johnston Atoll, a military holding site for chemical and biological weapons.
Mr. Babauta expressed support for Guam’s efforts to block the shipment, citing its health and safety risks to residents of the island.
He also noted the PCB problem in Tanapag where the federal government has been unable to address the problems facing village residents. “So don’t even think of bringing more here or anywhere else in the Pacific. Don’t even think about it,” he said.
