EPA stays shipment of PCB-tainted materials

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not be able to implement yet its earlier ruling that will allow the shipment of polychlorinated biphenyl-contaminated materials from the territories outside the federal customs zone back to the mainland US for disposal.

According to Michelle Rogow, EPA on-scene coordinator, the EPA office in Washington informed them about the decision of Bush administration to put on hold all rules that were signed by the Clinton administration before Jan 20, 2001 or a few days before the change in government.

In addition, the new EPA rule was not even published in the federal register, a requirement before the implementation of any regulation. The rules were put on hold pending a thorough review to be conducted by the Bush administration.

Guam Rep. Robert A. Underwood has earlier announced that the newly-signed EPA rule gives the go signal to American territories outside the US Customs Zone to ship PCBs to disposal facilities in the mainland US.

The rule specifically mentioned Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Environmental Chemical Corp., contractor of the US Army Corps of Engineers has been conducting remediation activities at Tanapag cemetery 2 and various sites in the village after they were found to have high PCB contamination.

According to Juan Tenorio, one of the leaders of Tanapag Action Group, all of the residents in the village have unanimously voted for the shipment of PCB contaminated soil instead of conducting the treatment in Tanapag.

He said the unified stand of the villagers was already relayed to the US EPA and the Army Corps officials in a recent meeting.

Treatment of the soil is set to begin early this year using the low indirect thermal desorption process but the new developments may altogether change the original plan.

The EPA and Army Corps have set the cleanup level in the contaminated sites at 1 ppm which are considered safe for human health.

PCBs were found to cause cancer and people who have been exposed to the toxic chemical in the air for a long time have also experienced nose, lung and skin irritation such as ace and rashes, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

PCBs were contained in abandoned electrical capacitors in Tanapag in the 1960s but the Division of Environmental Quality were only notified about the presence of the capacitors in 1988.

The capacitors were used then as boundary markers, roadblocks for driveways, windbreakers for barbecue sites and headstones. (LFR)