US Leading Overturn of Toxic Waste Trade Ban

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

>> U.S. LEADS EFFORTS TO OVERTURN BAN ON HAZARDOUS WASTE TRADE AS

 
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                    GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>> U.S. LEADS EFFORTS TO OVERTURN BAN ON HAZARDOUS WASTE TRADE AS
U.S. TOXIC ASH DUMPED IN HAITI CONTAMINATES SOIL AND WATER   
 
WASHINGTON, March 14, 1995 (GP) Greenpeace has learned that the
United States is spearheading talks with Canada, Australia,
France and the waste trade industry on how to roll back an
historical international agreement banning the waste trade from
rich to poor countries.  The environmental group also revealed
today that toxic ash from a Philadelphia municipal incinerator
dumped in Haiti in 1988 is leaching high levels of heavy metals
and will likely affect the aquatic environment and food chain.   
The Basel Convention "Decision II/12" immediately bans all
exports of hazardous wastes from OECD to non-OECD countries for
final disposal, and as of 1998, on wastes designated for
recycling.  The Basel Ban was unanimously agreed by the 65 member
countries and supported by more than 120 nations last March in
Geneva.  Talks on undermining the ban begin tomorrow in Dakar,
Senegal.
 
The Clinton administration appears to be bowing to pressure from
the waste trade industry via the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which
in May 1994 officially withdrew its support for the Basel Ban,
and recommended that the U.S. ignore the ban.  
 
"The U.S. attempt to undermine the ban on waste trade to non-OECD
nations is a regrettable retreat from a commitment to abide by
the will of the international community, and a setback in terms
of the Administration's understanding of the global environmental
justice movement," said Deeohn Ferris, of the Washington Office
for Environmental Justice and a member of the President Clinton's
National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
 
Meanwhile, approximately 2000 tons of toxic ash from a
Philadelphia incinerator remain in Gonaives, Haiti since it was
first dumped there in 1988.  Half is in an open depot made of
concrete block while the other half sits on a beach where the
ocean and rainfall are slowly washing it away.  Greenpeace and
Haitian activists collected soil and water samples from the sites
last December; just-completed analysis shows that showed lead,
cadmium and other heavy metals are leaching from the ash into the
ground. Approximately twenty children live in the dumpsite area.  
 
A team of experts from USAID, United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and the Haitian Ministry of Environment also
visited the site last January.  A site report based on that visit
concluded with several suggested actions including:
     
*sealing the site "with razor wire so that animals or people do
not approach the depot;" 
*"legal efforts might be taken to force the City of Philadelphia
to pay damages to the local residents and pay for any further
costs involved in removing or containing the waste."
 
Greenpeace has supported Haitian activists in demanding that the
U.S. take responsibility for retrieving the toxic ash from Haiti
and bringing it back.  So far, neither the city of Philadelphia
nor any federal agency has responded to these demands.  The UN/US
site report suggests that "the US military authorities might be
requested to help" remove the ash.
 
"If President Clinton is serious about restoring democracy and a
sustainable environment in Haiti, he should start by ordering the
toxic ash removed from our nation and returned to the U.S.," said
Alex Medard of COHPEDA, a group member of a Haitian coalition for
return of the Gonaives toxic ash.  
 
Greenpeace's Marcelo Furtado added that "U.S. willingness to
allow children to be poisoned by U.S. toxic waste makes a mockery
of Haiti's right to self-determination, and of the Caribbean
efforts to make the region a Toxic and Nuclear Free Zone."   
The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior just finished a two-month
tour throughout the Caribbean highlighting the need for a
regional convention to protect the islands from becoming a
dumping ground. 
 
At the invitation of the Senegalese government, a Greenpeace
delegation will be attending tomorrow's talks and monitoring the
U.S.-lead attempt to allow hazardous waste exports to non-OECD
countries.  
 
ENDS
 
CONTACT:  
Marcelo Furtado, Greenpeace USA, 202-319-2454
Ehrl Lafontant, Haiti Communications Project, 617-542-1013
Alex Medard, COHPEDA (Haiti), 011-509-45-2080