Plans Revealed to Bring Philadelphia Toxic Waste Back From Haiti

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ON ANNIVERSARY OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL SCANDAL, PLANS REVEALED TO
BRING PHILADELPHIA'S TOXIC WASTE BACK FROM HAITI 

New York City offers help while City of Philadelphia turns its
back

PHILADELPHIA, January 14, 1998 -- Nearly 10 years to the day
after the infamous cargo ship Khian Sea dumped 4,000 tons of
Philadelphia's toxic incinerator ash on a beach in Haiti,
Greenpeace and Haiti Communications Project today revealed the
details of an unusual, and perhaps final opportunity to return
the ash to the Unite States and clean up the dump site. In a
telling twist to this ongoing saga, New York City's Trade Waste
Commission has initiated the project, while the City of
Philadelphia has refused to participate.

Under an order negotiated last spring by the Commission and
revealed today by Greenpeace, New Jersey-based Eastern
Environmental Services, Inc., is obligated to provide landfill
space for the Philadelphia toxic ash, plus $100,000 toward
excavating and shipping the ash to the US.  The order was a
condition of licensing Eastern to haul trash for New York City.
Eastern Environmental Services, Inc., is directed by Louis
Paolino, one of the principals of Joseph Paolino and Sons, the
company which originally contracted the Khian Sea to dispose of
Philadelphia's ash.

"New York City has been decent enough to try to resolve this
scandal," said Kenny Bruno, Toxics Campaigner for Greenpeace,
which documented the Khian Sea's voyage in 1988. "Philadelphia,
unfortunately, has only shown total disregard for the Haitian
people for the past 10 years by refusing to take responsibility
for its own toxic waste." 

Bruno cautioned, however, that the agreement for the return of
Philadelphia's ash expires at the end of May, 1998. Greenpeace
has written to Philadelphia Mayor Edward Rendell and to the US
Department of State requesting cooperation and financial
assistance to complete the project before the window of
opportunity closes. 

The Khian Sea spent two years travelling the world in search of
a dumpsite for its toxic cargo, including its stop in Haiti in
early 1988. Some of the ash dumped there still sits on the beach
near the Sedren wharf in the port of Gonaives; a larger portion
was moved to an unlined, uncovered concrete bunker four
kilometers away. The ash contains the toxic heavy metals lead
and cadmium, which have contaminated adjoining soil. Greenpeace,
the Haiti Communications Project, the Haiti Collective for the
Protection of the Environment and Alternative Development, and
other Haitian groups have called for the return of the ash to
the US for the past decade. 

The Khian Sea scandal and others like it led to the negotiation
of an international treaty called the Basel Convention, which
bans the export of hazardous waste from industrialized nations
like the US to developing countries. In addition to the Haiti
ash, US hazardous wastes still remain in South Africa,
Bangladesh, and India, testaments to an ongoing record of
environmental racism and injustice by the US, which has yet to
ratify the Convention.

ENDS

(Note: A four-page chronology and other background material on
the Haiti ash is available from Greenpeace.)

Greenpeace on the Internet at http://www.greenpeace.org