UNITED STATES ACCUSED OF ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES OVER FAILURE TO CLEAN UP TOXIC DUMP SITES

4 August 2000

SAIPAN (CNMI)/AMSTERDAM -- Greenpeace activists joined villagers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (CNMI) in the northern Pacific today to demand that the United States cleans up the toxic legacy it has left there and in other areas of the Pacific and Asia. The demand came as the local authorities accused US agencies of "gross negligence and criminality" regarding their failure to protect the people and environment of the Commonwealth.(1)

Activists from the Greenpeace flagship, Rainbow Warrior, attempted to warn residents about the dangers of the worst toxic waste site by sign posting and fencing off piles of contaminated soil left after previous attempts by the US Department of Defense to clean up the village of Tanapag.

They then marched to the office of US Attorney General, Janet Reno's representative to present a letter asking for a federal investigation into conduct of the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) and Environment Protection Agency (EPA) in CNMI.

"The US has demonstrated a total disregard for the environment and the health of people both here in Tanapag and at its other dump sites across Asia and the Pacific," said Maureen Penjueli of Greenpeace speaking from Tanapag.(2) "These people have been exposed to poisonous soils contaminated with PCBs for over a decade due to the negligence of the US agencies."

Electrical transformers containing PCB waste were dumped on the CNMI in the 1960s and have since contaminated the soil and leaked into the groundwater. Unaware that the transformers contained highly toxic chemicals, the islanders used them to make such things as boundaries for their baseball pitch. High incidences of cancers, leukemia, chromosomal changes and reproductive disorders have been reported in the community.

Local resident, Mike Evangelista said: "We were not told that the waste left by the US was dangerous. For years we have used it in our communities to make roadblocks and as windbreakers. We even used some of it to make headstones in our cemetery. Now we know why so many of us get cancers and so many of us and our children are sick."

The report also charges the ACOE with possible "perjurous" behavior in claiming that they had cleaned up areas of the island when in fact they were still contaminated with PCBs. The report also indicates that the ACOE have known about PCB groundwater contamination on the island since 1992, yet have failed either to inform the local community or to make any attempts to clean it up.

"This report raises questions about how seriously the US government considers its environment responsibilities and the health of its own people in the Pacific that have suffered the ill effects of its toxic legacy," said Dr Darryl Luscombe of Greenpeace International. "The US must clean up all the PCB contamination that it has dumped on these countries and commit to appropriate non-incineration methods of remediation," he added.(3)

Chemicals such as PCBs are known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and are amongst the most problematic chemicals to which natural systems can be exposed.(3) An international treaty to eliminate POPs is currently being negotiated by more than 100 countries under the auspices of the United Nations but its progress is being hindered by a group of industrialized nations, led by the US.(4) "The global community has accepted the urgent need to rid the world of these toxic chemicals but the US is demonstrating the same contempt for the health and safety of the peoples of the world in these negotiations as it is to the peoples of Tanapag. It clearly regards the rest of the planet as a toxic dustbin at its disposal, an attitude that must no longer be tolerated," said Greenpeace International toxics campaigner, Dr.Darryl Luscombe.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Dr. Darryl Luscombe, Toxics Campaigner in Saipan on +1 670 235 6025 room 702
- Maureen Penjueli, Toxics Campaigner in Saipan on +1 670 235 6025 room 504 or mobile +1 670 287 9995
- Samantha Magick, Media Officer in Saipan on +1 670 235 6025 room 504 or mobile +1 670 287 9997
- Matilda Bradshaw, Greenpeace International press desk, Amsterdam +31 20 523 9545

Interviews with Mike Evangelista are available on request on +1 670 235 6025 room 504.

Photographs are available from the Greenpeace International picture desk on +31 20 524 9580

Visit Greenpeace's Toxics campaign website:
www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/

The Rainbow Warrior is in Saipan for public education work on PCBs until the end of the week as part of the Greenpeace campaign for a toxic free future. The Rainbow Warrior is renowned in the Pacific, especially for her participation in protests against French nuclear testing in French Polynesia. This is the first time she has visited CNMI.

(1) The CNMI Office of the Attorney General's "Preliminary Investigative Report: Tanapag PCB Contamination" August 2, 2000 concludes that:

The Environmental Protection Agency, through Region 9's Pacific Insular Office Area programs, and the Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu, Hawaii has endangered the health, safety and welfare of the people of the Commonwealth through what may be characterized as either gross negligence or environmentally criminal actions contrary to federal law and their own policies.

(2) US military PCB wastes and contaminated sites occur in many other areas of Asia and the Pacific, including Japan, the Philippines and Guam.

(3) As with all POPs, PCB waste should not be incinerated as when burned, they release dioxins and other toxic substances. The Greenpeace report "Alternative Detoxification Technologies for Persistent Organic Pollutant Stockpiles" outlines technical criteria for treatment of PCBs and other POPs. The report can be obtained from www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/reports/alttech2.pdf or www.who.int/ifcs/isg3/d98-17b.htm

(4) Other governments blocking the UN POPs treaty are: Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland and South Korea. The next round of negotiations - INC5 - are to be held in South Africa, 4-9 December 2000.