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#4096: Philadelphia Ash Still Sitting On Storage Barges (fwd)
From: A. =?iso-8859-1?Q?M=E9dard?= <amedard@gte.net>
I just received the following news about the Philadelphia Ash from the
Return-to-Sender project:
A. Médard
> This is absurd! The ash is still being held hostage to Philadelphia's
> stubborn refusal to take it. It is sitting on storage barges and the local
> people there are begining to organize against it beacuse they fear it will
> be spilled into the wetland.
>
> IT IS WAY PAST TIME PHILADELPHIA TAKES BACK IT'S WASTE!
> Remember, this is only a tiny fraction of the waste that was exported. It
> is routine incinerator ash. The only thing unusual about this ash is its
> history. Philadelphia is refusing it for POLITICAL reasons, not
> environmental ones.
>
> PLEASE CALL MAYOR STREET TODAY AND TELL HIM ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. TAKE BACK
> PHILLY'S WASTE!
>
> When Mayor Street was the City Council president, we warned him that this
> would be his problem if he became the next mayor and it was not resolved.
> That is now the case. Please just take 3 minutes to call the Mayor and
> leave a message. If you are from Philly, mention that.
>
> Please call 215-686-2181 and 215-686-1776.
>
> Mesi anpil!
> Annie Leonard
> Essential Action
>
>
> > Copyright 2000 National Broadcasting Co. Inc.
> >
> > NBC News Transcripts
> >
> > SHOW: NBC NIGHTLY NEWS (6:30 PM ET)
> >
> > June 4, 2000, Sunday
> >
> > LENGTH: 352 words
> >
> > HEADLINE: SHIPLOAD OF INCINERATOR ASH SAILS LOOKING FOR A HOME
> >
> > ANCHORS: JOHN SEIGENTHALER
> >
> > REPORTERS: KERRY SANDERS
> >
> > BODY:
> >
> > JOHN SEIGENTHALER, anchor:
> >
> > To Florida now, the current resting place of a load of incinerator
> > ash which
> > has been sailing from port to port since the 1980s. NBC's Kerry
> > Sanders on the
> > cargo nobody wants.
> >
> > KERRY SANDERS reporting:
> >
> > On an out-of-the-way canal along Florida's east coast, crews
> > transferring
> > garbage, the tons of incinerated ash all under the watchful eye of
> > environmental
> > police. The surveillance, to make sure this load is not dumped in
> > Florida.
> >
> > Sergeant PAUL LASKA (Martin County, Florida): Want to make sure it
> > doesn't
> > get sloppy. That there's no accidents.
> >
> > SANDERS: This load has been rejected by several states and at least a
> > half
> > dozen countries. It's tons of household garbage incinerated in
> > Philadelphia at
> > a time when the city said it had no room in its landfills. And so a
> > bulk cargo
> > ship began a global odyssey, from Philadelphia to the Bahamas, on to
> > Panama,
> > then the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa, to Singapore
> > to
> > Yugoslavia. After awhile, rejecting the ash became the thing to do,
> > even though
> > US government tests show it is nontoxic and safe to bury.
> >
> > Mr. KRIS McFADDEN (Florida Department Of Environmental Protection):
> > There's a
> > stigma attached to it because it is the infamous incinerator ash from
> > 14 years
> > ago and has been rejected from other countries. So I think
> > that's--people have
> > this idea that it must be something wrong with it.
> >
> > SANDERS: This load of ash, what's left of 14,000 tons. In 1987, the
> > captain
> > hauling testified he was ordered to dump 10,000 tons overboard, some of
> > it in
> > the Indian Ocean, some if it in the Atlantic. This footage from the
> > environmental group Greenpeace shows some of the ash being offloaded in
> > Haiti
> > later that year. Here, an employee trying to illustrate it's not
> > dangerous,
> > tastes some.
> >
> > Unidentified Man: (From file footage) This is how worried I am of its
> > toxicity. That's how worried I am of its toxicity.
> >
> > SANDERS: The garbage sat in Haiti for more than a decade. Finally,
> > officials
> > there decided it should become someone else's problem. Waste
> > Management
> > Incorporated inherited the job company. Officials won't comment, but
> > there are
> > reports that a plan to dump the cargo somewhere in Louisiana is in the
> > works.
> >
> > Mr. KENNY BRUNO (Earth Rights International): Finally the ash is off
> > the
> > beaches of Haiti and back in US waters, so from that point of view it's
> > a
> > tremendous victory.
> >
> > SANDERS: And tonight it sits in Florida. It's traveled more than
> > 30,000
> > miles, but it still has no final place to go. Kerry Sanders, NBC News,
> > Martin
> > County, Florida.
> >
> > LANGUAGE: English
> >
> > LOAD-DATE: June 5, 2000
> >
> >
>
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