#4096: Philadelphia Ash Still Sitting On Storage Barges (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

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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