Solid Waste Case Studies

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Solid Waste Case Studies

• Environmental 1-2

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But what if no one wants it?

• On August 31, 1986, the cargo barge Khian Sea,
  was loaded with more than 14,000 tons of toxic
  ash from waste incinerators in Philadelphia,
  Pennsylvania.
• The city had previously sent the waste to New
  Jersey, but that state refused to accept any more
  after 1984.
• The companies handling the waste then headed to
  a man-made island in the Bahamas.
• The Bahamian government turned the barge away,
  and Philadelphia withheld payment to the
  companies because the waste was not disposed of.

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The plight of the Khian Sea

• Over the next 16 months, Khian Sea searched all
  over the Atlantic for a place to dump its cargo. 
• It went to the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panam
  a, Bermuda, Guinea Bissau and the Dutch
  Antilles refused.
• So it returned to Philadelphia but the city would
  not take it back.
• In January 1988, the crew finally dumped 4,000
  tons of the waste near Haiti as
  "topsoil fertilizer" (when it was too poisonous
  to be used that way).

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A new name

• When Greenpeace warned the Haitian government of
  the true nature of the waste, Haitian commerce
  minister ordered the crew to reload the ash but
  the ship slipped away.
• The Haitian government banned all waste imports.
  Local clean up crews later buried some of the
  waste in a bunker inland.
• Next the crew of Khian Sea tried to unload the
  rest of the cargo in Senegal, Morocco, Yugoslavia,
   Sri Lanka and Singapore.
• After repairs in Yugoslavia, the ship's name
  changed to Felicia and then the Pelicano.
• Changes failed to hide the ship's original
  identity.

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The Paolino family is held accountable

• The rest of the ash disappeared en route from
  Singapore to Sri Lanka in November 1988.
• The crew had no comment but eventually the ship's
  captain admitted that they had dumped the
  remaining waste - more than 10,000 tons - into
  the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.
• Over the years, various attempts to return the
  ash dumped in Haiti failed.
• In 1997, New York City Trade Waste
  Commission investigated Eastern Environmental
  Services  (The originating company). They agreed
  to give the company a license to operate in New
  York City in condition that it would contribute
  to the cleanup in Haiti.
• EES agreed to take the waste back. Greenpeace and
  Haitian environmental groups launched "Project
  Return to Sender" to lobby for funds. City of
  Philadelphia contributed 50,000.

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New International Treaty Results

• In April 2000, Waste Management Inc. loaded 2,500
  tons of ash and contaminated soil to barge Santa
  Lucia and shipped it to Florida, where the barge
  was docked in the St. Lucie Canal.
• There it stayed for two years until in June 2002
  when it was moved to Mountain View Reclamation
  Landfill, in Pennsylvania after the EPA had
  determined the contents to be nonhazardous.
• The case contributed to the creation of the Basel
  Convention about disposal of hazardous waste.

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Love Canal

• It is a cruel irony that Love Canal was
  originally meant to be a dream community. That
  vision belonged to the man for whom the
  three-block tract of land on the eastern edge of
  Niagara Falls, New York, was named--William T.
  Love.-The Love Canal Tragedy
• by Eckardt C. Beck  EPA Journal - January 1979

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Love Canal

• 1910 that dream was shattered.
• All that was left to commemorate Love's hope was
  a partial ditch.
• In the 1920s the canal was turned into a
  municipal and industrial chemical dumpsite.

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Love Canal Continued

• In 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company, then the
  owners and operators of the property, covered the
  canal with earth and sold it to the city for one
  dollar.
• Then 100 homes and a school were built at the
  site.

Love Canal Part 1
Love Canal Part 2
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New York Times, 1978

• NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y.--Twenty five years after the
  Hooker Chemical Company stopped using the Love
  Canal here as an industrial dump, 82 different
  compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, have
  been percolating upward through the soil, their
  drum containers rotting and leaching their
  contents into the backyards and basements of 100
  homes and a public school built on the banks of
  the canal.

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When the Unthinkable HappensFreshkills Landfill

• The Environmental Impact of the World Trade
  Center Attack

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Left to deal with

• In a single day, more than 1.2 million tons of
  building materials lay in ruin.
• The wreckage was 100 to 150 feet high in some
  places and extended seven stories underground.
• Large chunks of debris were strewn as far as
  three blocks away from the World Trade Center
  site and areas up to 10 blocks away were covered
  with thick dust.

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• The composition of the debris was extremely
  diverse and often toxic, including, among other
  things, vast amounts of asbestos-contaminated
  construction waste, tens of thousands of pieces
  of electrical equipment and as much as 130,000
  gallons of PCB-contaminated oils

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A new use for a landfill

• Fresh Kills was the citys last active landfill
• After the terrorist attacks, the landfill was
  immediately chosen as the place to inspect, sort
  and bury World Trade Center debris.
• Under an executive order signed by Governor
  George Pataki, the city was permitted to dispose
  of World Trade Center wastes after January 1,
  2002, after the landfill had already been
  officially closed.

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Still in debate-

• Should Ground Zero be considered a Superfund
  Site?
• Should Fresh Kills Landfill also get that same
  designation?
• Hazardous Material was deposited in Fresh Kills,
  although it was a municipal landfill, not
  hazardous.

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Cadaver Dogs