Thread: Lawmakers blast plan to burn Mexico's toxics in Port Arthur

July 21, 2008, 11:41PM
EPA told to rethink import of PCBs
Lawmakers blast plan to burn Mexico's toxics in Port Arthur


By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle


The congressional committee responsible for the Environmental Protection Agency is challenging a proposal that would allow the operator of a Port Arthur incinerator to import toxic waste from Mexico for disposal.

In a letter to the EPA on Monday, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce told the federal agency's chief administrator that the proposed approval of Veolia Environmental Services' petition would "effectively create an open border" for other countries' PCBs to be disposed of in the United States.

The confrontation comes nearly 30 years after legislation that banned the manufacture of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, also prohibited bringing them into the country. Veolia has proposed importing up to 20,000 tons of the chemical compound from Mexico for incineration, and the EPA has indicated it would approve the plan.

The committee's leadership raised several issues with the proposal, including the risk to residents of the Gulf Coast refinery town and surrounding Jefferson County, the availability of alternative disposal methods and the plant's safety record.

"The people of Southeast Texas already live with a large concentration of industries, and they deserve to know why the EPA intends to exempt this facility from the federal ban on importing toxic PCBs," said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, a committee member.


EPA to review request
An EPA spokeswoman said the agency had received the letter and would give it careful consideration. The agency has until Aug. 4 to respond to the committee.

The federal law bans the import of PCBs, but the EPA has the power to grant exemptions on a case-by-case basis for up to a year.

The EPA proposed the approval of Veolia's plans in March, saying that the destruction of PCBs in this country is safer than allowing stockpiles to fester in Mexico and other nations. A final decision is expected by the end of the year.

But critics contend that there are cleaner, safer disposal methods for PCBs. When burned, they produce dioxin, which is linked to cancer, brain damage, reproductive problems and other ailments in humans.

Mexico now sends PCBs to Europe for incineration, exposing the compounds to loss at sea. The transportation cost for overseas shipment is at least three times more expensive than moving the waste from Monterrey, Mexico, to Port Arthur, according to Veolia.

The facility, which is five miles west of Port Arthur on Highway 73, currently burns between 20 million and 30 million pounds of PCBs from domestic sources annually. Company officials said smokestack tests show the incinerator destroys more than 99 percent of the material that it burns.

Still, the congressional committee expressed concern over the plant's safety record, citing several violations of federal laws over the past five years, including the failure to maintain the required minimum temperature in its kiln.

"It is baffling that EPA would allow a company with such a poor record of environmental compliance to import toxic chemicals into our country," said Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the committee. "Maybe EPA needs a reminder that it works for the American people, including the residents of the Jefferson County community, not companies like Veolia."


Plant defends record
Mitch Osborne, the plant's general manager, said he had not had a chance to read the committee's letter but defended the facility's record.

"If we didn't believe that we could do this safely, then we wouldn't be going through this political firestorm," he said.

The committee also questioned whether the EPA adequately addressed concerns about "environmental justice," considering Jefferson County is already home to 10 major toxic waste sites. Its cancer rate exceeds the state average by 15 percent for men and 8 percent for women.

Hilton Kelley, a community activist who opposes Veolia's plan, applauded the committee's intervention.

"It's high time because we believe the EPA has overstepped its bounds," Kelley said. "What they've done is wrong and totally out of line."

matthew.tresaugue@chron.com
Just what we need , more mexican TRASH....
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5900357.html

OH PLEASE. WHY DOESNT MEXICO BUILD ITS OWN INCINERATOR? AND FOR HOW LONG HAS MEXICO BEEN SENDING ITS TOXIC WASTE TO OTHER COUNTRIES. IT LOOKS LIKE MEXICO EXPORTS ALL OF ITS PROBLEMS TO OTHER COUNTRIES INSTEAD OF TAKING CARE OF THEM ITSELF. WTF? DIY MEXICO!!!!

They want Americans to do it for them, I bet you

Don;t we already have enough of their toxic waste?!?!?!