Solid Waste Case Studies
Environmental 1-2
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.
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, Panama, Ber
muda, 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).
A new name
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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.
The Paolino family is held accountable
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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.
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.
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
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by Eckardt C. Beck [EPA Journal - January 1979]
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.
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
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.
When the Unthinkable Happens
Freshkills Landfill
The Environmental Impact of the
World Trade Center Attack
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.
• The composition of the debris was extremely
diverse and often toxic, including, among
other things, vast amounts of asbestoscontaminated construction waste, tens of
thousands of pieces of electrical equipment
and as much as 130,000 gallons of PCBcontaminated oils
A new use for a landfill
• Fresh Kills was the city’s 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.
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.
Cadaver Dogs