Haiti to send back waste dumped by U.S.

The Miami Herald November 8, 1998 Haiti to send back waste dumped by U.S.

             GONAIVES, Haiti -- (AP) -- Bits of broken glass still glitter on the wharf, more
             than 10 years after tons of ash and ground bottles from the United States were
             dumped on the outskirts of this coastal city.

After years of battling, on Friday, Haiti began to prepare the waste to send it back.

``It's a victory for every developing country that developed countries are tempted
to use as a garbage dump,'' Gonaives Mayor Edner Jean-Pierre said.

             In the late 1980s, the cargo ship Khian Sea, loaded with glass and ash from
             Philadelphia trash incinerators, went from port to port in search of a dumping
             ground.

             In December 1987, the ship's crew unloaded nearly 4,000 tons of the ash, labeled
             ``soil fertilizer,'' near Gonaives port, 100 miles north of Port-au-Prince. The
             military government of Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy was compensated for the dumping.

             The U.S. Embassy tried to dissuade the government from accepting the ash,
             arguing it didn't have proper facilities to handle it. Haitian officials tried to seal the
             ash in concrete but were interrupted by a coup d'etat in June 1988.

Environmentalists in Haiti argued that the waste was toxic.

             Greenpeace, the environmental activist group, said it tested samples at its London
             laboratory and found the ash had high levels of cadmium, lead, copper and zinc
             that were leaching into surrounding soil.

             The Haitian Collective for Environmental Protection and Alternative Development
             claimed the toxins killed several handlers, the group's Executive Secretary Aldrin
             Calixte said.

Tests performed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found no evidence
of toxicity, however.

             After years of negotiations, the city of Philadelphia agreed to contribute $50,000
             toward the $372,000 disposal cost. A New Jersey waste company is paying
             $100,000 and Haiti's government is covering the remainder.

             Caribbean Dredging and Excavation of New York, is carrying out the contract,
             and said the ash would go to South Carolina. However, South Carolina's
             Department of Health and Environmental Control said it had not yet received a
             formal request for such a transfer.

To excavate, truck, and load the ash onto the cargo ship will take about two
weeks.