Answers given by the Environment Minister and a top civil servant to a key Parliamentary committee were inaccurate, seriously underestimating the quantities of high level carcinogenic materials due to be dumped at Hartlepool as part of the 'Ghost Fleet' programme.
Elliot Morley, the Minister for Environment and Agri-Environment, told a special session of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee on 19th November that the 698 tonnes of PCB impregnated solids on the 13 ships would be taken away for disposal in special high temperature incinerators if the level of contamination was high.1
DEFRA's Head of Waste Management, Sue Ellis, then expanded on this, saying that any of the contaminated material on board the thirteen ships that contained over 50 parts per million of PCBs2 would be incinerated. 3
Research by the "Impact" community group on Teesside early this year shows that both were wrong. If the contract goes ahead, ALL PCB CONTAMINATED MATERIAL FROM THE SHIPS WILL BE DUMPED AT ABLE UK'S SEATON MEADOW HAZARDOUS WASTE LANDFILL SITE, not far from homes at Seaton Carew.
Members of Impact4 made comprehensive inquiries back in July, before publishing the facts on their web site5. The Environment Agency confirmed to us, with references6, that Able UK will be free under current UK and European law to landfill this waste at their own licensed site alongside the asbestos and other hazardous materials from the ships.
Impact member Neil Marley, who lives in Hartlepool, is furious that the sources of disinformation about the Ghost Fleet deal now extend as far as the Environment Minister and his staff.
"The Minister wasn't only misinforming Parliament - and local people - that some of the hazardous waste from the Ghost Fleet will be kept out of Hartlepool; by extension he was suggesting that similar waste from future contracts would be disposed of elsewhere. In fact Able UK will be happy to dump the lot, cheaply and legally, on our doorsteps, in a landfill that already has a poor management record. It is a scandal that the Minister has got it so wrong, and it's the people who live close by who are the victims."
Notes
1. Questions 139-142 of Oral evidence taken before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, see http://www.publications.parliament.uk/
pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmenvfru/uc1336/uc133602.htm
2. The export of PCBs at these concentrations is banned under the US Toxics Substances Control Act . To allow the Ghost Fleet ships to cross the Atlantic, the US Environment Protection Agency had to issue an 'enforcement discretion', ie a letter promising not to prosecute MARAD for breaking that law.
3. Questions 148-149 (see note 1)
4. "Impact" was formed on Teesside earlier this year, concerning itself with problems that residents face when living close by Teesside's heavy industries. See www.impact-teesside.org
5. 'Ghost Fleet' information page at www.impact-teesside.org/able1.htm
6. Interpretation of the definition and classification of hazardous waste technical guidance, on the Environment Agency web site at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/
444304/444641/496498/?version=1&lang=_e
Contact
Neil Marley, 01429 296251
Carole Zagrovic, 01642 459171 (office hours)
