EPA: Ship back PCB-contaminated soil to U.S.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 has issued an administrative order to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allow federal environment officials ship back to the U.S. mainland the concentrated polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) that will be collected in Cemetery No. 2 in Tanapag village.

Federal law prohibits the shipment of PCB from territories which are not covered by the U.S. Customs.

EPA Region 9 Manager Norman Lovelace said the enforcement action sent a week ago is expected to help clear legal obstacles and pave the way for the shipment of the highly toxic chemical and its proper disposal in a U.S. mainland facility.

Mr. Lovelace said the administrative order was also meant to ensure that the ongoing cleanup in Cemetery No. 2, which is highly contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyl, will be completed in a safe and orderly manner.

“It will provide us an extra measure of insurance that the cleanup will proceed to a conclusion,” he said.

The Army Corps’ contractor, the Environmental Chemical Corp., has been excavating the PCB-contaminated soil at the cemetery to allow the people to enter the burial ground on All Soul’s Day.

An estimated 5,000 tons of soil will be removed and temporarily stockpiled in an area for treatment using indirect low thermal desorption process early next year.

“We don’t know yet whether the concentrated waste will be treated safely on island. We don’t have the answers to that question yet,” Mr. Lovelace said. A technical expert in Washington will assist in evaluating the process that the Army Corps has proposed in the final disposal of the concentrated PCB.

Soil samples taken from the cemetery are analyzed during the excavation until the desired cleanup level at 1 ppm is reached. The Army Corps has assured the local people that the low temperature indirect thermal desorption process has been successfully used in a much larger USEPA Superfund site in New Jersey, where an approximately 95,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil were cleaned up.

Mr. Lovelace expressed hopes that the enforcement action will not in any way delay the cleanup of the cemetery since both federal and local officials want to rid the area of the highly toxic chemical. EPA has discussed with the Army Corps the reasons why the enforcement action was issued to avoid debates on the issue.

Both the EPA and the Division of Environmental Quality are providing substantial oversight to the project. DEQ Director Ignacio Cabrera said the cemetery is a priority before work in the remaining areas in the village which were found to have high PCB contamination begins.

“We want to be comfortable that whatever is done — whether shipment of concentrated soil back to the U.S. or treatment here on island is safe and proven effective,” he said. (LFR)