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MODEL CITY - Toxic waste declared lost en route to Texas from a plant in Kentucky have been located in the Chemical Waste Management landfill. [Niagara County, NY]
On Sept.11, [2000] 540 gallons of the liquid left the Paducab Gaseous Difflision Plant in 180 large, discarded electrical capacitors. The liquid, containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), was lost on its way to incineration in Port Arthur, Texas. Waste brokerage firm Clean Harbor Environmental Services admits it lost track of the liquid.
Eleven days later, at least part of that lost shipment reached Niagara County.
According to George Spira, a spokesman for Chemical Waste Management, three 55 gallon drums containing capacitors from the Paducah site were buried Sept 22 in CWM's Model City landfill.
Spira said the capacitors, which are about 8 inches tall and 12 inches wide, were packed and sealed into the metal drums in Kentucky. They were labeled as drained when they arrived at CWM, he said.
"Apparently, (Clean Harbor) didn't do what they were supposed to do," he said. "They were coded that they were drained - so we landfilled them."
The mistake was caused when the coding problem triggered a routing error, said Greg Cook, spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs, lead environmental contractor at the plant for the U.S. Department of Energy. Clean Harbor has sent a letter admitting the problem, be said.
"They've determined they did not drain the liquid off and there's absolutely no indication that the landfill drained it off, either," Cook said. "We believe the liquid was buried with the capacitors."
Spira confirmed that's the case. He said the undrained drums were buried, and have been covered with hazardous waste delivered to the landfill for the past two months. The drums are now likely buried under 40 to 50 feet of other waste, he said.
Federal law requires that liquid PCBs be incinerated rather than buried, but excavation could cause the waste to move, posing more trouble, Cook said.
Excavation presents another problem, Spira said.
It's like finding a needle in a haystack, but we could do it," Spira said. "But if somebody wants us to go back and dig this up the drums, who's going to pay for it?"
Liquid PCB was used as a coolant until it was banned in the late 1970s. Most capacitors containing PCB were taken out of service in the 1980s, Spira said. He insisted the toxic chemical cannot eat through the drums and presents no environmental danger.
Cook said state and federal environmental regulators, who are tracking the problem, will have the final say if the capacitors should be removed from the Model City landfill.
Michael Basile, community relations coordinator for the state Environmental Protection Agency's public information office in Niagara Falls, said Wednesday he hadn't heard about the incident. Neither had Town of Lewiston Supervisor Sandra Maslen.
"This is the first I've heard of it," Maslen said. "No one has said a thing".
"How do you get lost in Lewiston, on your way from Kentuclcy to Texas?"
The Associated Press contributed to this report.