Fed: Toxic waste project gets green light

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Fed: Toxic waste project gets green light

By Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, Aug 4 AAP - The federal government has signed off on a plan to ship 120 tonnesof toxic waste from Pacific islands to Queensland.

The AusAID-funded project will get rid of stockpiled agricultural chemicals and polychlorinatedbiphenyls (PCBs) from old electrical transformers, collectively known as persistent organicpollutants or POPs.

Project spokeswoman Stefanie Pidcock told AAP today the POPs were toxic, did not breakdown quickly, accumulated up the food chain and posed a significant health risk to thePacific islands.

Recent studies have shown POPs move around the world through evaporation, affectingsea life and coastal communities.

The 13 islands taking part in the project include: Fiji, Cook Islands, Federated Statesof Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands,Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The chemicals will be transported back to Australia for destruction in a CSIRO-designedfacility at Narangba, north of Brisbane, from May to July 2004.

Ms Pidcock said the BCD Technologies plant used high temperatures and pressures toblow apart hazardous molecules, rendering them harmless.

A specialist team is expected to travel to Samoa later this week to start a detailedinventory of the chemicals.

Ms Pidcock said the Pacific island nations lacked the specialised resources neededfor the chemicals' treatment and disposal.

She said the project, which was the subject of public consultation earlier this year,would meet strict safety requirements for packaging, shipping, road transport and destructionunder state, national and international regulations.

Repacking of the waste in the islands is expected to start in March 2004, with processingto be completed by November 2004.

East Narangba Community Action Group spokeswoman Fran Jell said group members, whosehomes are as close as 500 metres from the industrial estate, were initially unhappy aboutthe project but had had some of their concerns addressed.

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KEYWORD: TOXIC