Anniston Star
January 16, 2003

Arrival of PCB waste in Pell City is postponed

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
01-16-2003

The Department of Defense has revised its plan to ship PCB-contaminated waste from Japan to Pell City today, sources in Washington said.

Instead, the cargo will arrive in two to three weeks.

Defense Department spokespeople refused to release further details - despite legislators' displeasure at the military keeping the community in the dark.

Sen. Richard Shelby expressed his concern in a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday night.

"The emerging perception in the region is that the Department of Defense has been trying to hide this activity," Shelby wrote.

Sunday, The Star revealed the military's plan to airlift the controversial waste to a private disposal facility in Pell City.

The project has been in the works for months, but the Defense Department did not contact elected officials until The Star began investigating last week.

The shipment is a small fraction of the 7 million pounds of electrical transformers, capacitors and other items the Defense Department eventually must remove from Japan and Wake Island.

The PCB-tainted equipment has angered the Japanese. Public outcry stopped the Defense Department's past attempts to ship it to a plant in Canada for disposal.

Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are insulating and lubricating chemicals that were banned in the United States in 1977. PCBs have been linked to a range of health problems, from learning disorders to cancer.

Under a contract with the military, Trans-Cycle Inc., in Pell City will dismantle the equipment and clean and sell any recyclable metals. It will send PCB fluids to incineration facilities and bury remaining solids in a hazardous waste landfill in Emelle.

In his letter, Shelby said it was becoming clear that the military already had processed millions of pounds of PCBs in Pell City without informing the community.

"This revelation does not help to improve the image of the Department in the minds of those who have begun to lose faith in the way the Department does business," Shelby wrote.

The military said that it has met all notification requirements and would not say when the cargo was scheduled to arrive.

"The exact dates and times and modes of transportation are things we don't discuss," said Jack Hooper, spokesman for the Defense Logistics Agency.

When asked whether communities had a right to such information, Hooper replied that the military had a record of handling these materials safely, and that "any of the appropriate or required procedures would be followed."

Sen. Jeff Sessions said in a news release that he planned to "investigate the circumstances thoroughly.

"Regardless of the diligence applied to the destruction process, safety of the community is my first concern," he said.

Pell City Mayor Guin Robinson said through a spokeswoman that he was not able to find out from the military when the shipment was arriving. Trans-Cycle officials could not be reached for comment.