Sludge Watch ==> Toxic paint sludge - moved from US Tribal Land to Canadian Reserve in Sarnia

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This story isn't about sewage sludge. Its about toxic paint sludge.
But the story has lessons on sewage sludge.

Lesson One:
Because Aboriginal groups have been awarded some 'nation' status (however 
inadequate) some of the environmental laws and permiting requirements have 
been relaxed on their lands.  Therefore these reservations have been 
targetted as waste disposal sites.  In California there are abandoned 
mountains of sludge on tribal lands.

We saw sludge brought onto Chippawa lands in Ontario, too.  It was without 
permits from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

Lesson Two:

While the US border states, particularly Michigan, is winding itself up to 
stop Toronto trash from heading into its landfills, US hazardous waste 
continues to make its way north to Ontario landfills.
Why?  Liability.  In the US if a waste is dropped off at a dump the original 
owner of the waste and the hauler continue to be liable for the waste. So if 
that waste causes environmental or health problems they can still be on the 
hook for cost of cleanup.

But in Ontario once the tailgate is up and the hazmat waste hauler leaves 
the site they have no further liability for the waste.

That is what makes 'Clean Harbours' in Sarnia Ontario and other hazmat 
landfills attractive to US hazmat dealers.

First Nations, Tribal Governments, Aboriginal groups (like the rest of us 
newcomers!) need to defend themselves against exploitation by the waste 
industry.

..............................................................

Tons of toxic sludge link U.S., Canadian Indian tribes
Mcclatchy-tribune
Originally published January 21, 2007

SARNIA, Ontario // The parallels are striking.
An Indian tribe blames industrial pollution for widespread illness. A child 
dies of a rare leukemia. Land that sustained ancestors for thousands of 
years, locals complain, is no longer fit to fish or hunt.

But these aren't the Ramapough Mountain Indians of Upper Ringwood, N.J. They 
are Chippewas, members of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Canada.

Tons of the toxic paint sludge dug out of the Ramapoughs' Ringwood 
neighborhood have been buried in a landfill near the Chippewas' reserve in 
Sarnia. A relief for one community, a burden for another.

The landfill is just one of a litany of worries for a community of nearly 
1,000 people hemmed in by dozens of oil refineries, chemical factories, 
natural-gas wells and toxic cleanup sites here in Canada's "Chemical 
Valley." The Aamjiwnaang blame this industrial overload for high asthma 
rates and reduced life spans.

The dump, the industries and the sludge from New Jersey are all examples of 
how the worst pollution often ends up among those with the least clout, some 
here say.

"There's a common thread" between the Ramapoughs and the Chippewas, says Ron 
Plain, chairman of the Aamjiwnaang environmental committee. "We're not 
afforded any human rights."

The operators of the Clean Harbors landfill, however, don't think it is a 
threat.

The commercial hazardous-waste dump is 3 1/2 miles from the reserve, amid a 
wide-open stretch of farm fields. The smokestack atop its incinerator rises 
225 feet into the sky, the highest point for miles.

Clean Harbors takes the worst of the worst from the Great Lakes region - 
waste from auto plants, refineries, foundries and chemical makers. The 
company buried 190,000 tons of hazardous waste in 2005. It burned 90,000 
more.

More than 5,000 tons of Ringwood's sludge has been brought here because it's 
too toxic - even after processing in Michigan - for burial in the United 
States.

When the trucks roll into Clean Harbors, an on-site lab tests samples. 
Material that passes muster is pushed into 60-foot-deep pit by bulldozers.

The landfill doesn't have the geosynthetic liners required of most dumps in 
the U.S. and Canada. Until recently, Ontario didn't require treatment of the 
waste buried here to make it less toxic, as other states and provinces do.

But the landfill is carved into a 120-foot-deep layer of natural clay and 
chalk, a unique geologic feature that the company claims makes it perhaps 
the safest hazardous waste dump in North America. The waste is topped with 
an additional 20 feet of clay. Toxic liquids that percolate out are 
collected and incinerated. The company also tests grass and leaves outside 
the site to ensure chemicals aren't spreading.

"I always put us second only to the nuclear industry as far as regulatory 
controls," said Donald Schwieg, a Clean Harbors vice president. "There's no 
environmental impact from this site."

There have been problems. Clean Harbors agreed to donate $60,000 to 
environmental groups last year for failing to properly report waste imported 
from the U.S. In 1999, farmers parked their tractors outside the gates to 
protest contaminated water and methane gas leaks.

Some neighbors don't mind the landfill. The waste "has to go somewhere," 
said Bill Allingham. "If you don't want it, then the best darn cure is to 
quit your consumerism. But people want and they want and they want."

Plain says people on the reserve just want the government to enforce 
environmental rules and to study their health complaints - something the 
Ramapoughs spent years pleading for.

Plain says his sister-in-law and mother-in-law died of cancer last year. His 
cousin is in mourning for his 13-year-old grandson, who died in November of 
a rare form of leukemia some studies have linked to benzene, an industrial 
chemical. The boy's grave is in a cemetery beside towering chemical tanks.

In 2005, a University of Ottawa study found women here had given birth to 
twice as many girls as boys in recent years, an oddity some Chippewas blame 
on pollution. The author of the study, however, says the cause is unclear.

There's one more similarity to the Ramapoughs: People are frightened of 
living amid the pollution, but they are too tied to the land to go.

"We've been here 6,000 years," Plain said. "We didn't create this. We 
shouldn't have to leave."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.toxicsludge21jan21,0,3195575.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines