COLUMN: Cleaning up Philly's trash

From Michelle Weinberg's, "For Every Action," Fall '99 From Michelle Weinberg's, "For Every Action," Fall '99Imagine if the city of Philadelphia hired a company to dispose of incinerator ash -- created through the combustion of Philadelphia's waste -- and that company decided to dump some of the ash in your backyard. Now imagine if 11 years later, the ash still sat in your back yard. You would probably hold Philadelphia responsible for creating that pile of waste, right? The rest of the waste was dumped in the ocean, a violation for which the company was successfully prosecuted. But the company was never prosecuted for the toxic ash dumped in Haiti -- there is no law against dumping waste in a Third World country. As for Philadelphia, the city never paid the company its $600,000, alleging that the original contract wasn't completed. Today, the tons of ash remain in Haiti, waiting to be removed and placed in a landfill properly equipped to handle such toxic waste. A new shipping company has agreed to take the ash to a proper location at an estimated cost of $400,000. The government of Haiti remains desperate to have it removed. The original dumping company has provided some money and Philadelphia has contributed $50,000. However, the government of Haiti is left with the rest of the bill -- almost $200,000. This past November, the desperately poor nation was on the verge of paying to have the waste removed -- a landfill in South Carolina had agreed to take it. But at the last second, the landfill backed down due to local pressure. The city of Philadelphia has a moral obligation to assist the government of Haiti by footing the bill and locating a landfill, preferably one of the same landfills regularly used to dispose of Philadelphia's waste. Haiti has been forced to deal with this incinerator ash for too long. The financial burden that removal of the waste would place upon one of the world's poorest nations is significant and it is unfair to expect their struggling economy to suffer further by paying for this mess. But according to Kevin Feeley, spokesperson for Mayor Ed Rendell, Philadelphia has gone beyond its legal obligations by contributing the $50,000. Feeley believes that requests for money are attempts to "extort money from the city" and that the mayor "has an obligation to the taxpayers of Philadelphia." Of course, one might recall that taxpayers saved over $600,000 when this blatant act of environmental injustice originally occurred. The opportunity exists for Philadelphia to right a serious mistake, one that directly goes back to the decision to export its waste 11 years ago. And this mistake can be fixed for a fraction of that cost. Haiti should also be free from the responsibility for finding an appropriate location. Although the ash is not classified as hazardous under legal definitions, it does contain dangerous levels of lead, carcinogenic cadmium and dioxin, the most hazardous substance yet discovered by humans. This ash needs to be placed in a facility is designed specifically to handle such waste. There are certainly no places in Haiti equipped to deal with such waste. Feeley agrees that a permanent landfill must be found, and says that discussions aimed at finding a location have occurred as recently as two weeks ago. But he blames environmental activists for the delays, claiming they have politicized the situation so much that no landfill is willing to deal with this "PR monster." It seems likely that opposition in Philadelphia would have less ground to stand on. Knowing that the garbage was originally created in the city, it would be harder to protest bringing it back to Philadelphia for disposal. Although there are no landfills within the city limits of Philadelphia, landfills just outside the city can -- and regularly do -- handle much larger amounts of Philadelphia's incinerator ash. Developing nations are not our dumping grounds. It doesn't matter how the ash got there, Philadelphia's waste should not be Haiti's burden. It's time for Philadelphia to bring its ash home.