" New U.S. border checks find radioactive Canadian trash " [FW]

["Jaro" <jaro-10kbq@sympatico.ca>]

This story ran in a local paper here last Tuesday but, significantly, it

left out the line, "Steve Whitter, Toronto's waste services director, said

trace amounts of radioactive iodine could come from such sources as the

discarded diapers of incontinent cancer patients," leaving readers with the

impression that something terribly mysterious is turning up in the waste....



Curiously, also left out was the line, "Waste traffic is not all one way.

Michigan sent 53,000 tons of hazardous waste to Canada in 2001. The real

problem, Whitter said, is that people everywhere want trash buried somewhere

else, not near them."



 Jaro

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



http://www.enn.com/news/2003-09-09/s_8223.asp

New U.S. border checks find radioactive Canadian trash

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

By David Goodman, Associated Press



DETROIT . Stepped up antiterrorism measures at the U.S.-Canada border are

regularly uncovering radioactive material and other illegal medical waste in

Ontario trash bound for a Michigan landfill.



While the checks have found no known terrorists, they have found many

shipments containing medical waste, including some with radioactive

material, Robert Prause, the department's port director at the bridge, said

Monday.



Steve Whitter, Toronto's waste services director, said trace amounts of

radioactive iodine could come from such sources as the discarded diapers of

incontinent cancer patients.



"It's an issue that's been blown way out of proportion. It's not a health

and safety issue," he said.



Since January, a Michigan landfill has been the final resting place for all

24,000 tons of Toronto's weekly output of trash. American lawmakers and

environmentalists are fighting to end the garbage imports.



The Carleton Farms landfill has a deal with Toronto to take the city's trash

for up to 20 years.



In June, the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection boosted security

measures on trucks crossing from Ontario into Michigan at the Blue Water

Bridge in Port Huron.



The controls included radiation-sniffing portals through which all of the

4,000 or so incoming trucks and thousands of cars crossing from Sarnia,

Ontario, must pass. About 300 of the trucks carry municipal waste. Similar

portals screen all traffic at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and

Sarnia, Ontario.



The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is unsure whether the

medical and radioactive waste comes from private homes or from hospitals,

said department spokeswoman Patricia Spitzley.



"We're in the process of trying to find out," Spitzley said.



U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow has been leading efforts to halt Canada's trash

exports to Michigan, sponsoring an Internet petition drive aimed at the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency.



"It's clear to me from the overwhelming response to this online petition

drive that Michigan residents don't want our state to be the dumping ground

for Canadian municipal waste," she said. "The message the people of Michigan

have sent is loud and clear: Enough is enough. Stop those Canadian trucks."



Stabenow said the EPA has the power to ban the imports under a 1986

U.S.-Canadian treaty on hazardous waste shipments.



EPA spokesman Dave Ryan said the agency is not empowered to stop trash

imports by themselves but does have authority over radioactive and other

hazardous wastes.



Michigan and Ontario laws ban disposal of unsterilized medical waste and of

radioactive waste in landfills.



In July, U.S. inspectors stepped up their trash truck evaluations. In

addition to using the new portals, border inspectors manually checked about

100 trucks a day, 40 of them trash haulers.



The portals found radioactivity on three or four waste trucks a week, Prause

said. Customs agents imposed fines and ordered those trucks to return to

Canada.



The manual inspections also turned up nonradioactive but forbidden medical

waste, such as syringes and other blood-handling materials, he said.



Toronto's trash department has installed similar detection equipment to

catch radioactive materials before they leave Toronto, Prause said. Cases of

radioactive imports have dropped considerably to "less than one occurrence a

week," he said.



Waste traffic is not all one way. Michigan sent 53,000 tons of hazardous

waste to Canada in 2001. The real problem, Whitter said, is that people

everywhere want trash buried somewhere else, not near them.



"Nobody wants a landfill in their backyard," Whitter said.



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