PCB-tainted waste may be disposed of in Beatty landfill

Thursday, July 31, 2003 | 9:33 a.m.

Tons of PCB-contaminated military equipment from a U.S. base in Japan could be destined for the US Ecology Corp. landfill in Beatty, 110 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Nevada and federal Environmental Protection Agency officials said they were aware of the proposed shipments containing polychlorinated biphenyls, but the military waste will have to pass a state review before it goes to the licensed landfill.

Polychlorinated biphenyls are odorless, heat-resistant chemicals that were used to insulate electrical transformers until Congress banned them as a human health threat in the 1970s.

"We've known it was destined for this facility for a couple of weeks," state Environmental Protection Division Administrator Allen Biaggi said Wednesday.

Before the 590 tons of waste headed for Beatty arrives, state environmental officials will review the plans, ensuring that no liquids arrive at Beatty, Biaggi said. The state does not permit the landfill to receive liquid waste.

"We'll double-check before it is brought here," Biaggi said.

The shipment is part of 7 million pounds of electrical transformers, capacitors and other items, even clothing, that the Defense Department eventually must remove from Japan and Wake Island.

The Defense Logistics Agency, a division of the Defense Department, is in charge of shipping the waste to licensed landfills in Nevada, Kansas and West Virginia.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Region 9 office in San Francisco was notified as a courtesy, spokeswoman Lisa Fasano said.

The contaminated materials were shipped from Japan to Wake Island. From there, they will arrive in a Long Beach, Calif., port, Fasano said.

"It's pretty typical of what we here in the United States take to permitted facilities," Fasano said.

In fact, the concentration of PCBs is 50 parts per million or lower and could be disposed of at any landfill, Fasano said.

The Defense Logistics Agency was not required to notify the EPA, but "did it as a courtesy," Fasano said.

US Ecology operates a landfill under a state permit to store or dispose of hazardous materials. A low-level radioactive waste site, also operated by US Ecology, in Beatty was closed in 1992.

US Ecology is owned by American Ecology of Boise, Idaho.