Environmental News Flooded with U.S. hazardous waste imports, Canada rethinks its rules In September, the Canadian province of Ontario launched a review to strengthen its hazardous waste rules, following allegations that Ontario has become a dumping ground for waste too dangerous to dispose of in the United States. Ontario Environment Minister Tony Clement said he would revise the hazardous waste regulation "to be the toughest in Ontario history, with a view to strengthening and modernizing it to become comparable to and compatible with U.S. rules " But U S industry representa.ti.ves Sciv it would be a. mistake to corw the U S system Shipments of hazardous waste from the United States to Ontario quintupled between 1993 and 1998, from 56,000 to 288,000 tons, according to data from Environment Canada (EC), the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. EPA. Most of the waste, which includes contaminated soil, metal processing wastes, and batteries, is landfilled, said Suzanne Leppinen, head of export and import permits for Environment Canada. "Ontario is now the leading recipient of hazardous waste imports from the U.S.," said Mark Winfield, research director for the Canadian
Institute for Environmental Law and Policy. The boom in imports has coincided with U.S. implementation of a series of restrictions on land disposal of hazardous waste, Winfield claimed. Beginning in 1989, EPA phased in a ban on land disposal of untreated hazardous waste, according to John Austin, a chemist with EPA's Office of Solid Waste. In 1994, EPA introduced universal treatment standards for land disposal of organic wastes, and treatment standards followed in 1998 for metal-bearing wastes and contaminated soils. Ontario did nothing to match the U.S. actions, resulting in a huge discrepancy in disposal standards, Winfield said. For instance, trichloroethylene in contaminated soil must be reduced to 60 parts per million (ppm) before entering a U.S. landfill but can be as high as 20,000 ppm for disposal in an Ontario landfill, Winfield explained. In 1997, Ontario granted blanket consent to all imports of U.S. hazardous waste, Winfield said. Ontario environmental ministry staff and budget cuts of more than one-third over four years have gut-
ted enforcement and, combined with weaker rules and liability provisions, have made it attractive for U.S. companies to ship their waste north, Winfield added. Clement's initiative came in response to a staff review of a ministry effort to stop an Ontario company from mixing American hazardous waste with concrete for disposal in a nonhazardous waste landfill. The staff discovered that the practice, which is banned in the United States, is legal, leading Clement to conclude that "the regulations and policies concerning hazardous waste-handling practices for the past 14 years should have been stronger." "Ontario shouldn't make their rules the same as the U.S. rules because they are arcane, complicated, and expensive," stated Harvey Alter, an industry consultant in Frederick, Md. The province would do better by emulating the British system where operators met either design or performance standards, thus encouraging innovation and efficiency, he said. By contrast, under U.S. law, an operator must meet design performance and facility standards. —JANET PELLEY
Notable Quotes "EPA simply doesn't have enough resources to conduct the research necessary to support its drinking
water
program."
Erik Olson, Natural Resources Defense Council, commenting on GAO's assessment of EPA's drinking water program
"We need to put the [reduction of] the Gulf dead zone and wetlands restoration together, and no one is doing it." Bill Mitsch, Ohio State University, discussing a National Research Council review of wetland mitigation practices
"If we are successful in doing industrial ecology in the next decade or so, what will we have done?" Valerie Thomas, Princeton University, addressing the significance of industrial ecology
"The benefits of biotechnology far outweigh the risks." Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, 1999 Volvo Environment Prize winner, speaking about genetic engineering's value for developing nations
1 2 A • JANUARY 1, 2000 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS
