Toxic alert as US ship heads for India
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - A ship of United States origin that is reportedly carrying toxic
substances and headed for dismantling in India's ship-breaking yards, is caught
in a storm. Environmentalists are up in arms over the ship not being detoxified
at its port of origin in the US and want the ship to be sent back.
A former luxury liner, the 18,503-tonne Platinum-II is currently
anchored near Gopnath, some 40 nautical miles from its destination, Alang, the
hub of India's ship-breaking industry in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
According to the Indian Platform on Shipbreaking (IPOS), a coalition of
environmental, labor, health and human-rights activists, Platinum-II contains
about 210 tons of materials contaminated by toxic polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) and some 200 tons of asbestos-containing materials, along with
radioactive substances. PCBs and asbestos are known to cause various cancers.
Domestic production of PCBs has been banned in the US since 1976.
The Indian government has sent a three-member team to inspect Platinum-II.
The team is expected to submit a report regarding the extent of contaminated
material on board the ship to the government on Friday.
This is not the first time that a ship regarded as toxic has been headed to
Alang. Several hundreds of ageing vessels - many of them rich in hazardous
material - end up on Alang's beach before being torn apart by unskilled and
ill-equipped laborers. The metal is then sold on as scrap.
In 2006, two ships Le Clemenceau and Blue Lady, which were
heading to Alang for scrapping, ran into trouble when environmentalists drew
attention to their highly hazardous contents.
While Clemenceau was eventually recalled by the French government, Blue
Lady, which had close to 1,700 tons of hazardous material -
two-and-a-half times more than that in the Clemenceau - was permitted by
India's Supreme Court to beach and be scrapped at Alang provided strict
guidelines were followed to ensure worker safety. Greenpeace maintains that the
Alang's yards do not have the technology to safely dismantle these contaminated
ships.
Platinum-II was originally known as Independence and then renamed Oceanic
in 2006. It was named Platinum-II more recently. As the luxury liner Independence,
this ship was much celebrated. It was given the Ship of the Year award in 2000
by the Steamship Historical Society of America. It is only in the last couple
of years when the question of the fate of this aged liner came up that its name
was sullied.
In February 2008, Oceanic sailed out of San Francisco on its last
voyage. Its fate and destination was not known. While some felt it would be
converted into a floating hotel or casino, speculation was rife that it was
heading to one of South Asia's "graveyard of ships" as ship-breaking yards are
known. Nothing was done to stop the Oceanic from leaving US waters
although the export of PCBs is banned under US law.
Early this year, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) slapped fines of
around US$518,500 on Oceanic's owners, Global Shipping and Global
Marketing Systems, for illegal distribution and export of a ship containing
PCBs.
But the Oceanic was not recalled to the US.
Activists have pointed out that toxic, privately owned US vessels have been
able to sail out unhindered for scrapping in South Asia - in violation of US
environmental laws - after they flew new flags (re-flagging) or registered
under a new foreign owner. The Christian Science Monitor reported in 2008 that
over an eight-year period since 2000, at least 91 commercial vessels flying the
US flag, including aged oil tankers, were re-flagged and sailed out for
scrapping. It is not known whether these vessels were checked for PCBs before
they sailed out.
Oceanic managed to sail out despite carrying PCBs because of poor
coordination between two US agencies - the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and
the EPA. "The EPA didn't ask about re-flagged ships - and MARAD didn't tell its
sister agency when re-flagging applications for ships likely to carry PCBs
popped up," the Christian Science Monitor reported. Apparently EPA did not know
that Oceanic, like several aged ships before it, was leaving for
scrapping. It was environmentalists who raised the alarm. But by the time they
did, the Oceanic had slipped away.
The Oceanic is said to have hovered around Dubai in the United Arab
Emirates for over a year. It was then registered in Liberia under its latest
name Platinum-II and under a fictitious company. It is believed that the
recent renaming of the ship was part of an elaborate effort to hide the ship's
real identity while approaching officials in Gujarat for permission to beach in
Alang.
The ploy worked, at least initially. Platinum-II was given clearance by
the Gujarat Maritime Board, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board and Customs to
anchor. But IPOS intervention and the letter it shot off to the federal
Ministry of Environment and Forests has thrown Platinum-II's fate into
choppy waters.
There are vested interests, including the Gujarat government, who would like to
see Platinum-II beached at Alang. A single ship can be worth $5 million
in scrap steal. This is profit its owners will not allow to slip away easily.
Besides, there are the many subsidiary businesses that thrive from the
dismantling of the various parts of the ship, including its furniture, fittings
and machinery. Laborers too are looking forward to the work and income it will
provide. The Blue Lady is said to have provided work to around 4,000
laborers. A similar number can be expected to benefit from Platinum-II .
However, the monetary gains come at a very heavy cost that workers and the
environment have to bear. Unlike in the West, ship breaking in South Asia is
labor intensive. Workers dismantle the ship with hand tools, which means that
toxic substances like mercury and asbestos seep through their skin and into the
ground and water. The impact is deadly. A 2006 report found that one in six
workers at Alang show symptoms of asbestosis, a fatal illness.
If the report of the three-member investigation team says that Platinum-II
is indeed hazardous, carrying toxic material that does not meet Indian
government guidelines, will the US government recall it? It was public and
legal pressure at home that finally pushed the French government to call back Le
Clemenceau in 2006. Environmentalists are hoping that Platinum-II's
fate will go the Le Clemenceau way.
Even as environmentalists prepare for a long battle ahead to prevent Platinum-II
from being driven aground on the beaches of Alang, there are reports that two
more ships - Bonny and Anders, formerly Bonnyman and Anderson
- of similar vintage and therefore of similar toxicity - could be making their
way to South Asian "graveyards".
Although following the experience with Oceanic, MARAD and EPA set up new
procedures that require MARAD to inform EPA of ships applying for re-flagging
or scrapping - it is only after EPA gives its consent that the ship can be
re-flagged - aged toxic ships are still able to find cracks in laws to slip
through.
When Bonnyman and Anderson applied to MARAD for re-flagging, EPA
was alerted as per the new procedure. Initially the EPA seemed to be of the
view that the two ships contained PCBs. In a letter to the ships' new owners,
EPA said that PCBs had been found on "vessels of similar vintage as the MV
Anderson and Bonnyman".
But in a surprising subsequent turnaround, EPA says that neither ship is likely
to have PCBs. "Based on available information, including lack of evidence that
these ships are likely to contain PCBs, EPA has determined that there is not a
sufficient basis to detain them or take other legal action at this time," an
EPA statement said. The Danish government had apparently clarified that the
ship was built in Denmark in 1979-80. PCBs were unlikely to have been used in
its construction as "Danish law prohibited the 'open application' of PCBs in
1977". Environmentalists are not impressed by the Danish claims.
Bonny and Anders, which carried the US flag till recently, are
now flying the St Kitts and Nevis flag. Both left Norfolk in Virginia
end-August. While the US Coast Guard listed the ships' next port of call as
Santos in Brazil and EPA claims that they are not going to be scrapped,
environmental watchdogs are not convinced. They say that the aged vessels are
being sent to South Asia to die. And Bangladesh is likely to be their final
destination.
A European Commission study on the global ship-scrapping industry estimated in
2007 that hundreds of ships weighing a total of 55 million tons - more than
double the volume of the past five years - are waiting to be scrapped. Eighteen
million tons of ships are expected to be scrapped in 2010. Many will make their
way to South Asia. Environmental groups will need to keep their eyes open.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
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