news release
    10th September 2003

STOP U.S. TOXICS COMING TO HARTLEPOOL

If you live in the North East of England, this is one issue you can't afford to ignore.

13 toxic and fuel laden vessels that have been left to rust in the James River, Virginia USA, are set to be towed across the Atlantic to be decommissioned in the North East of England.

Able UK, a firm based in Teesside have offered their services, promising jobs for the firm's employees.

Questions are being asked as to why the vessels need to leave the States in the first place, particularly when the US appear to be fully capable of handling the vessels domestically. Surely waste generated in the US should be dealt with in the US?

There also appear to have been certain discrepancies at the UK end of things - this proposal was apparently given the official go-ahead before Able UK had even received permission to build the necessary dry dock. Interestingly the site of the proposed dry dock will impact on two specially protected marine areas.

Activists in America are looking to take legal action to prevent the export of these ships to the UK. The action will be designed to force the US Government to respect the Toxic Substances Control Act, which forbids the export of PCB's, toxic persistent organic chemical compounds that the ships are know to contain (along with large volumes of asbestos and old fuel oil).

As well as the imminent danger to the marine environment, water users and residents of the North East, there is further concern that if this activity is given the go-ahead, it will set a precedent for similar activities in the future. It is likely that even if ship breaking yards in the developed world refuse to take the vessels, yards in Asia will be lumbered with these ageing, toxic rustbuckets.

As Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network says "We believe this export to the UK is the Maritime Administration's way of testing the export waters and setting unfortunate legal precedents, while looking all the while to export the bulk of these dirty ships to the infamous shipbreaking yards in Asia, where workers have few rights and little protection from asbestos and PCBs".

What can you do?
Basel Action Network are looking for residents in the Hartlepool area, who are concerned that they will be damaged in some way by the arrival of the 'ghost fleet', to write to them as individuals. Damage can be anything from aesthetic damage, degradation of quality of life, damage to the wildlife and birds that you may watch, study etc, economic damage - for example fishermen may suffer if a vessel sinks, tourism may suffer if Hartlepool is 'blacklisted', property prices may fall etc.

Basel Action Network will use your concerns as ammunition in their lawsuit.

Please email your letters asap to Jim Puckett at BAN - his address is jpuckett@ban.org or jimpuckett@ban.org. Please cc your letters to vicky@sas.org.uk and carolez@foe.co.uk

For further information please refer to the following websites

www.impact-teesife.org/able1.htm

www.ban.org/ban-news/green_activists_intend.html

www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/toxic_ghost_ships_to_set_s.html

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