Last of contaminated Kuwaiti sand headed for Idaho by rail
Monday, June 2, 2008 7:57 AM PDT
By Erik Olson
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe last containers of 6,700 tons of Kuwaiti sand at the Port of Longview contaminated with low levels of depleted uranium have been loaded onto trains bound for Idaho, said Chad Hyslop, spokesman for the disposal company American Ecology.
The final seven containers should be headed out of Longview this week, Hyslop said Friday. The Kuwaiti government is paying for the cost of the cleanup, according to the company and the Army.
Late last month, the BBC Alabama arrived at the port with 306 containers full of sand contaminated by ammunition at a fire at the U.S. Army base Camp Doha in 1991 during the first Gulf War. Before the shipment came to port, Army officials discovered potentially hazardous levels of lead in three samples of the sand, delaying the arrival by a few days.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency then gave the green light to transport the hazardous waste into the country.
American Ecology, which is based in Idaho, has conducted tests of the 153 containers at the Idaho site and found no hazardous levels of lead, Hyslop said. The company plans to test the remaining containers when they arrive in Idaho, he said.
Viewpoint wrote on Jun 2, 2008 11:03 AM:
Louie wrote on Jun 2, 2008 11:08 AM:
Wouldn't it just be amazing if none of it checked out to be contaminated?!! "
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