POPs IN AFRICA HAZARDOUS WASTE TRADE 1980 - 2000 ... - Arte

Status: Actual, Returned
On February 4, 1988, the Bark, a vessel owned by Bulkhandling
Inc. of Norway, quietly left U.S. territorial waters carrying a load
of 15,000 tons of toxic incinerator ash from the city of
Philadelphia’s garbage burners. The Bark intended to dump its
load of ash in Haiti, but the firm decided that Haiti would likely
refuse to accept the wastes when the vessel arrived.
Bulkhandling’s managers subsequently changed the vessel’s
destination to Guinea.
Bulkhandling, Inc., arranged a deal with a local Guinean firm,
Alco Guinee, to import the waste as “raw materials for bricks.”
In late February and early March, the wastes were unloaded onto
Kassa Island, near the capital city of Conakry. The few bricks
that were produced from the ash were unusable. After
Greenpeace informed the Guinean ambassador to the U.S. that
the vessel was carrying toxic waste, not construction material, the
Guinean government ordered an investigation into the ash
dumping incident.
In April, the Guinean government ordered immediate removal of
the ash. But Bulkhandling balked at the order, claiming that it no
longer owned the ash. In response to Bulkhandling’s delays, an
honorary Norwegian Consul General and agent of Bulkhandling,
Sigmund Stromme, was arrested by Guinean law enforcement
officials in June. A June 11 Radio Conakry (Guinea) broadcast
labeled him as “the brain behind this affair.”
On June 15, Radio Conakry (Guinea) reported that “all those
involved in this case will be arrested.” The next day, police
reported that at least 10 Guinean Ministry of Commerce officials
were arrested. Two trade ministry officials had previously been
arrested, in addition to Stromme.
On July 2, Bulkhandling’s vessel, Banja, picked up the ash on
Kassa Island and left Guinean waters. Two days later, Guinean
General Lansana Conte pledged that all involved with the affair
would be punished. Conte said, “We will make them regret their
actions so that society will know that they are at fault. This will
discourage others from doing the same thing.”
The Banja returned the cargo to Philadelphia on July 22, 1988.
On September 7, a Guinean court announced a verdict for five
people involved in the dumping scheme. Four Guinean
government officials, two of them from the trade ministry, were
convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment each.
The Norwegian honorary consul, Sigmund Stromme, was found
guilty of complicity and was fined US $600 and given a sixmonth
suspended sentence. Stromme was a representative from
the Oslo-based Klaveness Shipping Group which was also
55