Whereabouts of PCBs from former Irving barge unknown
An investigation in Trinidad and Tobago has determined that a barge formerly owned by an Irving company was contaminated with PCBs when it arrived in the Caribbean, and officials want to know where the chemicals are now.
In Canada, the barge was known as the Atlantic Shark, and earlier as the Irving Shark. Now named the T-23, it is used as a water hauler in the Caribbean.
Environment officials in Canada expressed concerns that the barge was not cleaned of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, in its heat transfer coils before it was sold and allowed to leave for the Caribbean. When the government of Trinidad and Tobago learned of those concerns last December, it announced an investigation.
Trinidad's minister of works and transport, Colm Imbert, says inspectors discovered that the heat transfer coils were removed from the barge sometime after it arrived in the country.
"That is what we have to now investigate. Because it came with coils with PCBs in them, and now the coils have disappeared."
The vessel's new owner, a Trinidadian company called Coloured Fin, says the vessel is now clean, but has not provided details explaining where and how the chemicals were removed.
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PCBs are industrial chemicals that were used in the manufacturing of electrical equipment, heat exchangers, hydraulic systems and several other specialized applications up until the late 1970s. The Canadian government outlawed their import, manufacture and sale in 1977, and releasing PCBs into the environment was made illegal in 1985.
Canadian legislation has allowed owners of equipment laced with PCBs to continue using it until it's no longer serviceable. This policy allowed Irving to legally sell the barge without a full cleanup of the PCBs beforehand.
Mary Keith, a spokeswoman for Irving, issued a statement last year saying that the transaction was legal and that an intermediate broker it dealt with was fully informed of the vessel's environmental problems.
Minister Imbert says if the PCBs were removed and dumped in Trinidad, he will take legal action.
3 comments:
You repeatedly said that you are a bullshitter. You are absolutely right and your blog fits in that category too.
Is it your contention that the Irving's have tried to stop this reporter? Has he ever stated that the Irving's have attempted to thwart his investigation? Or is this actually just your usual attempt to paint the Irving's in as poor a light as possible?
Just Passing, facts do not stand in the way of this lunatic.
I visit the blog to see what stupid stuff he has come up with now and he never disappoints me. Moreover, to find out which innocent passer by and innocent citizen he has harassed today and he is pretty good at that too. The man is an utter nuisance.
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