core sector communique

Russian Officials Examine U.S. Toxic Waste Cleanup Program

 

 

By Domenick DiPasquale

Staff Writer

 

Washington - Abandoned industrial sites contaminated with hazardous wastes ranging from pesticides and petrochemicals to heavy metals such as lead and mercury pose a serious environmental challenge for both the United States and Russia.

 

In the belief that each nation can learn from the other's experience, the U.S. government recently invited a delegation of 16 Russian environmental protection officials to Washington and New York to examine how the United States is tackling its toxic legacy.

 

In the United States, the primary means of identifying and remediating such abandoned hazardous waste sites is the so-called Superfund program, established in 1980 and administered by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

 

"The Russians are interested in learning how we at EPA handle such sites, how these programs are funded and how we work with state and local governments," Jane Metcalfe, EPA's senior adviser for Eurasia, Africa and the Middle East, told America.gov. "EPA wanted to create a productive dialogue with the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment [MNRE] on responsible environmental governance and demonstrate how EPA involves the public and communities in cleaning up sites."

 

During their November 30 - December 3 visit to the United States, the Russian participants received extensive briefings at EPA headquarters in Washington on all aspects of the Superfund program, including its history and accomplishments, funding, enforcement, and criteria used in selecting sites for cleanup.

 

"The funding schemes for Superfund could be applicable to Russia, as could the priority-setting process, the remediation determination, and the emphasis on community involvement," Metcalfe said.

 

She said the Russian officials were particularly interested in determining how to fund the cleanup of such abandoned sites, how such costs are determined and how the costs are recovered from the polluter.

 

The officials included representatives from Russian regional governments, the MNRE, and a Russian environmental institute, Ecobezopasnost. As part of the two-way exchange of information, the delegation gave a presentation to EPA on hazardous waste programs in Russia, including existing legislation, future plans and a case study.

 

Metcalfe said the Russian presentation "gave us a good glimpse into the issues they are facing, which are very similar to the ones we faced when the Superfund program was first enacted." According to the MNRE, Russia has 194 environmental hot spots that face severe "legacy" toxic waste problems.

 

The New York City program for the delegation included a visit to the Gowanus Canal, a Superfund site in the city's borough of Brooklyn. Built in the late 1860s, the 2.9 kilometer-long canal served for nearly a century as a major industrial waterway for coal yards, oil refineries, chemical plants and other heavy industries that lined its banks.

 

In March 2010, the EPA placed the Gowanus Canal on the Superfund's National Priorities List, a roster of the most hazardous sites in the United States. The canal's sediment has been found to be contaminated by pollutants including heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides and volatile organic contaminants, among others.

 

As the visiting Russians toured the site, Christos Tsiamis, the EPA project manager for the Gowanus Canal, explained some of the complexities involved in cleaning up the canal.

 

"When we clean up the canal, we have to first find ways to support the banks where the bulkheads are destroyed," he said. Because the canal is "of archaeological interest," Tsiamis added, it will be necessary to make drawings and a photographic record of those bulkheads that cannot be preserved to create a historical archive.

 

The canal is an excellent example of the potential reuse of such polluted areas once they have been decontaminated. Katia Kelly, a community blogger who lives nearby, said that while in the past one could question "why you would want to hang around the Gowanus Canal," the area is a potential site for redevelopment once the contamination is cleaned up.

 

The U.S. State Department and the EPA organized the delegation's visit to the United States, which was carried out under the auspices of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission . The commission, created after a 2009 meeting between President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, established 16 bilateral working groups to improve coordination between the two nations in fields as varied as science and technology, international security, business and culture.

 

The Russian delegation's visit was not the first time the EPA has worked with its Russian counterparts on this issue. In July 2009, EPA conducted a training workshop and technical exchange in Moscow on the safe management of hazardous waste, addressing such topics as health and safety procedures, exposure guidelines and personal protection and decontamination procedures.

 

Under the auspices of the eight-nation intergovernmental forum known as the Arctic Council, EPA also has worked with Russia in the past to inventory PCBs and obsolete pesticides in areas of the Russian Arctic.

 

EPA will continue to cooperate with Russia through the Bilateral Presidential Commission, Metcalfe said, and provide information and technical advice as Russia moves forward with the cleanup of the country's abandoned hazardous waste sites.

 

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.  )

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