CANADIAN PCB OWNERS MAY EXPORT WASTE TO THE U.S. FOR DESTRUCTION

OTTAWA -- Environment Minister Sergio Marchi has declared that Canadian PCB owners may export their waste to the U.S. for destruction. The new regulations took effect February 7, 1997.

Ending a 17-year quest by American waste treatment operators to gain access to Canadian PCBs, the decision follows a recent U.S. ruling opening its border to Canadian PCB wastes.

Under terms the Basel Convention, which Canada ratified in August 1992, Canada is legally bound to ensure exported PCBs are managed in an environmentally sound manner, a major contention for critics of the so-called 'open border".

"My overriding concern is to ensure that Canadian PCB wastes destined for the U.S. are treated with the utmost care in transit, and that these wastes are destroyed in an environmentally sound manner so that human health and the environment are protected," Marchi said in a prepared press release. 'These new controls meet the goal and will expedite the elimination of existing Canadian PCB wastes presently in storage."

Provincial, territorial, and federal ministers put a Canada-wide ban in place last November on burying PCBs with a concentration in excess of 50 parts per million.

Some Background

The new regulations ensure that PCB wastes exported to the U.S. are treated as rigorously as they would be in Canada. PCBs shipped to the U.S. cannot be landfilled, but must be sent to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved facilities for thermal, chemical, or other forms of destruction. Other destruction methods could include new technologies which destroy PCBs as effectively as chemical or thermal destruction, provided they are EPA approved.

The regulations also set out a more efficient and effective tracking system for PCB wastes going to the U.S.. This will be accomplished through prior notification and consent, and require the use of waste manifests and certificates of disposal, including any residues from decontamination of these wastes that still meet the definition of PCB waste. There is also a requirement to make alternate arrangements should a shipment not be destroyed as set out in the approved notice. Canadian standards for handling PCB wastes apply to exports. Electrical transformers, for instance, must be cleaned to the same degree called for by Canadian standards before they can be recycled.

Allowing the export of Canadian PCBs to the United States for destruction means the volume of waste now in storage can be eliminated in a more timely and economic manner, while ensuring environmentally sound management.

Under the NAFTA Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Canada is currently working with the U.S. and Mexico on a North American Regional Action Plan for the comprehensive management of PCBs.

Important Dates In Canadian PCB Regulation History

1990 -- PCB Waste Export Regulations under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act are put into place, banning PCB waste exports to all countries except the U.S.

1992 -- Canada ratifies the Basel Convention (a global convention that controls transboundary movement of hazardous wastes), and enacts the Import of Hazardous Waste Regulations.

1994 -- EPA proposed amendment to its PCB regulations to allow limited PCB waste import/export.

1995 -- EPA pre-empts its regulatory amendments by granting discretionary permission to some U.S. hazardous waste disposal companies to import Canadian wastes effective November 15th.

November 20, 1995 -- Canada makes Interim Order to amend the 1990 PCB Waste Export Regulations to stop PCB waste shipments to the U.S., providing time for Canada to assure PCB wastes, if exported, would be managed in an environmentally sound manner.

March 1996 -- The new U.S. rule opening their border to PCB waste imports is issued.

September 26, 1996 Ñ Canada announces the Canadian/U.S. border will soon be opened for exports.

February 7, 1997 -- Environment Minister Sergio Marchi has declared that Canadian PCB owners may export their waste to the U.S. for destruction.