Kentucky waste found in New York Wednesday, 29 November 2000 12:18 (ET)

PADUCAH, Ky., Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A coding problem has resulted in more than 540 gallons of toxic waste from a Kentucky nuclear processing plant being erroneously dumped in an Upstate New York landfill.

Waste from the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant -- which includes a liquid containing polychlorinated biphenyls -- was supposed to be sent to an incinerator in Port Arthur, Texas.

But Department of Energy officials told the Paducah Sun a coding error resulted in the waste likely being sent to a landfill in Model City, N.Y.

Clean Harbor Environmental Services, a waste brokerage firm, was supposed to oversee the disposal of 180 discarded electrical capacitors.

The contaminated liquid was supposed to be drained from the capacitors before disposal.

But records indicate the capacitors -- which left Paducah Sept. 11 -- were buried Sept. 22 in a hazardous waste landfill. There is no record that the liquid was ever drained off.

"They've determined they did not drain the liquid off and there's absolutely no indication that the landfill drained it off either," said Greg Cook, a spokesman for a contractor for the Department of Energy. "We believe the liquid was buried with the capacitors."

Federal and Kentucky environmental regulators are trying to determine if digging up the capacitors is worth the trouble. Although federal law requires them to be destroyed by incineration, Cook said excavation could cause the waste to move, thereby spreading contamination.

Polychlorinated biphenyls are a cancer-causing substance that can build up in fatty tissues if they are ingested.

Officials discovered a problem existed two weeks ago when WESKEM, a firm contracted to handle the disposal, admitted it was unable to track the shipment of the waste from Paducah.

Officials say the waste was put on a train that made stops in Cincinnati and Bristol, Conn., before arriving in Upstate New York. Shipping manifests appear to have been correct when they left Kentucky but were then altered on the final portions of the trip.

http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=139961

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), November 30, 2000