dumping hazardous waste in sneaky places

[archman]

This article just popped up on ENN today.
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11463

I was unaware of this 1995 "Basel Convention" that restricts toxic waste transfers. I was also suprised to discover that the U.S., Russia, and India are among the few industrialized countries that haven'tratified it.

I was wondering how much *toxic-type* trash you divers encounter in your local areas. I know that in the Bahamas out-islands I regularly visit, toxic trash often just gets chucked in the jungle, or even peoples' backyards.

I don't see a lot in Texas waters, but in North Carolina and Tennessee streams, I see waste drums, car parts, and other fun stuff dumped.

 

[REII]

I have never seen any toxic type stuff in the waters here in FL or in any of the places I have been in the Bahamas. I have also seen plenty of other stuff though. I know a lot of the stuff I see has been blown in by hurricanes over the years.

TOM

 

[Bill Fisher]

From what I've heard, there is a bunch of nuclear waste dumped in the vicinity of the Farallon Islands. Some time ago, I believe, people were warned that the fish caught in this area had high levels of radioactivity !!!

Supposedly between 1945 and 1960's or 70's this was a regular dumping ground for radio active waste.

It is supposedly VERY deep, but still...

Scary, huh?

Bill

 

[REII]

From what I've heard, there is a bunch of nuclear waste dumped in the vicinity of the Farallon Islands. Some time ago, I believe, people were warned that the fish caught in this area had high levels of radioactivity !!!

Supposedly between 1945 and 1960's or 70's this was a regular dumping ground for radio active waste.

It is supposedly VERY deep, but still...

Scary, huh?

Bill

Hey Bill;

That is very scary. Where are the Farallon islands?

TOM

 

[Mr.X]

Hey Bill;

That is very scary. Where are the Farallon islands?

TOM

The Farallons are in California, just off the coast of San Francisco. The area has been getting press as of late for larger White sharks populations etc. Additionally, the barrels of radioactive materials have been compromised - leaking. This has been going on for a while. Very bad.

X

 

[Wildcard]

My ex father in law was a nuke guy in the 50s and 60s, still is in fact. He told me of dumping barrels of radioactive waste in the deep ocean off of CA. They would fill the barrels with cement and dump then in the deep ocean trenches since "there is nothing there".
The US military always used to dump, sometimes in not so deep water. Here in Hawaii we have "Ordnance reef" where the army dumped 5-6000 tons of chemical wepons in the 60s. Some of these are in less than a 100 feet of water.
All of this was before we had an environment and it was just the way things were done then. Sad but true.

 

[archman]

I have heard that one of the prime *motivators* for implementing the Basel Convention in the first place was some trash barge out of Philadelphia that was refused entry into Haiti, and spent months ranging around the Atlantic trying to find a port to offload its garbage. I've been browsing online articles about some of the international dumping currently done off Africa, and it's pretty nasty.

I'm assuming that one of the reasons that the U.S. hasn't ratified this thing is because we're a major exporter of garbage. That and we'd be required to environmentally clean all of our old ships stuck in the old reserve river "fleets". I read an article last spring about an old French carrier that was slated to be scrapped in India because nobody in Europe wanted (or could) clean it up.