Cargo vessel Cape Inscription, owned by the Navy's Military Sealift Command, left Pearl Harbor yesterday carrying 270 tons of waste containing PCBs.
Toxic cargo resumes
trip to West CoastThe 270 tons of PCBs arrived here
April 17 aboard a Navy ship
A 684-foot Navy cargo vessel left Pearl Harbor yesterday carrying 270 tons of cancer-causing waste after an unscheduled 13-day layover on its way to the West Coast.
The cargo of excess electrical equipment containing PCBs arrived here April 17 aboard the Navy cargo ship USNS Watson. It is being shipped in 59 20-foot shipping containers and was housed in a Ford Island hangar.
The cargo of PCBs is being transferred to Port Huenene north of Los Angeles and then will be taken to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disposal site.
The 33,000-ton vessel that is transporting the waste, named the Cape Inscription, is owned by the Navy's Military Sealift Command.
PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) is a mixture of chlorinated compounds and has been found to cause cancer in animals. It was used extensively until 1977 as a lubricant in high-heat machinery and as insulating material in transformers and other electrical equipment.
The toxic waste materials were collected from military bases on Okinawa and elsewhere in Japan, and were supposed to go directly to the mainland on a commercial freighter, the Green Cove, for disposal.
However, a fire broke out in the Green Cove's engine room on April 11 off the coast of Japan. The freighter had to be towed back to Japan, and the cargo was transferred to 62,970-ton Watson, a Navy cargo vessel normally stationed in Diego Garcia. The Watson arrived at Pearl Harbor on April 17.
