Khian Sea incident
The Khian Sea incident refers to a controversial event between 1986 and 1988 involving a ship tasked with disposing of hazardous waste from Philadelphia. After the waste was initially intended for disposal in the Bahamas, the ship was turned away and subsequently sought to unload its cargo in multiple locations, including the Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, and several other nations, all of which refused entry. Eventually, the crew illegally dumped 3,700 tons of ash on a beach in Haiti, falsely claiming it was fertilizer. The waste created significant diplomatic tension, and although various countries, including the United States, faced criticism for their roles, the hazardous material remained largely unaccounted for, with many tons reportedly lost at sea.
The incident highlighted the exploitation of poorer nations by industrialized countries looking to offload their waste, raising concerns about environmental racism and ethical responsibility. In 2000, after years of pressure from the Haitian government and environmental organizations, the hazardous waste was finally removed and transported to a landfill in Pennsylvania. This incident played a crucial role in the establishment of the 1989 Basel Convention, which aims to regulate the transboundary movement of hazardous waste and prevent similar occurrences in the future.
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Khian Sea incident
THE EVENT: The around-the-world voyage of a ship carrying hazardous waste from Philadelphia that was originally intended to be disposed of in the Bahamas
DATES: 1986-1988
The Khian Sea incident is a clear example of an industrial country’s efforts to transfer the hazardous by-products of its society to less industrialized, poorer nations. International concerns over actions such as this led to the signing of the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes.
Unable to dispose of the toxic from a municipal incinerator, the city of Philadelphia contracted with Amalgamated Shipping to transport the to the Bahamas in its ship the Khian Sea. The ship left Philadelphia on September 5, 1986, for the Bahamas, but when it reached its destination, the Bahamian government turned the ship away. The Khian Sea subsequently tried and failed to get entry into ports in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau, as well as Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and the Netherlands Antilles.
In December 1987, the crew of the Khian Sea unloaded 3,700 tons of ash on the beach at Gonaïves, Haiti, claiming it was fertilizer. The Haitian government prevented the crew from unloading more waste, but the Khian Sea left before the crew could be forced to reload the ash they had deposited on the beach. At least 10,000 tons of waste remained to be disposed of, and the ship visited Senegal, Cape Verde, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines in search of a site, only to be refused by each country. The cargo was never fully accounted for later, but it seems that 10,000 tons disappeared in the Indian Ocean between the Suez Canal and Singapore sometime in 1988.
Each of the countries where the Khian Sea tried to dispose of the waste is a poor, relatively unindustrialized country. The city of Philadelphia denied any responsibility for the waste once it was on board the Khian Sea as well as any responsibility for the waste dumped in Haiti. Haiti removed the ash from the beach and placed it in a sealed concrete bunker in a nearby hill. Although the owners of the Khian Sea were tried and convicted of federal perjury charges in connection with the incident, they faced no other punishment for their role.
Starting in 1992, the Haitian government began to pressure the United States to remove the waste from Haiti, as did various environmental groups, including Greenpeace. Philadelphia continued to deny any responsibility for the waste in Haiti, maintaining that the situation was the fault of the waste contractor. The successor company of the original firm agreed to pay $100,000 toward cleanup of the waste, largely because it wanted to gain another waste-handling contract. It was estimated that the cleanup would cost another $250,000, which Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell refused to pay, as he did a lesser amount suggested by some activists. The issue remained mired in the courts for the next few years, and activists continued to try to embarrass both the city of Philadelphia and the US government into helping to pay for the cleanup.
Finally, in April, 2000, the waste was removed from Haiti; the removal was paid for in part by the US Department of Agriculture, the New York City Toxic Waste Commission, and the Haitian government. Several communities in the United States were approached about taking the waste, among them the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. In July 2002, the waste was at last interred in a landfill in south-central Pennsylvania, 193 kilometers (120 miles) from Philadelphia.
The Khian Sea incident is a flagrant example of an industrial country’s efforts to transfer the hazardous byproducts of its society to less industrialized, poorer nations. Such actions were later prohibited by the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and the 1995 amendment to that convention known as the Basel Ban. Some commentators have asserted that this incident is also an example of environmental racism. The of Haiti is largely nonwhite, as are the populations of many of the other places where the Khian Sea attempted to dump its cargo. Even the area of Pennsylvania where the waste was finally deposited is inhabited by a large poor, minority population.
Bibliography
Clapp, Jennifer. Toxic Exports. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2001.
Kirt, David. "Khian Sea and an Adventure Around the World." StoryMaps, 21 Nov. 2023, www.storymaps.com/el/stories/a1105ac998694797911427d88ceb4345. Accessed 19 July 2024.
Patowary, Kaushik. "Khian Sea: The Wandering Garbage Barge." Amusing Planet, 6 Dec. 2022, www.amusingplanet.com/2022/12/khian-sea-wandering-garbage-barge.html. Accessed 19 July 2024.
Pellow, David Naguib. Resisting Global Toxics. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007.