As Iraq war winds down, US military cleans up hazardous waste

Some barrels are packed with used batteries, others are labeled with triangular “Hazardous Waste” warning stickers, with words scrawled across them like “Paint Related Waste,” “Resin – Flammable,” and “Used Oil Filters.”

Two drums have Cyrillic lettering on them, left over from Iraq’s close relationship with the Soviets in the 1970s. Also collected and disposed of was a 1950s-era gallon jug of a toxic cyanide-based pesticide – with dangerous instructions, says Mr. Banker, to sprinkle by hand and then simply wash hands afterwards.

“Anything we found in Iraq was brought here for treatment,” says Banker, who has managed the project for a year. Prior to that he was a schoolteacher in Bangkok for nearly a year, and before that worked on oil pipeline and platforms in Nigeria.

Iraqi environment officials investigate

Iraqi officials with their first access to such a treatment site took photographs of the barrels and their labels, the wooden rinsing rack, the evaporation ponds where acids are neutralized and turned into salt, and the nearby $15 million incinerator for burning everything from grease to solvents.

In open spaces nearby, sprinklers sprayed water to keep alive microbes that were slowly – in a three- to six-month cycle – eating petroleum products in contaminated soil that had been spread out in the sun.

“You cannot feel safe through one visit to one site. This [clean-up] site…is reassuring, but what about the rest of the sites?” asks Hikmat Gabriel Gorgees, an engineer in charge of planning with Iraq’s environment ministry. Two Iraqi committees have been set up to investigate the scale of the problem and the US handling of hazardous wastes.

The ministry had read the news reports about US dumping. “We have heard about them but never seen them by our own eyes,” says Mr. Gorgees. “This is the first site being visited by environment ministry teams, we have not seen the rest, but [the Americans] have opened all doors for us, plus we did ask them to allow us to take samples, soil samples, underground water samples.”

An Iraqi Ministry of Defense spokesman, Mohammed al-Askari, stood before television cameras at the site and sought to reassure Iraqis. “Understand that these are war leftovers, and we are making efforts to keep them away from people,” he said.

US military: Contractors may be to blame

Reports of “regulated waste being left all over the countryside” also prompted the US military to investigate – and then to counter the claims, said Brig. Gen. Kendall Cox, the US commander in charge of engineering in Iraq.

“The intent was to insure, through the media … there’s a clear understanding that we are taking every measure possible … to protect the environment and treat all regulated waste and materials appropriately,” said Brig. Gen. Cox.

“We have a very systematic process in place to receive materials, treat them and dispose of them properly,” said Cox. “We haven’t identified any problems with our processes. What [we] did identify is potentially there are contractors who are aren’t dealing with their regulated waste properly.”

Related:

• Iraq: US military contractor burns recyclables, violating contract
• As US troops leave, Iraqis fear prison torture will widen
• All Iraq news coverage

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