Hazardous Material : New Controls Urged for Sending Wastes to Mexico

San Diego County health officials said Monday that they intend to recommend a new system of tracking hazardous-waste shipments to Mexico, in which shippers would have to stop at the border and file detailed documentation with the U.S. Customs Service.

The proposal, which arose out of a meeting of federal, state and county officials in San Diego on Monday, is aimed at grappling with what the officials said appears to be a growing problem of hazardous-waste shipments crossing the border.

“It’s not a loophole, it’s a black hole,” Daniel Supnick, a Customs investigator, said at the meeting. “Once something crosses the border, you can forget it. . . . As far as working a criminal case, once it crosses the border, it is gone.”

The meeting, attended by more than a dozen officials from environmental, public health, Customs and law-enforcement agencies, had been called at the request of San Diego County supervisors to assess the amount of waste crossing the border and what laws currently regulate its flow.

Participants admitted frankly that they have no way of knowing how much toxic waste crosses the border illegally--a question raised earlier this year after the discovery of an illegal dump containing U.S. wastes near the Mexican border town of Tecate.

“If it’s not a problem today, it will be very shortly,” said Supnick, “because it’s the cheap, quick way.” He said that in recent months he has interviewed numerous representatives of waste-producing and hauling firms.

Others acknowledged that their own regulations are poorly designed to handle the problem.

- Jeff Zelikson, deputy director of the toxics division of the San Francisco office of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said current federal regulations require only minimal reporting and that upcoming regulatory changes offer only a slight improvement.

- Zelikson said EPA staffers are not supposed to communicate directly with Mexico; the State Department is supposed to handle all communication. Now, he said, upheaval in the Mexican environmental agency is hampering even unofficial communication.

“From the standpoint of trying to get a job done, it’s ridiculous,” Zelikson said.

- Steve Hanna, a toxics official with the California Department of Health Services, said the state does not require waste generators to report the destination of exported waste. The state receives a report of the destination only in the case of waste transported within the U.S.

Hanna said only the waste generator is required to receive certification that the exported waste reached its destination. If he does not, the state requires he file an “exception report.” Hanna could recall none involving exported waste.

- Law-enforcement officials said highway roadblocks aimed at netting illegal shippers are labor-intensive and easily evaded.

“Generally they’re unsuccessful because the crooks are better at avoiding us than we are at catching them,” Zelikson said.

For those reasons, officials on Monday suggested new mechanisms for controlling waste exports.

Some suggested a new approach under which shippers would have to report exports to U.S. Customs at the border. Working with Mexican officials, the service might then be able to determine whether there were a legitimate facility receiving the material in Mexico.

Larry Aker, chief of hazardous materials management for the county Health Services Department, which helped organize the meeting, said that recommendation would probably be forwarded to the county Board of Supervisors in a report next month.

The supervisors might then decide whether to lobby state and federal officials for changes in laws that affect waste exports.

Also raised at the meeting was the possibility of federal legislation requiring EPA permits for exporting certain types of waste. EPA requires a permit for exports of highly toxic Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) only, and has never granted such a permit.

Some officials also recommended new roadblocks, as a deterrent if nothing else.

“We wind up catching the schnooks,” said Supnick. “But by catching the schnooks we at least put out the notice that we’re looking.”