🚀 go-pugleaf

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Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1993 07:57:52 GMT
UNOCAL plans to dump thousands of tons of toxic petroleum-
contaminated soil on the Marshall Islands

On November 16, a barge named the Pacific Trader left Honolulu for 
the Pacific country of the Marshall Islands. The barge is loaded with 
toxic soil from UNOCAL gas stations on O'ahu.

UNOCAL IS A MAJOR POLLUTER IN THE UNITED STATES NOW 
UNOCAL IS DUMPING ITS TOXIC MESS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC

This is just the first of many toxic waste shipments to the Marshall 
Islands planned by UNOCAL. The oil corporation's Honolulu waste 
broker has made a deal with the government of the Marshall 
Islands to ship over a hundred thousand tons of toxic soil to that 
country. The toxic soil will then be dumped in the ocean -- used as 
a base for a causeway across a coral reef,connecting two islands.

The Marshall Islands is a newly-independent Pacific country, whose 
economic power is controlled by the U.S. government and U.S. 
companies.

The following list describes a few of the most notable ecological 
atrocities committed by UNOCAL:

UNOCAL has started drilling for oil in virgin Amazonian rainforest 
in Ecuador. UNOCAL has militarized its exploratory well to "protect" 
it from indigenous people who have protested UNOCAL's activities 
there.

UNOCAL is also exploring for oil in the rainforest of Burma.  Because 
of the rugged terrain and dense vegetation there, the only way oil 
companies can get through for exploration is to clearcut the forests. 
UNOCAL is destroying the rainforest of Burma in alliance with the 
military government of Burma, which human rights organizations 
have condemned for routinely arresting and torturing the people of 
Burma. The military of Burma uses income from UNOCAL and other 
oil corporations to purchase high-tech weapons, planes, tanks and 
chemical weapons.

1989, UNOCAL unsuccessfully petitioned President George Bush to 
open the Florida coastline, including the Florida Keys, for off-shore 
oil development.

UNOCAL disposed of 70,000 pounds of drummed hazardous wastes 
by giving it to the city of Kenai, Alaska for road oiling.

In November 1992, twenty residents of Huntington Harbor, 
California who live near a UNOCAL facility complained of birth 
defects, breathing problems and skin rashes caused by UNOCAL's 
toxic emissions into the air.

In February 1991, UNOCAL paid $903,846 in fines to avoid a 
multimillion dollar civil lawsuit over mismanagement at over half 
its service stations in Orange County, CA. The civil lawsuit charged 
that UNOCAL failed to check for leaks at underground tanks at over 
70 service stations and that it failed to obtain necessary permits for 
underground gas tanks.

In February 1990, UNOCAL paid a $5.5 million settlement for 
polluting the San Francisco Bay. The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund 
charged that "UNOCAL knowingly and illegally discharged tons of 
toxic waste into San Francisco Bay throughout the early 1980's, 
polluting the water and fouling sensitive wildlife habitat.

Over the past five years, Greenpeace has documented dozens of 
attempts by unscrupulous U.S. waste traders to export various 
kinds of wastes to Pacific countries. But, until now, each of these 
toxic schemes was rejected by the importing country, who refused 
to become the toxic dumping grounds for U.S. industry.

UNOCAL's barge of toxic soil represents the first actual shipment of 
U.S. waste to ever reach the Pacific. UNOCAL has opened "Pandora's 
Box"; the Pacific could soon be victimized by an unprecedented 
invasion of U.S. toxic wastes.

This is just 
the first of many planned shipments.