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- Xref: sparky misc.activism.progressive:6418 alt.activism:16097 talk.environment:3637
- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!darwin.sura.net!spool.mu.edu!agate!remarque.berkeley.edu!jym
- From: Greenpeace via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,talk.environment
- Subject: NEWS: Elf Atochem Discharge Pipe Blocked (London, Mersey Estuary)
- Followup-To: talk.environment
- Date: 9 Sep 1992 20:05:56 GMT
- Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
- Lines: 50
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Message-ID: <Greenpeace.9Sep1992.8am2@naughty-peahen.org>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
- Originator: jym@remarque.berkeley.edu
-
- [Greenpeace Press Release from Environet -- Redistribute Freely]
-
- GREENPEACE BLOCKS ELF ATOCHEM DISCHARGE PIPE
- A MAJOR POLLUTER OF MERSEY ESTUARY
-
- LONDON, September 3, 1992 (GP) -- Greenpeace activists this
- morning blocked the discharge pipe of Elf Atochem (formerly
- Norsochem) which discharges dangerous chemicals into the Mersey.
- Four activists wearing chemical suits and full breathing
- apparatus to protect them from poisonous fumes climbed down into
- a gulley to fit a blocking device to the discharge pipe.
-
- Greenpeace blames the UK Government for giving companies such Elf
- Atochem consents to legally discharge poisonous chemical wastes
- into our rivers, estuaries and sea. Greenpeace also accused the
- North West National Rivers Authority of failing to stop Elf
- Atochem from poisoning the Mersey.
-
- Every year Elf Atochem is legally allowed to discharge over 5
- billion litres of industrial effluent, including over 1 tonne of
- cyanide, 2.6 tonnes of heavy metals, over 3,084 tonnes of
- unspecified chemicals and 2 tonnes of toxic phenols as well as
- toxic persistent organochlorines into a tributary of the river
- Mersey.
-
- "Elf Atochem, along with hundreds of other companies in the UK,
- is legally allowed by the UK government to dump thousands of
- tonnes of dangerous chemical wastes into our rivers and seas
- every year" said Tim Birch, Greenpeace Toxics
- campaigner."Greenpeace is demanding that the UK government
- reverses this policy and commits itself to ending the legal
- pollution of the water environment."
-
- Greenpeace has targeted Elf Atochem chemical company on two other
- occasions over the last four years but recent analysis of
- effluent has shown little improvement. The Greenpeace analysis
- found a wide variety of dangerous Black listed* chemicals such as
- chlorinated benzenes not even monitored for by the North West
- NRA.
-
- Elf Atochem was given a 20 minute warning to switch off the
- discharge before the pipe was blocked.
- Activists were: Mark Hardingham, Fleetwood; Gillian Taylor,
- Woolwich; Alan Foreman, Dublin; Gere Lob, California, Michael De
- Leeuw, Hamilton, New Zealand; Helena Sieroakowska, UK.
-
- * The Paris Convention, agreed by countries bordering the North
- East Atlantic in 1974, to eliminate discharges to the marine
- environment of certain dangerous chemicals on a Black List, "as a
- matter of urgency"
-