India will go on with ship-recycling, but bribes are likely to grow:

Indian ship recyclers have been forced to adhere to the Basel Convention regarding the import of hazardous wastes. Faced with a petition from Indian-based environmental organisation ToxicsWatch Alliance, on 30th July, India’s Supreme Court ruled that vessels arriving for recycling in Indian waters containing hazardous materials, such as asbestos or PCBs, must follow the Basel Convention on global movements of hazardous wastes. It means that India must first be notified as to all hazardous materials contained on board and must approve ship importation from all sources for scrapping, prior to the vessel’s arrival in India.

The Court decided that the former ‘Exxon Valdez’, a vessel whose arrival in Indian waters prompted the environmentalists to act, will be the last ship to arrive in India without the Basel rules being applied.

There is hard competition between Bangladesh and India recycling industry, India will keep its appetite on securing tonnage by trying to offer firm prices as the ruling of Supreme Court did not impose the closure of the scrap yards.

Industry experts don’t see any reasons for worrying as to the fate of the Indian recycling industry, and believe that the Supreme Court decision will result mostly, in growing number and volume of bribes to be paid to the above mentioned “all sources” empowered with the authority to supervise the deals.

Source: Maritime Bulletin. 6 August 2012

http://www.odin.tc/news/read.asp?articleID=1157

Indian court adheres to Basel treaty on Exxon Valdez ship:

The Indian Supreme Court has allowed Indian shipbreakers to dismantle a ship that had spilled crude near the Alaskan coast in 1989, provided they follow international rules on toxic material disposal -- a move termed as "groundbreaking" by a Brussel-based environmental group.

The court on July 30 allowed the breaking apart of the vessel, formerly called Exxon Valdez and now known as the Oriental Nicety, provided the ship's owner pays for disposal of toxic materials on board.

The court also stated that ships containing hazardous materials, such as asbestos, must follow the Basel Convention rules on global movements of hazardous wastes. The Basel Convention is an international treaty enacted in 1989 to prevent dumping of toxic waste in developing countries.

  

The ruling means that India must first be notified as to all hazardous materials contained on-board and must approve of ship scrapping prior to the vessel's arrival in India, Brussels-based Ship-breaking Platform said in a statement Wednesday.

"Finally, the Supreme Court in India has dragged its government to face the fact that India for a long time has been violating international law with respect to its uncontrolled imports of toxic ships for scrapping on its beaches. It will no longer be able to do so," said Basel Action Network director Jim Puckett.

The single-hulled Exxon Valdez that had spilled millions of barrels of crude near Alaska's Prince William Sound 23 years ago, will be torn apart at the Alang ship-breaking yard in the Indian state of Gujarat.

The old spillage from the Exxon Valdez had caused huge environmental damage to the area causing death to marine life and affected the local fishing industry.

The Exxon Valdez incident had prompted the oil shipping market to embrace double-hull tankers more as these vessels were considered better equipped to minimise spillage.

Meanwhile, the Oriental Nicety, which had entered the Indian waters in May to be scrapped, has been inspected by the Gujarat Maritime Board.

The maritime authority has told the court that "there was no sign of any kind of hazardous/toxic substance on board" with the ship being converted from an oil tanker into a bulk carrier in September 2008.

The ship's current owners, Priya Blue Industries, said Tuesday that they would abide by the ruling and bear costs for removing toxic substances from the ship. A representative of the company could not be reached Thursday for further comment.

Source: By Zameer Yusof (zameer_yusof@platts.com). 2 August 2012

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Shipping/7937362

The Exxon Valdez’s Eco-Friendly Afterlife:

At some point before the weekend, the ship once known as the Exxon Valdez will come to its final resting place on an oil-stained beach in Alang, India, where it’ll be recycled in the world’s largest and most notorious shipbreaking yard.

Environmentalists inside and outside of India are outraged. The Valdez -- now renamed (I am not making this up) the Oriental Nicety -- like almost all ships scrapped in India, is filled with hazardous substances including asbestos and PCB-laden oils. Under Indian law and international treaties to which India is party, that should render it illegal to import. And yet, not only is it being imported, it’s one of hundreds of ships that are brought into Alang every year for recycling. Despite an order from the Indian Supreme Court on this week requiring that the Valdez be the last such ship imported into India, nobody -- except, perhaps, anti-shipbreaking activists outside of India -- believes that’s going to happen.

The reason is simple: India’s growing economy requires growing volumes of steel, and shipbreaking is one of the easiest, cheapest and arguably greenest means of getting it. Depending on economic conditions, shipbreaking supplies India with 8 percent of its annual steel supply. It has become such a key part of India’s steel industry that India’s steel prices are known to move on the basis of just how many ships are being dismantled on Alang’s beaches. Environmental crackdowns drive the price up; a slow shipping season usually means bankrupt shipping companies, more ships to break, and falling prices.

The Oriental Nicety, which spilled millions of gallons of oil into Alaskan waters in 1989,  is the kind of ship that Alang loves. It’s big, with large empty spaces in which laborers can work, cutting it apart. The Indian press reports that the ship was purchased for US$16 million (a rumor very much in line with current market prices), with the purchaser assuming, via industry standard, that at least 70 percent of the 200,000-plus metric tons of ship would be steel. By those numbers, a rough back of the envelope calculation suggests a purchase price of around US$115 per ton.

In Alang, that steel is liberated by teams of low-cost laborers who work day and night with torches, winches and ropes to pull large pieces of steel to the beach below. There, they’ll be reduced to arm-sized pieces and sold to so-called “re-rolling” mills where they’re heated and literally rolled into the steel rods and bars used for re-enforcing structures ranging from buildings to bridges to roads. It’s a highly efficient process: by Christmas, most of the former Valdez’s hull should be helping to hold up buildings in India’s booming Gujarat state. It’s also highly profitable: According to two Alang traders with whom I spoke today, the current price of re-rolled steel is around US$400 per ton.

The environmental community likes to avoid the term “recycling” when it talks about places like Alang. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t very strong green arguments in favor of them. Of these, the most compelling has to do with energy savings. On average, the manufacture of recycled steel requires 74 percent less energy than the manufacture of new steel from virgin ores dug from mines. Because re-rolled steel doesn’t need to be remelted in a furnace, the energy savings are even more significant (though no figures or studies support that suggestion). For India, such savings means that an already overtaxed power grid can be devoted to providing electricity to poor people rather than steel mills, and valuable open space can be conserved rather than dug up for new iron-ore mines.

Source: Bloomberg. By Adam Minter. 3 August 2012

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-02/the-exxon-valdez-s-eco-friendly-afterlife.html

India invokes hazardous waste rules on its shipbreaking industry:

Indian ship recyclers have been forced to adhere to the Basel Convention regarding the import of hazardous wastes.

Faced with a petition from Indian-based environmental organisation ToxicsWatch Alliance, on 30th July, India’s Supreme Court ruled that vessels arriving for recycling in Indian waters containing hazardous materials, such as asbestos or PCBs, must follow the Basel Convention on global movements of hazardous wastes.

This ruling means that India can no longer accept ships from Europe, or the US. It also means that India must first be notified as to all hazardous materials contained on board and must approve ship importation from all sources for scrapping, prior to the vessel’s arrival in India, Basel Action Network said.

Previous to this decision and despite India being a Party to the Basel Convention, the country has ignored its Basel legal obligations with respect to ships, the organisation claimed.

“Finally, the Supreme Court in India has dragged its government to face the fact that India for a long time has been violating international law with respect to its uncontrolled imports of toxic ships for scrapping on its beaches. It will no longer be able to do so,” said Basel Action Network director Jim Puckett. “Hundreds of poor and desperate labourers have been killed or exposed to hazardous chemical, as a result of the disastrous shipbreaking practices on Indian beaches; hopefully this ruling will be the beginning of the end of the dark ages of ship recycling.”

Beaching operations in South Asia are known for environmental and human rights violations, where workers are routinely injured, crippled and killed from explosions and occupational exposure to hazardous substances.

Last weekend, a shipbreaking worker fell to his death from a ship beached in Bangladesh, the fifth death in Bangladesh this year. In 2011 alone, 28 workers were killed at Alang beach. The inquiries in such deaths are never made public.

However positive the Indian Supreme Court’s directives, the Court decided that the former ‘Exxon Valdez’, a vessel whose arrival in Indian waters prompted the environmentalists to act, will be the last ship to arrive in India without the Basel rules being applied.

It is unclear why the court exempted the vessel from its own orders. Indian authorities claimed that their inspection did not reveal any hazardous materials on board the vessel as cargo.

However, they could not determine what hazardous waste was contained in the ship’s structure, which most likely includes PCBs, asbestos, and residual fuels among many others, according to the NGO shipbreaking platform.

Source: tanker operator. 3 August 2012

http://www.tankeroperator.com/news/todisplaynews.asp?NewsID=3694

MEDIA ALERT – EXXON VALDEZ PROMPTS INDIA’S SUPREME COURT TO BLOW WHISTLE ON TOXIC SHIPBREAKING BEACHES

EXXON VALDEZ PROMPTS INDIA’S SUPREME COURT TO BLOW WHISTLE ON TOXIC SHIPBREAKING BEACHES

No More Toxic Ships to Sail to India from USA or Europe

1 August 2012 (Brussels) – Faced with a petition from Indian-based ToxicsWatch Alliance, a leading environmental organization, India’s Supreme Court ruled on 30 July 2012 that end-of-life ships containing hazardous materials, such as asbestos or PCBs, must follow the Basel Convention rules on global movements of hazardous wastes. This ruling means that India can no longer accept ships from Europe or the United States. It also means that India must first be notified as to all hazardous materials contained on-board and must approve of ship importation from all sources for scrapping prior to vessel arrival in India. Previous to this decision and despite India being a Party to the Basel Convention, India has long ignored its Basel legal obligations with respect to ships.

“Finally, the Supreme Court in India has dragged its government to face the fact that India for a long time has been violating international law with respect to its uncontrolled imports of toxic ships for scrapping on its beaches. It will no longer be able to do so,” said Basel Action Network director Jim Puckett. “Hundreds of poor and desperate laborers have been killed or exposed to hazardous chemicals as a result of the disastrous shipbreaking practices on Indian beaches; hopefully this ruling will be the beginning of the end of the dark ages of ship recycling.”

The beaching operations found in South Asia are well known for environmental and human rights violations, where workers are routinely injured, crippled and killed from explosions and occupational exposure to hazardous substances. Just this weekend a shipbreaking worker fell to his death from a ship beached in Bangladesh, the fifth such deadly accident in Bangladesh this year. In 2011 alone 28 workers got killed at Alang shipbreaking yards. The inquiries in such deaths are never made public.

India’s groundbreaking court order affirms the United Nations Basel Convention, an international law enacted in 1989 to prevent the dumping of hazardous waste on developing countries. Under such law, ships cannot be imported to a Party state, such as India, from a non-Party state, such as the United States. All hazardous wastes must also be declared by the exporter and consented by the state of import prior to vessel movement. It is further the exporters’ responsibility to ensure that hazardous wastes are dealt with in an environmentally sound and safe manner – thus not dumped on tidal beaches in countries that lack proper downstream waste management facilities.

The court order is consistent with decisions made at the most recent Basel Convention meeting in October 2011, when 178 countries called for rapidly implementing a full ban on the export of toxic wastes of all kinds from developed to developing countries. During this same meeting, Basel parties called on each other to assist developing countries in applying the Basel Convention for ships at end-of-life.

However, the Basel meeting and the Indian Supreme Court’s ruling are pointedly at odds with the European Union’s recently proposed ship recycling regulation, which seeks to remove ships from existing legislation that forbids export of hazardous wastes from Europe to developing countries. The proposed regulation attempts to substitute existing rules with far weaker ones under a separate International Maritime Organization regime known as the Hong Kong Convention. The NGO Shipbreaking Platform notes that the Hong Kong Convention is not in force and when it does become law can in no way be seen as a substitute for the Basel Convention. In October 2011, a majority of the Basel Parties agreed that the Hong Kong Convention does not provide an equivalent level of protection to especially developing countries as that provided by the Basel Convention.

“It is sadly ironic that at a time when major shipbreaking countries such as India and Bangladesh are saying we no longer wish to have our beaches become the dumping ground for toxic waste ships, the European Union seems ready to abandon its former export prohibition and say to these countries, well yes you do!” said Ingvild Jenssen, Director of the NGO Platform. “The European proposal is sadly an obvious move to give the shipping industry what they want most – agreement that the Basel Convention will not apply to them.”

However positive the Indian Supreme Court’s directives, the court decided that the EXXON VALDEZ, an infamous ship whose arrival in Indian waters prompted the environmentalists to act, will be the last ship to arrive in India without the Basel rules being applied. It is unclear why the court exempted the EXXON VALDEZ from its own orders. While Indian authorities claimed their inspection did not reveal any hazardous materials on-board the vessel as cargo, they could not determine what hazardous waste was contained in the ship’s structure, which most likely include PCBs, asbestos, and residual fuels amongst many others.

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform calls on India to fully uphold the Basel Convention with respect to the EXXON VALDEZ and to retract its beaching and breaking authorization, forcing the vessel back to its country of origin – the United States.

For more information, contact: -

NGO SHIPBREAKING PLATFORM

Ingvild JENSSEN, Director

+32 2 6094419

Ingvild@shipbreakingplatform.org

Delphine REUTER, Communications Officer

+32 2 6094418

+32 484 305 556

delphine@shipbreakingplatform.org

BASEL ACTION NETWORK

Colby Self, Director, Green Ship Recycling Campaign

+1.206.250.5652

cself@ban.org

TOXICS WATCH ALLIANCE

Gopal Krishna

+91 98 18089660

krishna1715@gmail.com

Source: NGO Shipbreaking Platform. 1 August 2012

http://www.shipbreakingplatform.org/media-alert-exxon-valdez-prompts-indias-supreme-court-to-blow-whistle-on-toxic-shipbreaking-beaches/

High Court Allows Exxon Valdez to Be Scrapped:

Two judges on India's Supreme Court allowed the ship to move to a shipyard in Gujarat, on the western coast of India.

Bloomberg and TradeWinds News reported July 30 that two judges on India's Supreme Court have allowed the ship once named the Exxon Valdez to be scrapped at a yard in Alang on the country's western coast.

Environmentalists had protested the planned scrapping earlier this year and had won an order from a regional pollution control board barring the ship's owner, Priya Blue Industries Pvt Ltd, from moving it to Alang.

The ship's current name is the Oriental Nicety. It was involved in one of the largest marine oil spills in history in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.

Source: Occupational Health & Safety Online. 31 July 2012

http://ohsonline.com/articles/2012/07/31/high-court-allows-exxon-valdez-to-be-scrapped.aspx?admgarea=news

India’s Supreme Court Allows Exxon Valdez into Shipbreaking Yard:

On Monday India’s Supreme Court ruled that the Exxon Valdez, a tanker ship responsible for the spilling of millions of gallons of oil in waters off Alaska’s coast, would be allowed entry into an Indian shipbreaking yard.

As part of this ruling the court announced that no ship would be allowed to be dismantled in India without the government’s environmental clearance and the vessel’s decontamination as part of the Basel Convention.

Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice J. Chelameswar ruled on the permitting of the MV Oriental Nicety, formerly the Exxon Valdez, for dismantling at the Alang ship breaking yard in Gujarat.

The ships latest owner, Priya Blue Industries Pvt., a Gujarat based company that purchased the ship with the intent of scrapping it, says the vessel will be transported from its anchorage off the country’s coast to Alang yard where it will take several months to dismantle. According to the court, the removal of toxins will become the responsibility of the ship’s owner.

New Delhi based ToxicsWatch Alliance, who initiated the opposition of the ship’s entry, was disappointed. The group claims the vessel poses environmental threats because of asbestos and heavy metals onboard.

The Exxon Valdez made headlines in 1989 after running aground in Prince William Sound. The tanker spilled an estimated 500,000 barrels of crude oil into the pristine waters, causing one of the most devastating environmental disasters. The incident led to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, changes to Alaska Hull regulations and opposition to drilling in the area.

ToxicsWatch Alliance believes the vessel its self is hazardous waste, “embedded with asbestos, cables containing PCT, heavy metals, paint chips”, and other materials, all of which is regulated under the Basel Convention.

Source: Maritime Executive. 30 July 2012

http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/india-s-supreme-court-allows-exxon-valdez-into-shipbreaking-yard

Anchorage Of Ex Exxon Valdez Off Gujarat Coast Is Contempt Of Court:

July 1, 2012, New Delhi-Contrary to the order dated May 3, 2012, Supreme Court wherein had asked Union of India, Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of Environment & Forests “to inform this Court as to the steps being taken to prevent the ship berthing in any of the ports in India, without following the conditions indicated in the Basel Convention,” if anchorage is allowed it will be in contempt of court. The legal meaning of berthing is anchoring. The infamous oil tanker that spilled crude oil off the Alaskan coast 23 years ago, anchored a little past 7 am on Saturday, about six nautical miles off the Bhavnagar coast, Gujarat state, India.

At page no. 17 and 18 of the attached application of the Honkong based Best Oasis company, the letter of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) addressed to the Port Officer, Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) reveals that there has not been compliance with the court order seeking compliance with UN’s Basel Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal of which India is a party.

At page 18 of the application wherein GPCB’s letter is annexed. The letter specifically refers to ‘agency’s letter seeking Anchoring permission’ responding to the same, GPCB reproduced Hon’ble Court’s order of May 3, 2012 ad verbatim. The relevant part of attached 9 page order refers to the application filed by Gopal Krishna of ToxicsWatch Alliance at page no. 8 and 9. It reads: “Mr. Sanjay Parikh also submitted that a separate interlocutory application has been filed, which is yet to be numbered, in which it has been indicated that a foreign ship, which is alleged to be contaminated, has entered into Indian Waters, though, it has not yet been allowed to berth in any of the ports, without taking proper steps for decontamination in the port of export. A copy has been provided to Mr. Ashok Bhan, learned senior counsel appearing for the Union of India and Mr. T.S. Doabia, learned senior counsel, who submits that he is appearing on behalf of the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India. Both, Mr. Bhan and Mr. Doabia, are requested to take instructions on the statements made in the interlocutory application and to inform this Court as to the steps being taken to prevent the ship berthing in any of the ports in India, without following the conditions indicated in the Basel Convention. The respondents in the interlocutory application will be entitled to file their respective counter affidavits to the same, within six weeks. Rejoinder thereto, if any, may be filed within two weeks thereafter. Let this interlocutory application, as well as the other connected interlocutory applications, be listed on 13th August, 2012, also.”

The agency which applied for the anchoring permission is named as SHREEJI SHIPPING AGENCY. It is not revealed as to what is the relationship between this agency and Mumbai based Oswald Cardozo of Hongkong based Best Oasis Company, a subsidiary of Gujarat based Priya Blue Company.

The letter of GPCB dated May 8, 2012 reveals that the Office of the Assistant Commissioner of Customs has also taken cognizance of these violations. It refers to starred questions raised in Rajya Sabha about the vessel as well. it is admitted that ‘This office has also referred the matter to seek legal opinion, accordingly it would not be appropriate to grant any permission to the vessel “MV Oriental N” having one of the old name “Exxon Valdez” till further order is issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.’ The question is what has changed since May 3, 2012 till date to necessitate GPCB to revisit its denial of ‘to grant any permission to the vessel” in question. The influence of invisible players must be probed.

It is noteworthy that the end-of life vessel is a hazardous waste as per the Convention. The end-of-life US ships are laden with asbestos, PCBs and heavy metals which are being dumped in India in pursuance of USA’s Ship Disposal Policy. It is not for US Maritime Administration (US MARAD) and US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to disclose the original inventory of hazardous and radioactive materials on board its vessel, Exxon Valdez. The Central Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and Gujarat Maritime Board is supposed to verify the veracity of their inventory after that. It is matter of court’s record that GPCB does not have the facility to test PCBs. How can they visually inspect PCBs? It has not been disclosed so far whether it has the expertise to inspect lung cancer causing asbestos on the ship.

The inspection of the ship by moving it in Indian waters in Bhavnagar reportedly undertaken by the GPCB and GMB is has been done without court’s order as per Prayer No. 1 of the application of Mumbai based Oswald Cardozo on behalf of Hongkong based Best Oasis Company seeking inspection and anchorage. This is a manifest case of contempt of court’s order. The application was filed on May 9, 2012. Mr Oswald Cardozo must be asked to reveal his relationship with the company and the inventory of this hazardous ship. Who is hiding behind the corporate veil to escape decontamination cost?

Supreme Court’s original judgment of October 14, 2003 and September 6, 2007 reads: “13. A complete inventory of hazardous waste on board of ship should be made mandatory for the ship owner.” The core question is has the ship owner of the ship disclosed the inventory of hazardous waste on board of ship.

GPCB appears to be misleading when it says that there no hazardous materials like asbestos on board the ship. The fact is that it is only since January 1, 2011 that International Maritime Organization (IMO) has imposed total ban on asbestos. All ships prior to this date are likely to have asbestos and thus the end-of-life vessels like 1986 built Exxon Valdez (IMO No. 8414520) remain a major concern.

Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on Hazardous Wastes has rightly asked, “If India accepts the ship, then India will be seen as abetting a violation of the Basel Convention… Why should we sacrifice our precious soil to bury some other country's (hazardous) junk?” 

Government of USA is repeatedly trying to evade its responsibility regarding its end-of-life vessels. That’s why it did not ratify Basel Convention. USA’s standards for handling asbestos are amongst the highest in the world. But instead of investing in safe removal and disposal of the asbestos on Exxon Valdez, they are trying to dupe the Indian Government, and dump their toxic wastes onto the most vulnerable workforce in the world. This is absolutely reprehensible and unbecoming of a supposedly civilized nation.

ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA) demands that the current and past ownership documents of the vessel must be examined. Industrialized countries should not be allowed to dump their junk into the developing world for the sake of perverted economic logic.

The eagerness to profit from one of the world's dirtiest industries, the dismantling of toxic ships by migrant and casual workers from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha at Alang beach is fraught with disastrous environmental and occupational health consequences.

The fact is that September 2007 order of the Supreme Court has reproduced ad verbatim the court's landmark judgment of October 14, 2003. The relevant part of the order in the WRIT PETITION NO. 657 OF 1995 case which needs to be read before arriving at the legality or illegality of the anchorage of the toxic US vessel, Exxon Valdez (now called Oriental MV).

The order reads: “4. Disposal of waste material, viz. Oil, cotton, dead cargo of inorganic material like hydrated/solidified elements, thermocol pieces, glass wool, rubber, broken tiles, etc. should be done in a proper manner, utilizing technologies that meet the criteria of an effective destruction efficiently of 99.9 per cent, with no generation of persistent organic pollutants, and complete containment of all gaseous, liquid and solid residues for analysis and, if needed, reprocessing. Such disposed of material should be kept at a specified placed earmarked for this purpose. Special care must be taken in the handling of asbestos wastes, and total quantities of such waste should be made known to the concerned authorities. The Gujarat Pollution Control Board should authorize appropriates final disposal of asbestos waste.”

TWA demands that GPCB should disclose its disposal site for asbestos waste of this ship. TWA has sought compliance with the above mentioned order besides the recommendations of the Hon'ble court's Inter-Ministerial Committee on Shipbreaking. On May 3, 2012, the court asked the Union Government to file an affidavit as to whether the ship in question has complied with the Basel Convention. More than a month has passed but compliance affidavit has not been filed.

In such a situation, there is a compelling logic for this dead hazardous ship to be sent away from the Indian waters. It is trying to repeat the story of another dubious dead US ship Platinum II (ex SS Independence, MV Oceanic) to set a bad a precedent to ensure that it paves the way for hundreds of dead toxic US ships to be dumped in Indian waters.

A section of media appears to be been misled into reporting that the June 25, 2012 order of the court has cleared the end-of-life vessel Exxon Valdez (currently named MV Oriental N). The attached order reveals that no relief has been given as per the prayers in the application of Best Oasis company, subsidiary of Priya Blue Company. The application of the company is also attached.

According to IMO, “In March 1989, the Exxon Valdez, loaded with 1,264,155 barrels of crude oil, ran aground in the northeastern portion of Prince William Sound, spilling about one-fifth of its cargo. It was the largest crude spill, to date, in US waters and - probably the one which gained the biggest media coverage to date. The U.S. public demanded action - and duly got it. The United States introduced its Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), making it mandatory for all tankers calling at U.S. ports to have double hulls.”

From 1986 to 1990 it was owned by Exxon Shipping Company , a division of Exxon Corporation. In early 1993, it was transferred to another subsidiary company, Sear River Maritime Inc. Till 2005 it was under US flag. From 2005 it was under the flag of Marshall Islands. It was owned by Hong Kong Bloom Shipping Ltd, a unit of China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), owner of the second largest shipping fleet in the world from August 2008 to 2011. This company renamed it as Oriental Nicety in 2011.

Notably both Exxon Corporation and COSCO are part of the United Nations Global Compact that commits business enterprises to uphold fundamental human rights, labour and environment protection laws. This move by Exxon and COSCO to sell the former Exxon Valdez for dismantling of the vessel on Alang beach exposes the hollowness of the UN Compact.

In March 2012, this US Vessel was purchased by a US based company Global Marketing Systems (GMS), one of the leading buyers of dead ships with offices in Shanghai and UAE. This company was indicted by the USEPA in the Platinum II case. The vessel was sold to a ship breaker company in Singapore on March 27, 2012. The name of this ship breaker company has not been disclosed.

It is claimed that the ship is now owned by Hongkong based Best Oasis company, a subsidiary of Priya Blue company. This company has renamed the vessel as MV Oriental N. The veracity of such ownership claims can only be done if the ownership documents are submitted to the court. The sale of this vessel to Best Oasis was announced by Maryland GMS.

After being the flag of USA and Marshall Islands, it took under Panama flag. As per the last information, this vessel is under Sierra Leone flag. Best Oasis company was set up in Hong Kong in 2010 for the “sole purpose of cash buying of vessels for recycling at Alang, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China,” as per company’s website.

In November of 2010 this vessel had collided with the Aali, a Malta-flagged cargo ship, in the South China Sea. This vessel was towed to Longyan Port in the Chinese province of Shandong.

Earlier, it was planned that the vessel will be dismantled at Dalian in China. It has come to light that the vessel has illegally moved to Bhavnagar, Gujarat as of July 1, 2012. The last known port of this vessel was Mumbai. This end-of-life vessel of Length x Breadth: 300 m X 50 m has a dead weight of 213855 ton. The next hearing of application seeking compliance with Basel Convention and Supreme Court’s order is scheduled for July 9, 2012.

At present shipbreaking activity is regulated by the directives of the Supreme Court of India in their ruling in W.P. (Civil) No. 657 of 1995 vide Order dated October 14, 2003 and September 6, 2007. As per the court order a Ship Breaking/Recycling Code Should been formulated by the Inter Ministerial Committee on Shipbreaking constituted by the court under Union Ministry of Steel, the Focal Point for shipbreaking activity taking into account the directions contained in the Supreme Court Order, recommendations of Technical Experts Committee and High Powered Committee but several years have passed without compliance with the court order.

The non-cooperation of the Union Environment & Forests Ministry with the SCMC is one of the key reasons for the sorry state of affairs in the hazardous shipbreaking industrial operations.

For Details:

Gopal Krishna, Toxics Watch Alliance (TWA)

Mb: 08002263335, 09818089660,

E-mail:krishna1715@gmail.com,

Phone: +91-11-26517814,

Fax: +91-11-26517814

Web: toxicswatch.blogspot.com, banasbestosindia.blogspot.com

Source: By Toxics Watch Alliance. 1 July 2012

http://www.countercurrents.org/twa010712.htm

State unhappy with SC’s judgment on hazardous wastes, fears business will be hit:

The Supreme Court’s judgment on Friday on hazardous wastes and its likely impacts on shipbreaking seem to have unnerved the highest echelons of the Gujarat government. Chief Secretary A K Joti publicly pleaded with his counterpart in the Environment Ministry that “a level playing field must be ensured” or else all ships heading for Alang Ship Recycling Yard would now move to “Bangladesh, China or Karachi”.

Joti, who was delivering a special address at a pre-event seminar for Vibrant Gujarat, 2013, at Gandhinagar’s Mahatma Mandir, first finished his prepared speech and began an extempore directed at his civil services batch-mate Tishyarakshit Chatterjee, currently Secretary of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Joti began by telling the audience that he had apprised Chatterjee about Friday’s judgment before the seminar began at 10 am. (The SC had directed the Indian government to uphold the “Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal”).

Turning towards Chatterjee, Joti went on saying that agencies such as “the Gujarat Maritime Board have spent crores of rupees to comply with environmental standards at Alang to ensure trade and employment opportunities for Indian citizens”.

Asia’s largest ship-recycling yard would lose its business, he continued, and end-of-life ships would all go to neighbouring countries’ yards “if China and Bangladesh can violate (international) conventions with impunity. This type of problem is very real. We are given all the lectures.”

“Our industry started way back in the 1980s. Now, they (the ships) are all going to Bangladesh. Karachi is also coming up as a new shipbreaking yard. It is just a few nautical miles from here,” he lamented.

In its judgment, the SC had said, “We expect and reiterate that the directions contained in the Basel Convention have to be strictly followed by all the concerned players, before a vessel is allowed to enter Indian territorial waters and beach at any of the beaching facilities in any part of the Indian coast-line.”

The petition it was hearing was originally filed in 1995, but it has been revived through additional affidavits and related petitions numerous times, most recently by a Delhi-based environment activist, Gopal Krishna of Toxics Watch Alliance, who demanded the MV Oriental N, formerly known as Exxon Valdez, not be allowed to enter India for dismantling.

Replying to Joti, Chatterjee said, “The Basel Convention facilitates business. Under Basel, we can now send our wastes from here. There is a hot proposal of sending waste abroad.” He, however, said the government “has to ask the SC how to implement the convention”.

Source: The Indian Express. 8 July 2012

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/state-unhappy-with-scs-judgment-on-hazardous-wastes-fears-business-will-be-hit/971741/2

American ship cleared for Alang beaching:

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Maritime Board has cleared beaching of American ship Exxon Valdez (MV Oriental N) at Alang after inspections following objections by environmental groups.

No objectionable material was found during a series of inspections by pollution control authority, customs and safety directorate, GMB said in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court. The ship was checked for contents and quantity of asbestos, oil, nuclear materials.

Environment activists said the ship was not decontaminated as per the court's guidelines and should not be allowed to beach at Alang. "It is just like any other ship. We have checked it thoroughly and submitted a detailed affidavit," an official from the state's maritime regulator told ET. The Supreme Court has asked GMB to decide on Exxon Valdez's anchoring and beaching.

Dismantling can be done as per the court's September 6, 2009, directions. The rules mandate that ships should be decontaminated thoroughly before being brought to India's shores. Deep sea inspections were carried out by Gujarat Maritime Board, Gujarat Pollution Control Boards, Customs authorities and Safety Directorate. "We have given the ship a nod for beaching. Our inspectors have ascertained that the amount of hazardous content is as per the prescribed guidelines," GPCB chairman, KU Mistry told ET.

Rules were framed in 2007 for dismantling of ships, following SC's orders. These rules mandate that ships should be allowed to beach only after a collective nod by pollution control authorities, maritime regulator and customs authorities.

Exxon Valdez came in limelight in the year 1989, when it spilled almost 10.9 million gallons of its 53 million gallon cargo of Prudhoe Bay crude oil, considered at that time as the largest oil spill in US waters. Its then owner, Exxon Mobil Company, paid damages worth $3.5 billion to the affected persons and US authorities.

The ship's current owner, Bhavnagar-based Best Oasis Ltd, has brought it into Gujarat's waters near Alang Ship Breaking yard at Bhavnagar in Gujarat. Following the affidavit of GMB, the Supreme Court will take a final call whether to allow the ship to get beached or not.

Source: economic times. By Himanshu Darji. 7 July 2012

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-07-07/news/32577621_1_alang-gmb-american-ship

Entry, Anchoring and Inspection of Dead US Ship in Contempt of Court’s Order:

Supreme Court seeks replies in asbestos laden ex Exxon Valdez case

New Delhi, July 9, 2012: Hearing the matter of the legality of the entry of dead US Ship ex Exxon Valdez in Indian waters, the bench of Justice Altmas Kabir and Justice J. Chelameswar adjourned the case for hearing on July 19, 2012. It has asked all the concerned ministries and departments including Shipping Ministry, Customs, GPCB, GMB etc to submit whatever response they want file on the interlocutory application (I.A.) no. 62 and 61 of Gopal Krishna and Best Oasis Ltd respectively. The court has not passed any interim orders.

So far some 5924 Ships have been dumped and broken in the grave yard of dead ships and migrant workers from UP, Bihar, Jhrkhand and Odisha. Currently there are some 160 dead ships standing at Alang beach Bhavnagar, Gujarat with impunity and in violation of Court’s order, UN’s Basel Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal and Hazardous Waste Management Rules.

The attached I.A. no. 62 dated July 4, 2012 reveals that Alang beach, Bhavnagar, Gujarat remains a grave threat to environmental and occupational health due to dead ships being dumped by developed countries like US, Europe, Japan and others in a routine manner due to the collusion of Gujarat based officials.

In the beginning, Mr Sanjay Parikh, advocate for Gopal Krishna pointed out that in order dated May 3, 2012, and July 6, 2012, the court has directed that Basel Convention of which India is a party should be followed and in case of violation legal action should be taken. He also pointed out that the entry permission, anchoring permission and inspection has been granted in violation of Supreme Court order of May 3, 2012, which stands confirmed in the final order dated July 6, 2012.

Earlier, in para 31 of July 6, 2012 judgment, the bench observed, “…the question of ship breaking and distribution of hazardous wastes are being considered separately in the contempt proceedings, in these proceedings we expect and reiterate that the directions contained in the BASEL Convention have to be strictly followed by all the concerned players, before a vessel is allowed to enter Indian territorial waters and beach at any of the beaching facilities in any part of the Indian coast-line. In case of breach of the conditions, the authorities shall impose the penalties contemplated under the municipal laws of India.” This vindicates the position of the applicant.

Para 8 of the judgment reads, “This Court observed that the ship breaking operations could not be allowed to continue, without strictly adhering to all precautionary principles, CPCB guidelines and upon taking the requisite safeguards, which have been dealt with extensively in the report of the High Powered Committee, which also included the working conditions of the workmen.”

ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA) has been asking the authorities to comply with the recommendations of the Inter Ministerial Committee on Ship breaking constituted by the court under Union Ministry of Steel, the Focal Point for shipbreaking activity taking into account the directions contained in the Supreme Court Order, recommendations of Technical Experts Committee and High Powered Committee but several years have passed without compliance with the court order.

TWA demands that the shipbreaking industrial activity must be taken off the Alang beach to protect these dying workers and the coastal environment. The currently practiced “beaching method” whereby obsolete ships are run aground on ocean beaches for cutting and breaking apart in the intertidal zone can never be accomplished in a manner which is environmentally sound or protective of human health. Careful analysis of the intrinsic characteristics of beaching operations are conclusive that no amount of prescriptive improvements or protections can remedy the four fatal characteristics of intertidal beaching operations:

1. First there is the impossibility of containing pollutants on a tidal beach where hulls of ships are often breached accidentally or by cutting, or toxic paints erode or are abraded sending persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals and oils onto the beach and into the seawater;

2. Second, due to a shifting and soft wet tidal sand surface, there is the impossibility of rapidly bringing emergency response equipment, including fire-fighting equipment and vehicles, ambulances and cranes alongside the ship, to assist or remove persons hurt inside the hull;

3. Third, the impossibility of allowing cranes to work alongside to lift heavy cut sections of a ship and thereby preventing heavy cut sections from being subject to gravity, shifting or falling directly into workers or into the marine environment; and

4. Finally, there is the absolute incompatibility of conducting hazardous waste management operations (which is what they are as long as ships contain hazardous wastes, in the ecologically delicate and vital coastal zone.

In view of the above, TWA demands that efforts of US Maritime Administration (US MARAD) through its Ship Disposal Policy with Indian sea coasts as one of its key destinations must be resisted.

In the aftermath of the July 6 judgment, the fate of Sierra Leone flagged ex end-of-life US ship Exxon Valdez (currently named MV Oriental N, IMO No. 8414520) and another dead and hazardous US flagged ship, “DELAWARE TRADER” (IMO No. 8008929) appears sealed. This will paves the way for Alang beach to be remedied of its contamination restored to its pristine ecological condition.

For Details: Gopal Krishna, ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA), 9818089660,

E-mail:krishna1715@gmail.com, Web:toxicswatch.blogpsot.com

Source: By Toxi Watch Alliance. 09 July 2012

http://www.countercurrents.org/twa090712.htm

US ship with toxic past gets GPCB nod:

The Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), one of the 3 government agencies with jurisdiction over the Alang Shipbreaking Yard, has said that it has no objections in allowing the controversial US ship MV Oriental N, formerly known as Exxon Valdez, to anchor off Bhavnagar for an inspection.

With the nod from the GPCB, the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) is awaiting the Customs Department’s opinion on the issue, and will thereafter take a final decision on whether to allow the ship to anchor according to government sources. The development comes two days after the Ministry of Shipping told the Supreme Court that “it is the GMB which has to take a decision as to whether the ship concerned should be allowed into the concerned port for ship breaking.”

The ministry was responding to a case filed by Delhi-based activist Gopal Krishna who asked that the Basel Convention, an international agreement ratified by India, be upheld and the dismantling of MV Oriental N not be allowed because it had not been decontaminated.

Rules framed in 2007 under the SC’s orders makes it mandatory for a consensus from all three agencies for a vessel to be allowed to anchored off Alang. These decisions are taken after a ‘desk review’, in which the ship owners submit a declaration of possible hazardous materials present on board.

In case of the Oriental N, desk review documents showed that there is no hazardous material on board the vessel in loose form, although asbestos, glasswool, ply and asbestos containing material (ACM) are present as insulating material in the ship’s engine, boiler areas and some cabins and walls. Such in-built materials are allowed by the Indian authorities as per the 2007 rules.

If the ship is allowed to be anchored, officials from the GPCB and the Customs department along with experts from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and the Explosives Department would inspect the ship to verify the desk review documents. If not hazardous waste is found in a loose form, the GMB would allow for the ship to be anchored and dismantled. The MV Oriental N attained it’s controversial status in 1989 when the ship spilled an estimated 2.5 lakh barrels of crude oil off the Alaskan coast. The 27-year-old ship changed its name at least seven times and hoisted at least four flags and is reported to have been transporting ore since September 2008.

The vessel is currently reported to be near the coast of Mumbai.

Source: Indian Express. 28 June 2012

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/us-ship-with-toxic-past-gets-gpcb-nod/967699/