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WINTER 2008 LAW advocate

Africa: Cleaning Up Polluted Places

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WINTER 2008 LAW advocate

Webuye

It is difficult to breathe in Webuye, home of East Africa’s largest pulp and paper mill. Visitors report that the air smells like rotten cabbage and “snowstorms” of foam droplets from PanAfrican Paper’s waste ponds cloud the sky and burn the skin. Corrugated iron sheets on the roofs of local homes are corroded within months.

For the first time, grassroots advocates in Webuye have scientific proof documenting the toxic substances that the city’s 80,000 residents are forced to breathe. Air samples taken by ELAW partners in September 2007 were express shipped to a certified laboratory in Simi Valley, California. The results were shocking: the hydrogen sulfide level was more than 500 times the permissible limit in California and more than 140 times the World Health Organization standard.

Scientific proof of contamination is a powerful tool. ELAW partners at the Resources Conflict

Institute (RECONCILE), based in Nakuru, Kenya, are working with a Webuye-based organization (Centre for Environment and Development Education Programmes) to empower local communities to speak out and demand a healthy living environment. Residents are calling for corporate accountability and compensation for pollution victims. They also want industry to provide more jobs and benefits to local people.

Michael Ochieng Odhiambo, Executive Director at RECONCILE, called on ELAW Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik in June 2007, seeking help for the residents of Webuye. Mark connected Michael to Global Community Monitor (GCM) and its “bucket brigade”

– an affordable air sampling technology that makes it possible for local communities to find out exactly what they are breathing.

“These are the highest levels of hydrogen sulfide that I have seen since we took our first bucket

sample in 1995,” says Denny Larson of GCM. With support from ELAW, Denny and Ruth Breech traveled to Webuye in September and trained community members to conduct the sampling exercise.

Mark also helped RECONCILE design a water sampling exercise for the Nzoia River, up and downstream from PanAfrican’s discharge site. Water samples were sent to a certified lab in Nairobi. Test results from the pulp mill effluent showed Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) levels four to six times the levels permitted by Kenyan water quality regulations.

Mark is working closely with RECONCLIE to interpret the test results and strategize on next steps. In February 2008, Michael will travel to the U.S. to work one-on-one with ELAW staff and participate in speaking engagements through the University of Oregon’s Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics.

Webuye, Kenya Community Analyzes Pulp and Paper Mill Emissions

Corrugated iron roofs on

local homes are corroded within

months.

PHOTO: Global Community Monitor (www.gcmonitor.org)

“People tell you to keep quiet, but now is the right time to speak out . . .

Our children have no future if they are born sick into this world.”

Webuye Health Worker

PHOTO: Global Community Monitor

(www.gcmonitor.org)

PanAfrican Paper MillsPHOTO: Global Community Monitor (www.gcmonitor.org)

PanAfrican Paper Mills is a joint venture between the Kenyan Government, the International Finance Corporation (the private investment arm of the World Bank), and Orient Paper Mills, part of the Birhla group from India. The mill was established in Webuye in 1974 on the banks of the Nzoia River, which drains into Lake Victoria. The team that visited the area in September said little or no pollutants are removed from the factory’s liquid waste before it enters the river, with the exception of gases and foam which blow offsite, uncontrolled.

Denny’s September trip report quotes a medical technician at the local hospital who speaks from her own experience:

“I have been directly affected by living next to Pan Paper and we have suffered for a long time. It is very difficult for common people to reach up and be heard by the leaders at Pan Paper. My husband died and it is difficult for a widow to forge ahead for the safety of the family. People tell you to keep quiet, but now it is the right time to speak out. Babies are being born with chest and breathing problems. Our children will have no future if they are born sick into this world.”

In South Africa, Mittal’s steel manufacturing plant in Vanderbijlpark is among the worst emitters of air pollution on the African continent. In 2006, Mittal submitted an environmental impact assessment (EIA) seeking to expand production at its facility by 50 percent. ELAW partners at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in Johannesburg called on ELAW for help protecting disadvantaged communities from these toxic emissions.

ELAW scientists studied the EIA and discovered that pollution at Mittal’s facility in Vanderbijlpark far exceeds pollution from facilities that Mittal owns and operates in the U.S., due to lack of pollution control equipment. LRC used ELAW’s analysis to call on the

government to approve Mittal’s expansion plans only if the company vastly improves the environmental performance of the Vanderbijlpark plant.

In December 2006, the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment agreed to allow Mittal to expand operations at its facility in Vanderbijlpark only if it committed to using the best pollution control technology for new production units and if the company agreed to substantially reduce its current emissions.

Mittal appealed the decision.In 2007, the Ministry of Environmental Affairs

upheld the decision: Mittal must substantially reduce its current emissions before expanding operations.

Mittal Steel

Mittal Steel is part of Arcelor Mittal, headquartered

in Luxembourg. Mittal produces steel products at

factories in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the West Indies,

Europe, Kazakhstan, Algeria and South Africa.

Mittal’s steel manufacturing plant in Vanderbijlpark, South

Africa, is among the worst emitters of air pollution on

the African continent.

If Mittal’s steelworks was dropped in the U.S., it would be the third worst source of particulate matter emissions

in the entire country.

If Mittal’s steelworks was dropped in the State of

California, it would be the single worst source of sulfur

dioxide emissions in the entire state.

Vanderbijlpark, South Africa Steelworks must improve pollution control

4

WINTER 2008 LAW advocate

Africa: Cleaning Up Polluted Places

5

WINTER 2008 LAW advocate

Webuye

It is difficult to breathe in Webuye, home of East Africa’s largest pulp and paper mill. Visitors report that the air smells like rotten cabbage and “snowstorms” of foam droplets from PanAfrican Paper’s waste ponds cloud the sky and burn the skin. Corrugated iron sheets on the roofs of local homes are corroded within months.

For the first time, grassroots advocates in Webuye have scientific proof documenting the toxic substances that the city’s 80,000 residents are forced to breathe. Air samples taken by ELAW partners in September 2007 were express shipped to a certified laboratory in Simi Valley, California. The results were shocking: the hydrogen sulfide level was more than 500 times the permissible limit in California and more than 140 times the World Health Organization standard.

Scientific proof of contamination is a powerful tool. ELAW partners at the Resources Conflict

Institute (RECONCILE), based in Nakuru, Kenya, are working with a Webuye-based organization (Centre for Environment and Development Education Programmes) to empower local communities to speak out and demand a healthy living environment. Residents are calling for corporate accountability and compensation for pollution victims. They also want industry to provide more jobs and benefits to local people.

Michael Ochieng Odhiambo, Executive Director at RECONCILE, called on ELAW Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik in June 2007, seeking help for the residents of Webuye. Mark connected Michael to Global Community Monitor (GCM) and its “bucket brigade”

– an affordable air sampling technology that makes it possible for local communities to find out exactly what they are breathing.

“These are the highest levels of hydrogen sulfide that I have seen since we took our first bucket

sample in 1995,” says Denny Larson of GCM. With support from ELAW, Denny and Ruth Breech traveled to Webuye in September and trained community members to conduct the sampling exercise.

Mark also helped RECONCILE design a water sampling exercise for the Nzoia River, up and downstream from PanAfrican’s discharge site. Water samples were sent to a certified lab in Nairobi. Test results from the pulp mill effluent showed Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) levels four to six times the levels permitted by Kenyan water quality regulations.

Mark is working closely with RECONCLIE to interpret the test results and strategize on next steps. In February 2008, Michael will travel to the U.S. to work one-on-one with ELAW staff and participate in speaking engagements through the University of Oregon’s Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics.

Webuye, Kenya Community Analyzes Pulp and Paper Mill Emissions

Corrugated iron roofs on

local homes are corroded within

months.

PHOTO: Global Community Monitor (www.gcmonitor.org)

“People tell you to keep quiet, but now is the right time to speak out . . .

Our children have no future if they are born sick into this world.”

Webuye Health Worker

PHOTO: Global Community Monitor

(www.gcmonitor.org)

PanAfrican Paper MillsPHOTO: Global Community Monitor (www.gcmonitor.org)

PanAfrican Paper Mills is a joint venture between the Kenyan Government, the International Finance Corporation (the private investment arm of the World Bank), and Orient Paper Mills, part of the Birhla group from India. The mill was established in Webuye in 1974 on the banks of the Nzoia River, which drains into Lake Victoria. The team that visited the area in September said little or no pollutants are removed from the factory’s liquid waste before it enters the river, with the exception of gases and foam which blow offsite, uncontrolled.

Denny’s September trip report quotes a medical technician at the local hospital who speaks from her own experience:

“I have been directly affected by living next to Pan Paper and we have suffered for a long time. It is very difficult for common people to reach up and be heard by the leaders at Pan Paper. My husband died and it is difficult for a widow to forge ahead for the safety of the family. People tell you to keep quiet, but now it is the right time to speak out. Babies are being born with chest and breathing problems. Our children will have no future if they are born sick into this world.”

In South Africa, Mittal’s steel manufacturing plant in Vanderbijlpark is among the worst emitters of air pollution on the African continent. In 2006, Mittal submitted an environmental impact assessment (EIA) seeking to expand production at its facility by 50 percent. ELAW partners at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) in Johannesburg called on ELAW for help protecting disadvantaged communities from these toxic emissions.

ELAW scientists studied the EIA and discovered that pollution at Mittal’s facility in Vanderbijlpark far exceeds pollution from facilities that Mittal owns and operates in the U.S., due to lack of pollution control equipment. LRC used ELAW’s analysis to call on the

government to approve Mittal’s expansion plans only if the company vastly improves the environmental performance of the Vanderbijlpark plant.

In December 2006, the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment agreed to allow Mittal to expand operations at its facility in Vanderbijlpark only if it committed to using the best pollution control technology for new production units and if the company agreed to substantially reduce its current emissions.

Mittal appealed the decision.In 2007, the Ministry of Environmental Affairs

upheld the decision: Mittal must substantially reduce its current emissions before expanding operations.

Mittal Steel

Mittal Steel is part of Arcelor Mittal, headquartered

in Luxembourg. Mittal produces steel products at

factories in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the West Indies,

Europe, Kazakhstan, Algeria and South Africa.

Mittal’s steel manufacturing plant in Vanderbijlpark, South

Africa, is among the worst emitters of air pollution on

the African continent.

If Mittal’s steelworks was dropped in the U.S., it would be the third worst source of particulate matter emissions

in the entire country.

If Mittal’s steelworks was dropped in the State of

California, it would be the single worst source of sulfur

dioxide emissions in the entire state.

Vanderbijlpark, South Africa Steelworks must improve pollution control