Japan Ministry lauds Okayama Prefecture's move to dump waste facility

[John Visher <visherjc@crisscross.com>]

http://www.asahi.com/english/enews/enews.html#enews_22829

June 10, 1999

Ministry lauds Okayama Prefecture's move to dump waste facility

Asahi Shimbun

The Health and Welfare Ministry rejected an appeal by a business group
calling for a reversal of an Okayama prefectural government decision not
to approve an
industrial waste disposal facility construction plan in Yoshinaga,
ministry officials said Wednesday.

The ministry concluded the planned facility does not satisfy the
technical requirements outlined in the Wastes Disposal and Public
Cleaning Law, officials said.

The law stipulates that prefectural governments approve waste disposal
facilities' plans only if they meet technical requirements and offer
sufficient ways to prevent
disasters.

The ministry backed the governor's decision, saying technical defects in
the facilities proposal would result in an overflow of polluted waste
dump water should heavy
rain hit the area, according to the ministry's ruling.

The semi-public company, financed by neighboring Osafune and other
entities, had asked the ministry for a second opinion on the matter.

Governor Masahiro Ishii rejected the construction plan on May 20, 1998,
because of insufficient disaster-preparedness measures that could
threaten area tap water
safety.

Masao Nii, chief of the ministry's Office of Industrial Waste
Management, said waste disposal facilities should have a purification
capacity to handle heavy rainfall
that occurs in the area about every 10 years.

He said the ministry made the decision after examining the technical
standards. Nii did not accept that a referendum that showed strong
opposition among local
residents had any influence in the decision.

"Approval of a waste facility should be decided based on the law," he
pointed out.

In a February 1998 referendum over the waste facility plan, about 90
percent of eligible Yoshinaga voters were against the idea.

According to construction blueprints, the 70,000-square-meter dumping
site has a capacity of burying about 1.4 million cubic meters of
industrial wastes such as ash
and sludge.

Rainwater falling at the site is to be collected at a nearby pond and
chemically purified. The reservoir can hold up to 4,000 cubic meters of
water.

But the ministry found that the amount of rainfall exceeded the proposed
facility's purification capacity in 16 of the past 45 years, officials
said.

The president of the semi-public company said it is considering to apply
again after design modifications are done to upgrade rainwater holding
capacity.

The ministry's decision to focus on technical issues should prompt other
prefectural government leaders to examine more closely whether planned
waste disposal
sites meet legal technical standards.