ALBANIA: BUILDING A HAZWASTE FACILITY SHOULD BE A

C O N F I D E N T I A L TIRANA 000406 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DOD FOR OSD WPOPOVICH; DEPT FOR EUR/SCE EKOTTHEIMER E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/28/2018 TAGS: SENV CWC PARM MASS AL SUBJECT: ALBANIA: BUILDING A HAZWASTE FACILITY SHOULD BE A HIGHER PRIORITY REF: A) 07 TIRANA 805 B) 07 TIRANA 942 Classified By: DCM S.A. Cristina, reasons 1.4 (b),(d) Summary -------------- ¶1. (U) This is an action request. Please see Paragraph 10. ¶2. (C) Leaking containers of hazardous waste left behind by U.S. contractors after a successful chemical agent elimination program have again sparked MOD,s interest for help in building a hazardous waste storage facility. According to LtC Fadil Vucaj, the MOD chemist who was the primary contact for the chemical agent program, Albania possesses dozens of dangerous chemical "hotspots," many on military bases, which must be cleaned up. In addition, the Gerdec explosion scattered toxic chemicals over a wide area. Once the unexploded ordnance is cleared from Gerdec, contaminated soil will have to be removed. Although environmental cleanup is a low priority on most donors' lists, the pressure to clean up these sites will increase as Albania approaches EU membership. The GOA is still awaiting a response to its request for U.S. assistance to build a facility to store the hazardous waste generated from the chemical agent elimination program. End Summary. Aftermath of Chemical Agent Destruction - Hazardous Waste -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) When Albania became the first country in July 2007 to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile, there was little concern about the thirty containers of hazardous waste that were generated in the process. The GOA had originally agreed to take responsibility for the waste. However, implementing agency DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency) subsequently agreed to package the waste in double-leakproof containers which would hold it securely for 20 years at the Qafe Molle facility. This would permit plenty of time to build a hazardous waste facility to dispose of the waste. DTRA ran out of money before completing the job and left several additional containers of waste for the Albanians to handle. (Note: In a white paper given to then-Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu by OSD Director for Counternarcotics, Counterproliferation and Global Threats Policy Kenneth Handelman on September 1, 2007, DTRA agreed to cut up and package equipment it had originally planned to remove from the country (ref A)). DTRA also committed itself to package all the leftover waste from the project and claimed its safe storage life would be 20 years, as stated in its Environmental Impact Assessment and its Detailed Facility Information document. Mediu agreed to take the additional waste, but asked for USG help to build a hazardous waste facility to store it permanently (ref B). Leaks -------------- ¶4. (C) Although DTRA planned to decommission the facility and turn it back over to the GOA in the fall of 2007, tests revealed evidence of heavy metal contamination of the concrete pad on which the facility was built. DTRA brought in Savant Environmental, a UK remediation specialist, who determined that the problem was worse than originally thought. Many of the containers were leaking salts of heavy metals, primarily arsenic, lead and mercury. In addition, the conexes were not waterproof, and since contaminated components had not been properly cleaned before being put into the conexes, condensation and water leakage were dissolving some of the contaminants and causing them to leak out onto the ground. ¶5. (C) The Savant specialists returned in early spring of this year and anticipate solving the leakage problems by the end of May. The heavy metal salts had been put into steel drums, which began corroding almost immediately. Savant is transferring the salts to large plastic containers which will not corrode and will then place those containers inside conexes. They will also clean pieces of contaminated processing equipment and will store the contaminated material in plastic containers as well. (Note: Please see Albania's classified Intellipedia website for photos of the conexes.) Need For Long-Term Storage -------------- ¶6. (C) The Savant specialists estimate that DTRA,s plastic containers were only good for five to ten years of containment, not twenty as had been claimed. And while Qafe Molle is in a secluded area on the side of a mountain surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by military sentinels, there remains the possibility that a natural disaster, such as an earthquake or forest fire, could release hazardous waste. ¶7. (SBU) The waste at Qafe Molle is but a small fraction of hazardous waste in various hotspots throughout the country, mostly on military bases. As people build homes closer to military bases, and in some cases, encroach onto the bases themselves, many would not understand the dangers they would face. Additional dangers exist from industrial and hospital wastes which are not properly disposed of and are scattered across the country. ¶8. (SBU) Then there's Gerdec: the March 15 explosion scattered toxic chemicals over many hectares. The central area, which has seven large craters, shows evidence of contamination from many dangerous chemical components of the explosives and propellants at the site. After the unexploded ordnance is cleared from the surface, contaminated dirt covering subsurface ordnance will have to be hauled to a hazardous waste landfill. Comment -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Awareness of the risks of hazardous materials is low among the Albanians, and Government attention and resources are focused on more immediate, more visible infrastructure needs. It is unlikely that the GOA has the political will, the expertise, or the wherewithal to undertake construction of a safe hazardous waste site on its own. The European Commission tried to build such a facility several years ago under the CARDS program, but local residents of the area the EC had chosen blocked the project. Currently there appears to be little other donor interest in funding such a project and little initiative from the GOA to seek such assistance. ¶10. (SBU) ACTION REQUEST: We will urge the GOA to take the initiative in developing and seeking international assistance for construction of a hazardous waste storage facility. It would be useful to have guidance on what kind of assistance the U.S. government might be able to provide the GOA in response to former Minister Mediu,s request. WITHERS