Intercon Solutions, Chicago Heights, Ill., has reported that as part of its ongoing investigation into what it maintains are false accusations made by Seattle-based Basel Action Network (BAN) as to the exportation of hazardous waste to China, the true identity of the shippers of the two ocean containers has been determined. (See earlier story here.)
According to a press release issued by Cathy Pilkington, the lawyer for Intercon Solutions, the shipping documentation obtained by court order, entered July 26, 2011, establishes that the company was not the shipper of the hazardous materials, as BAN had claimed. Pilkington says CGA CGM (America) LLC, the shipping line, turned the documentation provided the documentation July 28, 2011.
“The primary reason we could not immediately produce evidence to BAN about these ocean containers is that Intercon Solutions has no relationship with CGA CGM, did not own the ocean containers, did not load them with hazardous waste and did not ship anything in them,” Pilkington says.
“We had to get a court order to obtain the documentation because Intercon Solutions is not a customer of CGA CGM,” she adds.
The petition against CGA CGM was presented in open court July 19, 2011, and was granted by the judge July 26, 2011. The shipping line complied with the order July 28, 2011.
The documentation reveals the identity of the shippers—two apparently unrelated companies that are neither freight forwarders, nor customs agents, as BAN has suggested, according to the press release. In addition to establishing that Intercon Solutions is not the shipper of either container, the release states that the shipping documentation contradicts BAN’s claims that the containers contained hazardous waste.
“From the beginning, BAN has been aware that Intercon Solutions co-leases the yard with another company, which exports all over the world, making the presence of export containers in our co-leased facility unremarkable—and innocent scenarios extremely plausible even to the untrained eye,” Pilkington says.
“While the documentation obtained demonstrates decidedly that Intercon Solutions was not the shipper, we are continuing our investigation to obtain documentation as to the inspections that occurred when these containers reached Hong Kong, whether the materials were really rejected, and if so, why,” Pilkington says.
“BAN advised us initially that the containers were returned to Los Angeles and then emptied so that verifying the contents was impossible,” she continues. “If these containers really contained hazardous waste, this makes no sense. Hazardous waste in an ocean container that is known to the government authorities and being returned to the United States for that reason does not just disappear without a trace.”
Pilkington says the company plans to complete its own investigation and prepare an evidentiary report.
The press release states that Intercon Solutions passed the audit criteria and that the reason for refusal of the e-Stewards certification was BAN’s hazardous waste shipping accusations.
“Jim Puckett, BAN’s executive director and founder, has publicly stated that if Intercon Solutions establishes that it was not the shipper, BAN would retract the two-year sanction and award the e-Stewards certification,” Pilkington says. “With this evidence, Intercon Solutions calls on BAN to retract the false accusations and award Intercon Solutions the e-Stewards certification.”