Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 25, 1991 TAG: 9102250362
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It's been apparent, by the number and the range of places he's tried to ship waste to, that he's placed his concern for personal profit above the concerns for human health," Jim Vallette, director of the Greenpeace Campaign Against Waste Trade in Washington.
But Greenpeace and Environmental Protection Agency officials said they had no evidence that Gresham's waste-disposal company, Applied Technology Inc., had ever succeeded in exporting any waste. Applied Technology has not been charged with violating any environmental rules, they said.
Greenpeace found that Gresham and associates tried to set up toxic-waste incinerators in Morocco, the Sudan, China, and Papua New Guinea, an island nation near Australia. Some of those countries have banned waste imports.
In one instance, Gresham's company sought to export soil contaminated with dioxin, a highly toxic chemical that is linked to cancer and other health problems in humans, Greenpeace said.
Gresham's attorney, Joshua R. Treem of Baltimore, declined to comment on the Greenpeace allegations.
Gresham, 57, and two Arizona men have been charged with conspiring to blow up two chemical storage tanks in Norfolk on Feb. 4. Authorities said the men hoped to profit from an insurance policy on chemicals that Gresham's company had stored at the plant.
Prosecutors are scheduled to present evidence against Gresham, a former University of Baltimore vice president, in federal court in Baltimore on Tuesday. Unless he pleads guilty or the case is dismissed, Gresham will be tried in Norfolk.
Cecil H. Ross, 31, of Glendale, Ariz., and Joseph W. Openshaw, 36, of St. Johns, Ariz., will face charges in Norfolk in the alleged bomb plot.
Vallette said Greenpeace first learned about Applied Technology from an associate of Gresham's in June 1988. The informant said Gresham intended to ship hazardous waste to Fortaleza, Brazil, but Greenpeace could not find records that he had succeeded.
Vallette declined to identify the informant.
Federal records also show that Applied Technology worked in 1987 with the New York firm Envirosure Management Corp., trying to get permission to ship dioxin-contaminated soil from the Love Canal toxic waste dump in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Applied Technology planned to ship the waste, which cleanup crews had collected over the years to Morocco and Sudan. But the company never executed the plan, said Norman H. Nosenchuck, former director of New York's Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste.
by CNB