the toxic truth - Greenpeace

108 Amnesty internAtionAl And greenpeAce netherlAnds
Chapter 9
authorities
involved in
decision-making
about the Probo
Koala and the waste
Port State Control (also known as
the Dutch Shipping Inspectorate) is
part of the Ministry of Transport, Public
Works and Water Management
Port State Control is responsible
for the inspection of foreign ships
in national ports to verify that the
condition of the ship and its equipment
comply with the requirements of
international regulations and that the
ship is staffed and operated in compliance
with these rules. 498 Port State
Control has the authority to prevent
ships from leaving a port and overall
responsibility for implementation of
International Maritime Organization
(IMO) law and regulations, including
MARPOL.
Port of Amsterdam and
Port Authority Director
The Port of Amsterdam manages,
operates and develops the Amsterdam
port by order of the Amsterdam City
Council. It is a governmental agency
that operates in a commercial context.
Department of Environment and
Buildings of the Municipality of
Amsterdam (Dienst Milieu en
Bouwtoezicht or DMB)
The Department of Environment and
Buildings is part of the Amsterdam
municipality and is responsible for
enforcement, supervision and licence
provision under Environment Management
Law.
The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning
and the Environment (Ministerie
van Volkshuisvesting, Ruimtelijke
Ordening en Milieu or VROM)
This was the Ministry responsible for
the environment in 2006. In 2010
it was merged with the Ministry of
Transport, Public Works and Water
Management into a new Ministry of
Infrastructure and the Environment.
VROM was responsible for implementation
of the Basel Convention.
The complaints about the terrible stench linked to the waste,
and Trafigura’s unusual request that the portion of waste that
was on the APS barge be reloaded, resulted in numerous
Dutch authorities becoming involved in a complex bureaucratic
process. Over 3 and 4 July, the various state agencies and
private companies involved discussed what to do with the
waste: Trafigura wanted to take it away, but some state
agencies raised queries about this. 497
The end result of many discussions was that, late in the
evening of 4 July, the Department of Environment and Buildings
of the Municipality of Amsterdam, granted permission for APS
to pump the waste back on to the Probo Koala, 499 and on 5 July
the ship departed with the waste on board. While the ship’s
next port of call was Paldiski in Estonia, it was clear that this
was not the final destination of the waste. 500
What the Dutch authorities knew
when they let the waste go
The fact that the Dutch authorities allowed the Probo Koala to
leave Amsterdam with the waste on board was a serious error.
While acknowledging that mistakes had been made, the Dutch
authorities have defended the decision by stating that they
were misinformed about the nature of the waste on board the
Probo Koala. 501 As noted above, Trafigura and the captain of the
Probo Koala had claimed that the waste was MARPOL waste,
which is waste that results from “the normal operations of a
ship”. This would include such material as water from washing
out tanks or residues from cargo the ship had transported. 502
These wastes are fairly standard, and ports have specialized
facilities to deal with them, but the waste on board the Probo
Koala was not the result of the normal operations of a ship. It
was the by-product of an industrial process, known by Trafigura
to produce hazardous waste. 503
The information provided by Trafigura and the captain of the
Probo Koala, directly and via the port agents, Bulk Maritime
Agencies (BMA), was not the only information that the
authorities had when they made the decision to let the ship
leave Amsterdam with the waste on board. The Dutch decisionmakers
– at the point of letting the Probo Koala go – also had
the following information: