Concerns about radiation among residents have kept contaminated sludge and incineration ash piled high at sewage treatment facilities across eastern Japan with nowhere to go.
Concerns about radiation among residents have kept contaminated sludge and incineration ash piled high at sewage treatment facilities across eastern Japan with nowhere to go.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, faces demand from local governments for compensation for rising costs associated with disposing of the sludge.
In September, Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi was forced to postpone a plan to bury ash at a waste disposal site on Yokohama Port's Honmoku Pier after more than 100 people protested, citing the possibility of marine pollution.
"We did not give sufficient explanation," Hayashi said Sept. 14. "I am sorry."
The plan was announced only five days earlier. About 5,500 tons of ash is piled up at two municipal sludge recycle centers.
Residents are worried about contamination although radioactive cesium levels have fallen well below 8,000 becquerels per kilogram, a government-set standard for burying sludge and ash, by the end of August.
High levels of cesium, apparently from the Fukushima No. 1 plant, have been found in sewage sludge and incineration ash across the Kanto and Tohoku regions. Cesium levels have fallen in recent months.
As of Oct. 28, a total of 64,000 tons of sludge and ash were being stored in 14 prefectures without being processed into cement or buried at waste disposal sites, up 20,000 tons from two months earlier, according to the land ministry.
Fukushima Prefecture topped the list with 17,000 tons, followed by Miyagi and Kanagawa prefectures, both with 12,000 tons.
The Chiba prefectural government has told waste disposal sites to publish the data on the quality of water flowing out of there to win residents' understanding.
However, 13 local organizations have been collecting signatures to keep ash from being brought in, saying that the disposal sites are located close to water sources.
The Gunma prefectural government is negotiating with disposal companies in other prefectures to accept sludge and ash, but a company in Chiba Prefecture declined the request.
A Gunma prefectural government official said it is not surprising if other companies also give priority to accepting waste originating in their own prefectures.
About 5,300 tons of sludge and ash were stored in Gunma Prefecture as of Oct. 28.
Many local governments have been saddled with extraordinary costs for dealing with sludge and ash.
The Yokosuka city government in Kanagawa Prefecture has been storing ash in 10-ton shipping containers.
Six containers are being filled up each month. Even a secondhand container costs 350,000 yen ($4,500).
The city government plans to allocate 200 million yen in the fiscal 2012 budget, saying that the situation will remain unchanged the following year.
The Takasaki city government in Gunma Prefecture has earmarked 140 million yen in a supplementary budget for additional transportation costs because it has asked a cement company to accept sludge, instead of ash.
The Ibaraki prefectural government plans to seek 480 million yen in compensation from TEPCO for sludge disposal costs.
The government said in August that sewage sludge will be included in the scope of eligible compensation. On Nov. 16, TEPCO asked nine prefectural governments to submit initial compensation requests for sludge disposal costs.