US embassy cable - 03ANKARA2287

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 002287 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
STATE FOR OES, EUR/SE 
 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV, TBIO, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKEY: ENVIRONMENTAL HIGHLIGHTS, MARCH 2003 
 
REF: ANKARA 1304 
 
 
(U) This is one of a series of cables providing updates on 
environmental issues in Turkey.  Below are topics covered in 
this cable: 
 
 
1.  Toxic Waste Update 
2.  Parliament Rings up "NO SALE" of Forests 
3.  First EIA Guidelines for Provinces 
4.  REC Update 
5.  Big Izmir Channel Project Gets Bigger 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
 
1.  TOXIC WASTE UPDATE 
 
 
a)  After missing their January meeting in Geneva with the 
Basel Convention Secretariat, GOT representatives reached an 
agreement with Spain and the Basel Secretariat on the 
disposition of "Ulla," the ship that departed three years 
ago from Spain and landed on Turkey's Mediterranean shores 
with a cargo of toxic fly ash. The GOS has agreed to urge 
the company that owns the ship to take it back, waste 
materials and all.  Meanwhile, the GOT is scouring its laws 
to assure that no loophole could prevent the ship from 
departing, or make Turkey liable. 
 
 
b)  A representative of the Basel Convention Secretariat 
told REO recently that the Secretariat will leave the 
disposition of the French-flagged "Sea Beirut" to Turkey and 
France to work out between them.  A Turkish company brought 
the "Sea Beirut" to shipbreaking facilities at Aliaga 
(Izmir) last year without knowing the ship contained 
hazardous substances.  The boatbreaking facilities in Aliaga 
are not up to international standards, driving Turkey to 
press for the ship's removal in lieu of its dismantlement. 
 
 
c)  GOT is preparing for the arrival of an Italian technical 
delegation that will examine some of the thousands of 
barrels of toxins that that washed ashore on Turkey's Black 
Sea early 2002.  The barrels were allegedly dumped illegally 
in the Black Sea in 1987 and remained submerged with their 
contain toxic contents until surfacing last year.  The waste 
is believed to be of Italian origin. 
 
 
2.  PARLIAMENT RINGS UP "NO SALE" ON FOREST.  In a close 
vote (366 votes received, 367 votes required) on 4/4, 
Parliament voted against approving the sale of forest land, 
even though the acreage had lost its forest characteristics 
prior to 1981 and cannot be rehabilitied or returned to 
forest condition.  Forest Minister Osman Pepe announced the 
sale on 3/19, expecting to sell off five billion m2 (500,000 
hectares), or about 2-2.5 percent of Turkey's total forest 
land, to raise $20 - 25 billion in revenue.  The sale would 
have increased the amount of forest acreage in private hands 
from .1 percent to 10 percent, drawing closer to the EU 
average of 65 percent. 
 
 
3. FIRST EIA PROVINCIAL GUIDELINES FOR ISSUED.  The Ministry 
of Environment (MOE) issued Environmental Impact Assessment 
(EIA) guidelines on 3/1 for provincial governorates in an 
effort to eliminate the widely differing review criteria 
applied from province to province. The guidelines are the 
Ministry's first effort at standardizing review criteria for 
EIAs since the EIA regulation was passed in 1993. The newly 
issued guidelines apply only to projects that are projected 
to have a low level of impact on the environment. 
 
 
4. REC TURKEY UPDATE.  MFA Environment Department Head Asli 
Oral projected that Parliament will wait until later this 
Spring to consider ratification of the Charter and Bilateral 
Agreement for the proposed Regional Environmental Center 
(REC) in Ankara.  She reiterated that the future legal 
status of the REC is still in question (international 
organization, association or special designation). 
 
 
5.  IZMIR's "BIG CHANNEL" GETS BIGGER. Izmir Metropolitan 
Municipality's "Big Channel Project" designed to reduce 
wastewater discharge into the Izmir Gulf is expanding to 
three neighboring districts outside the metropolitan 
municipality.  The expansion adds $350,000 to the cost of 
$80 million-project, which was funded entirely from city 
resources. In a press release, Mayor Ahmet Piristina said 
the project would also address the pollution dumped into 
Izmir Gulf from the Gediz River, a carrier of significant 
industrial pollution. 
 
 
PEARSON