Notable case, Teshima (Tonoshō), Kagawa, Japan
Teshima (illegal industrial waste dump)
豊島（産業廃棄物不法投棄）
On an island in the Seto Inland Sea a company licensed to handle sludge and organic scraps piled up and burned in the open, for fifteen years, industrial waste shipped in from the cities. It is regarded as Japan's largest case of illegal dumping: taking it all away meant excavating 913,000 tonnes over nearly twenty years.
Contaminants
Mixtures and waste
Status
Contained
Removal of waste and contaminated soil, 913,000 tonnes in all, was completed in 2019. Leachate remained: the water treatment plant was due to shut down in March 2023, with monitoring to follow (Japanese-language Wikipedia). By March 2021 spending exceeded 80 billion yen against the 49 billion forecast (Zenbird).
Story
Teshima is a farming island of about a thousand people in Kagawa Prefecture. From 1975 Teshima Sōgō Kankō Kaihatsu ran a facility there licensed to take paper and food sludge, wood chips and manure. In fact it received copper refining slag, waste oil, acids, organic solvents and automobile shredder residue, part of which was burned in the open.
Residents protested for years without getting the prefecture to act. The activity ended only in 1990, with an investigation by the Hyōgo prefectural police. Mercury, lead and cadmium were found in the waste and soil. The islanders began environmental mediation proceedings against Kagawa Prefecture, concluded in June 2000: the prefecture acknowledged its responsibility and undertook to remove the waste at public expense.
The waste and contaminated soil were dug out and shipped off the island; the last load left in 2019. In the meantime Teshima, a venue of the Setouchi Triennale since 2010, has become an "art island": residents have added reforestation and educational visits to the clean-up.
Timeline
- 1975Illegal dumping of industrial waste begins.
- 1990A Hyōgo police investigation ends the activity and the open burning.
- 2000June: mediation settlement between residents and Kagawa Prefecture.
- 2019Removal of 913,000 tonnes of waste and contaminated soil is completed.
- 2023March: planned end of operation of the water treatment plant.
Remediation
- 2019excavationExcavation and shipment off the island of about 913,000 tonnes of waste and contaminated soil, at public expense; work completed in 2019 (the start date is not in the sources read).
- —pump and treatTreatment of leachate and groundwater, with the plant due to close in March 2023 and monitoring afterwards.
From the literature
Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.
Plants
- Cannabis sativaIndustrial hempEvidence: field
- Eichhornia crassipesWater hyacinthEvidence: field
- Ricinus communisCastor beanEvidence: field
- Robinia pseudoacaciaBlack locustEvidence: field
- Agrostis capillarisCommon bentEvidence: field
- Arabidopsis halleriHaller's rockcressEvidence: field
Fungi
- Paxillus involutusBrown roll-rimEvidence: greenhouse
- Agaricus bisporusButton mushroomEvidence: laboratory
- Aspergillus nigerBlack mouldEvidence: laboratory
- Mucor circinelloidesEvidence: laboratory
- Cunninghamella elegansEvidence: laboratory
- Oidiodendron maiusEvidence: laboratory
The rest are on the contaminant pages.
Nearby
Sources
- 豊島 (香川県), Wikipedia (ja), 2026
- Ong R. Teshima Incident: the residents who took nature back from greed, Zenbird, 2022
- Teshima (coordinates, area and population), Wikipedia, 2026
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.