An international operation to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile at sea was described as a major environmental threat to the Mediterranean this week.  As a UN-backed plan to treat and dispose of Syria’s chemical weapons in the Mediterranean in relatively close proximity to Malta draws near, a coalition of marine science experts and environmental non-governmental groups led by the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation in Greece said on Tuesday that the plan to neutralize Syria’s chemical stockpile aboard a ship in the Mediterranean was “risky and unprecedented”.

Under Syria’s agreement with the UN Security Council, its entire chemical arsenal is to be eliminated by 30 June – a goal that is now becoming increasingly unlikely after Damascus missed a deadline this month to surrender its entire stockpile of chemical weapons.

In a process to be supervised by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and financially backed by the European Union, a hydrolysis system aboard a US cargo ship sailing in international waters between Crete and Sicily will use heated water mixed with other chemicals to neutralize the lethal agents, producing sludge similar to industrial toxic waste.

Anastasia Miliou, research director of the Archipelagos Institute, said this week that the neutralisation of chemical weapons at sea is untested and fraught with dangers to the fragile Mediterranean ecosystem and the coastlines of Malta, Crete and Italy.

“The Archipelagos Institute and numerous other experts are highly concerned about the potential hazards of such a complex destructive process,” she said. “Not only has this type of procedure never been carried out before, it is also the first time these chemicals will be used to such an extent in the highly unstable marine environment.”

The process, she added, also poses threats to marine life “due to the possible dumping of liquid waste produced during the process,” she asserted.

“It is contradictory to demand detailed environmental impact assessments and public consultations before authorizing the construction of a simple sewage treatment plant, while carrying out major operations such as dangerous chemical waste treatment, under unclear procedures, with media as the only source of information for national authorities, is considered adequate,” added Evangelos Gidarakos of the University of Crete.

The statement was signed by institutions, NGOs, citizens’ movements and environmental institutes from across the Mediterranean and Europe.

Time is of the essence, they warned, noting media reports that two ships loaded with chemical weapons are already en route to the Mediterranean site, with one in Cyprus and another in Italy.

The coalition called on the European authorities to call off the operation until a suitable land-based alternative can be found or the sea-based operation is put under the supervision of “impartial scientific experts” to ensure the safety of the marine environment.

Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos, however, recently said that the sea-based disposal poses no environmental threat, as reported by this newspaper.

“Our concerted diplomatic efforts ... have given many institutional and scientific guarantees that there is truly no threat to the marine environment,” he said. “NGOs, with which I am in contact, are in close cooperation with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons so that we can be certain that there will be no harm to the Mediterranean environment.”