Troubled Toyosu market faces more testing as groundwater contamination spreads

[yuiyoshida]

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been forced to conduct another survey of the Toyosu wholesale market site that is due to replace the capital's Tsukiji market, after levels of toxic chemicals far exceeding environmental standards were recently detected in groundwater at the site.

The cost of compensating businesses that were due to move to the new market is rising as a result of the delayed relocation, and Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike now faces a tough decision of whether or not to go ahead with the relocation.

In the ninth and most recent round of testing, provisional levels of benzene 79 times the government-set limit were found in groundwater. A panel of experts that was set up has yet to identify the cause of the contamination.

"We're perplexed over how to evaluate this," a panel member said in a meeting on Jan. 14. Panel chairman Tatemasa Hirata, head of the Open University of Japan's Wakayama study center, similarly stated, "We're unable to draw a clear conclusion." The panel is poised to become involved in the first round of renewed testing in the near future.

Toxic chemicals exceeding standards were found for the first time during the eighth round of checks last year, in the Toyosu site's Block 5, where the fruit and vegetable section is scheduled to be opened. In the latest round of testing, high concentrations of benzene and arsenic were detected in the Block 5 area and the contamination spread to 72 testing spots in all blocks.

http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170116/p2a/00m/0na/009000c