OSAKA -- A 28-month dispute over the nation's worst case of dioxin pollution ended Friday as residents of Nose, Osaka Prefecture, and the builders of the incinerator responsible for the contamination accepted a mediation plan by the prefecture's pollution examination committee.
According to the mediation proposal, the incinerator maker, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., and the subsidiary that maintained the plant will pay a total of 750 million yen, mainly for the cost of scrapping the incinerator and removing the contaminated soil in and around it.
The municipal governments of Nose and Toyono, which jointly operated the incinerator, meanwhile, will be required to dispose of the contaminated soil and other polluted materials by December 2006. They must also carry out environmental testing and health checks for local residents for 20 years.