The Region - News from Aug. 7, 1987

Environmental activists have not proved any hazard in a plan to burn and bury the cargo of the long-spurned garbage barge, government lawyers argued. The barge, carrying more than 3,100 tons of commercial garbage that was generated in Islip, N.Y., and New York City, traveled to Mexico and back and was turned away by six states and three countries in its search for a dumping site. A judge is expected to decide next week whether to allow the city to burn the trash in an incinerator and bury the ashes in an Islip landfill.