Narrative:

During preflight I was handed a 'notice to captain' advising to 2.5 kgs of lithium ion batteries had been loaded in the forward cargo compartment. Knowing the possibility of thermal runaway associated with these items; I immediately referenced the hazardous goods sections of the manual which advised: only lithium batteries which are installed in the devices for which they are intended and which do not exceed 8 grams can be placed in checked baggage.' 30 minutes prior to push I contacted dispatch and asked him to investigate....he returned my call a few minutes later and said he was having problems getting an answer and would continue to investigate; 5 minutes before push I contacted dispatch again; he said he was talking to load control but still did not have a definitive answer to the legality of said cargo. I asked him to get operational control involved and I would continue to push and get back to him.we received our load closeout and started to taxi; but I was not comfortable with the discrepancy and we asked ground control if we could pull into the penalty box while we continued to sort this out. The purser then contacted me and informed me that on his cargo manifest it listed that we were carrying 97 pounds of lithium ion batteries in cargo.with operational control's concurrence I decided to return to a gate and have the cargo unloaded. Operations provided us with a gate and a crew to unload the entire forward cargo compartment (because the items were buried at the bottom/back section of the cargo hold). The items in question turned out to be: four body sized bags labeled 160 pounds of lithium ion batteries.we then continued our flight two hours behind schedule.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An alert B757 Captain questioned the loading of excessive amounts of Lithium Ion batteries in the cargo hold. After investigation the aircraft returned to the gate and the offending load removed.

Narrative: During preflight I was handed a 'Notice to Captain' advising to 2.5 KGS of Lithium Ion Batteries had been loaded in the forward cargo compartment. Knowing the possibility of thermal runaway associated with these items; I immediately referenced the hazardous goods sections of the manual which advised: Only Lithium batteries which are installed in the devices for which they are intended and which do not exceed 8 grams can be placed in checked baggage.' 30 minutes prior to push I contacted Dispatch and asked him to investigate....he returned my call a few minutes later and said he was having problems getting an answer and would continue to investigate; 5 minutes before push I contacted Dispatch again; he said he was talking to Load Control but still did not have a definitive answer to the legality of said cargo. I asked him to get Operational Control involved and I would continue to push and get back to him.We received our load closeout and started to taxi; but I was not comfortable with the discrepancy and we asked Ground Control if we could pull into the Penalty Box while we continued to sort this out. The Purser then contacted me and informed me that on his Cargo Manifest it listed that we were carrying 97 LBS of Lithium Ion Batteries in Cargo.With Operational Control's concurrence I decided to return to a gate and have the cargo unloaded. Operations provided us with a gate and a crew to unload the entire forward cargo compartment (because the items were buried at the bottom/back section of the cargo hold). The items in question turned out to be: four body sized bags labeled 160 LBS of Lithium Ion Batteries.We then continued our flight two hours behind schedule.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.