(The following is excerpted from the September 1997 issue of "Common Sense", the newsletter of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, published by the Kentucky Environmental Foundation.)

The former Chief of Hazardous Waste Operations at the Tooele, Utah chemical weapons incinerator, came forward on June 25 identifying serious problems with the facility. Since 1993 Allen conducted oversight of plant waste management as Environmental Compliance Inspector before being selected as Chief of Hazardous Waste Operations. Allen says she was ordered to sign-off on a readiness check-list before operations at the incinerator began, despite having presented deficiencies in hazardous waste management operating procedures, training, staffing, hazardous waste sampling and analytical procedures, and tracking of waste and munitions. Allen says she okayed the checklist to protect her job even though the plant was not in compliance with hazardous waste standards. Shortly after being forced to resign, she filed a complaint with the Department of Labor (DoL) against EG&G Defense Materials Inc., the contractor at the Tooele plant.

On September 9, the DoL determined that EG&G had violated federal law by discriminating against Allen, and found that Allen's complaint was "timely and considered meritorious." In the letter notifying EG&G of the finding, the DoL investigator wrote "[EG&G] shall cease and desist from retaliating against [Allen] and/or any existing employees who may be requested to participate in proceedings under or relating to the Act, and to pay [Allen] damages in the amount of $5,000."

Through her complaint, Allen made public portions of 4,000 pages of documents showing environmental, health and safety problems at the incinerator, including:

• a January 1997 leak of between 1000 and 2000 gallons of hazardous waste which led to a release of toxic material into the environment. Incinerator contractor EG&G reports on this incident failed to disclose that this spill resulted in toxic material being released via a ditch into the surrounding environment. Contaminated waste was also snow-plowed against the fence and left to leach into the ground. Untrained personnel, including a pregnant worker, were left to deal with the spill;

• the possible illegal burning of the chemical agent Lewisite, for which the incinerator is not licensed and for which no monitoring system is in place to protect workers or the public;

• failure to adequately test hazardous waste derived from chemical weapons incinerator for agent contamination before shipping the waste off-site;

• improprieties in hazardous waste tracking, testing and disposal;

• inadequate staffing and training of hazardous waste workers.

CWWG Home Page

Contact us: Chemical Weapons Working Group Kentucky Environmental Foundation P.O. Box 467 Berea, KY 40403 phone: 859-986-7565 fax: 859-986-2695 For comments about this WWW page contact Lois Kleffman.