For Immediate Release : February 16, 1996
NORTHWEST INDIAN TRIBES CALL FOR A MORATORIUM ON
ARMY'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATION PLAN AND FOR
OREGONIANS TO "DEFEND OURSELVES."
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the
Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, representing more than 50 tribes
across the northwest, cite grave risks to the people, the resources and the
economy of Oregon.
Northwest Tribal Governments yesterday called on President Clinton, Oregon's Governor
Kitzhaber and the Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality to halt any movement
forward on the Army's plans to begin construction of a billion dollar incineration complex
at the Umatilla Army Depot in Oregon.
At a press conference held in Pendleton, Oregon less than 30 miles downwind of the
proposed incineration site, Tribal leaders accused the Army and Oregon's permit writers of
"cutting corners" on the way to disposing of Chemical Weapons. They also accused the
Army of violating the principles of environmental justice by allowing western rural America
to become "the nation's garbage dump for deadly chemical weapons." Tribal Chairman
Donald Sampson asked, "If the Army had proposed to build this facility in an urban area
such as Portland, would the state support such an action?"
Four main problems were stated as needing to be addressed before the state issues a permit:
1) The Army has not demonstrated that incineration is the safest method to dispose of these
weapons;
2) The Army's emergency response planning for a nerve gas accident at the Depot is a
failure;
3) The federal and state governments have not established a regional monitoring network
that would determine, in the real world, whether incinerator emissions are endangering
Oregonians;
4) The Army has completely failed to coordinate with the Confederated Tribes concerning
the incinerator proposal.
Citing the dismal safety record of the Army's only full scale incineration facility at Johnston
Island in the Pacific, including releases out of the stack of live nerve agent and other toxics,
the Tribal representatives said, "Such failures can have catastrophic impacts." They went
on to say, "Even if the incinerators worked perfectly, they would still release small
amounts of untreated nerve agents, and large quantities of toxic nerve gas by-products, like
dioxin, into the air we breathe."
Tribal Council member, Armand Minthorn, speaking about agricultural risks said, "No
one will buy these products if they even suspect that the five incinerators burning toxic
waste on the Umatilla Army Depot are poisoning the produce of northwestern Oregon."
Minthorn went on to say, "There is no excuse for imposing one kind of disposal on the
people of this region when there are other kinds of disposal that may work better and pose
less risk." Because the Army and the Oregon permit writers have not done their jobs in
protecting the health and lives of people, he called on northeastern Oregonians to "defend
themselves."
The incineration program is currently eleven years behind schedule, more than 600% over
budget and opposition continues to grow in communities and the Congress.
Craig Williams, spokesperson for the Chemical Weapons Working Group, an international
coalition of community groups promoting safe non-incineration disposal, said,
"The Tribal position demonstrates again the Army's blatant disregard for public health and
safety, the exclusion of citizen and sovereign government involvement in decision-
making, and the inherent problems with incineration that makes it an inappropriate method
for munitions disposal. We must stop this special-interest driven incineration program and
get on with the job in an acceptable manner."
He went on to say, " We fully agree with the points raised by the northwestern Tribes, and
we call on the President, the United States Congress, and the State authorities to
immediately adopt a national moratorium on Chemical weapons incineration."
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