for immediate release, Thursday, March 6 1997

PLANT SAFETY COORDINATOR TELLS FEDERAL COURT TOOELE
PLANT MANAGERS HAVE BEEN "SIGNIFICANTLY BENDING,
PERHAPS BREAKING, THE RULES"

Salt Lake City--The Tooele, Utah chemical weapons incinerator employee responsible
for writing the controversial facility's plan to assure safety and compliance today testified
in Federal Court regarding significant problems concerning operations and safety culture at
the plant.

Don Smith, Program Development Coordinator, who has worked at Tooele since 1990,
produced a detailed, personal work diary in which he had recorded his observations and
concerns about many previously unreported incidents at the facility.

When the incinerator was forced to close due to a nerve agent leak shortly after beginning
agent operations last August, for example, Smith reported that there was tremendous
pressure by the Army on the contractor to resume work, no matter what the risk. Noting
that a government manager had announced, "The longer TOCDF (Tooele Chemical
Disposal Facility) remains shut down, the greater the chance the opponents will keep us
shut down," Smith's journal for August 29, 1996 concludes, "To allow TOCDF to restart
agent operations, they are significantly bending, perhaps breaking the rules. It is a very
dangerous position to be found in, restarting at the sacrifice of safety, quality and the
environment."

At about the same time, Smith observed, "EG&G (the Tooele plant contractor) remains in
crisis mode. I don't have any hope of improvement if we continue with the current
leadership." Smith says he wrote a memo to senior plant mangers stating some of his
concerns.

Smith's diary also disclosed that the plant's liquid nerve agent incinerator has leaked seven
times, problems which have not been previously made public, and that cracks in concrete
floors and walls date back to 1990. Smith says he reported concerns about the quality of
construction material, including missing concrete reinforcing rods, at the time concrete
was being poured.

Lawyers for the environmental and veterans groups, who are seeking to shut down the
only incinerator on the U.S. mainland burning chemical weapons, had subpoenaed Smith
and his documents.

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Excerpts from Smith's journal are available from the CWWG.

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