for immediate release, Friday, March 7, 1997

1000s OF CRACKS IN CONCRETE PERMEATE UTAH CHEMICAL
WEAPONS INCINERATOR; WORKERS SAFETY
COMPROMISED TO SAVE MONEY

Salt Lake City--On the fifth day of a Federal Hearing, District Court Judge, Tena Campbell
heard testimony of unacceptable health and safety risks within the facility, design flaws and
received evidence concerning the impacts of low-level exposure to chemical agents in the
Gulf War. Environmentalist and veterans groups are seeking the shutdown of the nation's
first mainland chemical weapons incinerator in Tooele Utah.

Documents subpoenaed from the Utah facility show that 1000s of cracks exist in the walls,
floors and ceilings of the incinerator. Tom Kurkjy, Safety Environmental Surety Manager
at the Tooele plant, admitted today that management understood as early as 1992 that cracks
in the concrete could lead to leaks of nerve agent throughout the facility. Evidence
presented earlier in the week showed that such uncorrected problems resulted in the
shutdown of the facility when potentially contaminated liquids leaked through a concrete
floor into an electrical room below.

The personal journals of Don Smith, Program Development Coordinator, who has worked
at Tooele since 1990, obtained yesterday by the groups, contained additional entries of
serious flaws at the Plant. According to Smith, top Army and EG&G managers , the
Army's Tooele contractor, met in mid January of this year and decided not to fund the Risk
Management Program for the facility. Smith wrote,

" It is my opinion that EG&G and the Government are making a very poor
decision which will have an adverse impact on TOCDF (the incineration
facility). This is just another demonstration of cost over riding the good of
the program. It would be interesting to see how the National Research
Council would react to finding out that their direction to have a Risk
Management Program was being completely disregarded."

In addition, documents produced this morning under subpoena from the plaintiffs showed
that EG&G, admits that the Army's Risk Assessment fails to include many serious safety
hazards.

Judge Campbell will hear closing arguments on the Injunction Motion on Monday.

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