for immediate release: Thursday, October 31, 1996

INCINERATION FOES ENDORSE ALTERNATIVE CHEMICAL
WEAPONS DESTRUCTION AT ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND;
ACTIVISTS SAY, 'NIMBY' LABEL WAS ALWAYS FALSE

Opponents of Pentagon plans to incinerate the nation's chemical
weapons stockpile today endorsed an alternative approach for
eliminating mustard agents stored at the Army's Aberdeen Proving
Ground, Maryland facility.

In a resolution unanimously adopted by members of the Chemical
Weapons Working Group (CWWG), leaders of community organizations
near all U.S. stockpile sites supported the use of chemical neutralization
followed by on-site biological treatment to destroy mustard agents stored
in bulk containers at Aberdeen. Citizens' long-standing demands for
non-incineration technologies were advanced recently by
recommendations to the Pentagon for neutralization at Aberdeen by the
National Research Council, the Army Material Systems Analysis Activity
and the Army Core Evaluation Team on Chemical Weapons Disposal.

"Those who have labeled incineration opponents NIMBY's (Not In My
Back Yard) were always wrong," explained CWWG spokesperson Craig
Williams. "We have always made clear that we support destroying
chemical warfare material at the facilities where they are stored if the
technology is safe in protecting human health and the environment.
Our support of this alternative approach shows what can be
accomplished when citizens are directly involved in decision-making. If
the Army seriously considered incineration alternatives at the other
facilities, similar progress could be made to eliminate the stockpile
nationwide."

The complete CWWG resolution reads:

"With unanimous support of its members in communities near the
Aberdeen Proving Ground, and in keeping with the principles expressed
in the International Citizens' Accords on Chemical Weapons Disposal,
approved by the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) at its initial
meeting in 1991, opposing incineration at any stockpile site, the CWWG
and its members in all of the chemical weapons stockpile communities
unanimously support the use of chemical neutralization, followed by on-
site biological treatment of the residual hydrolysate, for destruction of
the mustard agents currently in bulk containers at Aberdeen Proving
Ground, Maryland."

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