Yielding to citizen pressure, the U.S. Army has scrapped its long-standing plan to incinerate
chemical weapons at its Aberdeen, Maryland, and Newport, Indiana, facilities and agreed to fund
alternative destruction technologies for the nerve and mustard agent stored at the two facilities.

The decision comes fourteen years after the Army chose incineration as its preferred approach
and results from a decade-long campaign by community activists to change that policy. The
Army will now build plants based on chemical neutralization and bioremediation at Aberdeen and
neutralization and mineralization at Newport, as recommended by the National Research Council
panel earlier this fall. These low-temperature, low-pressure technologies meet the criteria of
the citizens groups which oppose incinerators because incineration would pump dioxins, low-
levels of chemical agents, and other dangerous material into the environment.

"There always have been better alternatives to incineration," stated John Nunn, co-chair of the
Maryland Citizens Advisory Commission on Chemical Weapons Disposal. "Now that the Army has
finally admitted what advocates and independent experts have long known to be true, it is clearly
a victory for Maryland's people and their environment."

Sara Morgan, a member of Citizens Against Incineration in Newport, echoed Nunn's sentiment.
"It's been a long struggle," said Morgan. "But it has paid off. Now we need to continue pushing
for alternatives at the remaining sites." Both Nunn and Morgan are active in the Chemical
Weapons Working Group (CWWG), a national alliance of groups from communities near
facilities who oppose the Army plans to burn its stockpile of chemical agent.

Referring to the other sites where the Army still hopes to operate incinerators, CWWG national
spokesperson Craig Williams added, "It's two down, and seven to go. This is the first step toward
a total victory for the communities which want to protect themselves from this dangerous,
expensive incineration scheme."

Facilities currently burning chemical weapons in the Pacific and in Utah are under legal
challenge by CWWG and its allies which cite agent releases and other incidents at the two sites.
Citizen groups are also contesting plans for additional incinerators in Alabama, Arkansas,
Colorado, Kentucky and Oregon. Recent revelations by two former senior officials at the Tooele,
Utah, plant confirm the incineration program's severe safety and environmental problems.

"Today marks the beginning of a movement towards appropriate solutions to this disposal
problem , " Williams concluded. "We have shown that citizens will cooperate with the Army
when safer, cleaner approaches are chosen."

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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.