Arkansasa Democrat Gazette - - Date: 12/3/2001

Neutralize weapons in arsenal, group says

EMMETT GEORGE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

PINE BLUFF -- A coalition of incineration opponents is trying to persuade the U.S. Army to abandon its plans to burn chemical weapons at the Pine Bluff Arsenal for an experimental chemical neutralization process.

Craig Williams, national spokesman for the Berea, Ky.-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, says neutralizing weapons is faster and safer than burning them. Williams said the Army's incineration projects will take seven to 15 years to complete, compared to five to six years for neutralization. "They have only a 50 percent chance of disposing of the weapons by February 2010," Williams said last week. "Basically what that means is in 10 years you'll still have chemical warfare agent in your community."

In light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Williams said, "We need to look at this thing based on the level of risk the agent poses to the community."

The coalition's Arkansas members include Pine Bluff for Safe Disposal, Women's Action for New Directions, the Arkansas Fairness Council, the Arkansas Public Policy Panel and the Arkansas Sierra Club. The coalition advocates chemical neutralization of weapons. The process involves the low-pressure, low-temperature chemical breakdown of chemical agents.

Neutralants, such as sodium hydroxide or sodium chloride, are mixed with the agent, and the byproducts can be treated at commercially-operated biotreatment plants. Components such as rocket containers, shelling casings and fuses can be melted down and recycled. Incineration requires temperatures of 1,000 degrees to 2,700 degrees.

Randy Long, project manager for the Pine Bluff Chemical Weapons Disposal Facility, said the arsenal is on track to complete the destruction of the munitions by May 2008. The project is 74 percent complete," Long said. "The only proven technology is the one we have now."

Switching to neutralization "wouldn't speed things up, and it wouldn't be safer," Long said. Changing technology also would drive up the estimated $660 million cost of the project, he said. The incinerators are being built by the Washington Demilitarization Co. of Philadelphia.

Williams said his projections are based on a recent Department of Defense's Acquisition Board report and that of the board's own independent review committee -- the Cost Assessment Improvement Group -- which expressed "a 50 percent confidence" that destruction can be completed by 2010. In October, the Army revised its projections for disposal by 2007 to early 2008.

The Army is under a congressional mandate and an international treaty deadline to destroy the nation's entire stockpile of chemical weapons at eight sites across the county by 2007.

"I believe that the most expeditious route available is incineration," Long said. "Ultimately it [neutralization] will add costs to the overall program because you would have to add to the system we have now."

Williams, however, insists the time saved would offset the cost of "retro-fitting" the system to neutralize the agent. He estimated the cost of operating the incinerators at about $300,000 a day.

Long said if the new technology is adopted, Army officials would have to ask Congress for more funding. U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, was traveling Friday and could not be reached for comment. But Courtney Crouch, Ross' press secretary, said Ross seems satisfied that the Army is making progress. "Obviously, the Army has taken greater precautions and has stepped up security since Sept. 11," Crouch said.

Williams has written to President Bush and members of Congress, urging them to act "quickly and decisively" to adopt neutralization technology. He said he plans to meet with top Army officials before the end of the year to discuss the proposal.

The Pine Bluff facility will be the fourth incinerator plant built in the U.S. since 1996. Other incinerators were built in Tooele, Utah; Umatilla, Oregon; and Anniston, Ala. The Pine Bluff Arsenal stockpile includes 3,321,180 items or 30,600 tons of munitions. Among these are M55 rockets containing GB nerve agent and VX agent, VX-filled mines, and containers of HT-blister agent.