Berea Citizen
June 27, 2002

Colorado city reaches helping hand in chemical weapons debate

Kathy Witt, Writer

If experience is the best teacher, Pueblo, Colo., sent Berea some "professors" to educate the community about disposing of the Bluegrass Army Depot's chemical weapons stockpile.

Tuesday night, John Klomp, chairman of Colorado's Citizen's Advisory Committee (CAC), and Irene Kornelly, Colorado CAC member, visited Berea to give advice on how to unify the community in making a decision about the stored chemical weapons.

Doug Hindman, chairman of the Kentucky CAC, was there to remind citizens his commission is getting closer to presenting to Pentagon decision makers about the fate of our stockpile. As the Pentagon finishes up with Colorado, they will begin to look at Kentucky.

"Good things happened in Colorado because of community unity and consensus," Hindman said.

Klomp began by saying they were there to share ideas about the decision making process and not to instruct Berea on what choice to make. He said while the Kentucky site was similar to Colorado's because they were both opened in 1942, the difference came in what the sites stored. Colorado only has mustard agent, while Kentucky has mustard and nerve agent.

The people of Colorado chose water neutralization with bio-treatment, which is not a choice for Kentuckv because of the difference in chemical weapons. The Community supported this, the Pentagon recommended it, but the final decision is yet to be made. Klomp said the Pueblo community demonstrated unity before the Pentagon that resulted from hard work.

Until 1998, the community was divided 4 to 4 on their two choices of a type of neutralization or incineration. Klomp said it was not until all the groups--the labor groups, the environmental groups, chamber of commerce, groups for clean air and water, and others--met together and realized they wanted similar things in the disposal.

All groups wanted the four components of safety for workers and residents, little environmental damage, and low cost. The groups were able to use CAC meetings as an open forum.

After countless meetings with technology experts and dialogue, the CAC realized everyone could present their disposal method as the best choice.

"We agreed to stop doing brain damage on which is the best on our four components and see what the community wants," Klomp said.

Klomp said the issue with incineration was the threat of litigation if it was chosen. They recommended water neutralization with bio-treatment because it did riot have the threat of lawsuits, it seemed the safest and had a lot of community backing.

Klomp also addressed the idea of accelerating the disposal in a safe, responsible way.

"Our community supports acceleration as long as it is safe and doesn't compromise the principles that would haunt us," he said.

With the issue of shipping off the secondary waste, which is the dismantled materials of the mustard agent, Klomp said since Pueblo has been good stewards of the material, he does not feel guilty wanting the economic benefit of destruction. Shipping off the secondary waste would be a 10 percent loss of the budget and a loss of 120 jobs.

Kornelly spoke about working with contractors who will bring in the disposal structure. She spoke about not wanting to have a boom and bust community with a structure being brought in only to be torn down. She said they wanted to utilize local workers in the disposal process and build on to what the workers have learned through the process.

They set a goal for the contractors to use 80 percent of the local community. As a result, contractors have brought in local offices and are sponsoring industry days. Kornelly also said it is important for the contractors to buy as much material as they can locally, like pencils, paper, toilet paper that will be used in the facility.

Kornelly also stressed communicating to the Pentagon the needs of the community. She said the CAC sent a white paper that told about the community--their economy, their industries, explained what led to their decision, and a list of the community groups that supported the decision. They sent letters of support from groups and individuals and a list of consequences that will come if a different decision is made.

"The public is a powerful influence on the Pentagon," she said. "Maybe David can win over Goliath in this situation."

Klomp said a way to get community unity is to have a change in perspective.

I have told people not to think of the army coming to destroy our chemical weapons, but they are bringing in a $1.5 billion business," he said.

He said it can be a win for everyone.