Daily Environment Report

Friday September 1, 2006

Hazardous Waste

Army Should Look at Incineration Alternative For Elimination of Mustard Gas, Group Says

Given recent discoveries of mercury in stockpiles of mustard agent, along with other factors that could make incineration difficult, the U.S. Army should consider using a neutralization process to destroy the chemical weapon, a group opposed to incineration said Aug. 31.

The Chemical Weapons Working Group released a feasibility assessment that found that retrofitting neutralization equipment into existing chemical weapons incinerators was feasible, as was building stand-alone neutralization sites.

The working group is seeking to ’Äúcompel the Army to perform what we would consider due diligence on the questions raised in our report,’Äù said Craig Williams, director of the Kentucky-based organization.

Williams said some scenarios outlined in the report, which was compiled by a professional engineer, made more sense than others, although the study had to be done without information on costs, schedules, and current processing rates that the Army would not release.

Currently four chemical weapons facilities in Oregon, Arkansas, Utah, and Alabama, are planning to incinerate stockpiles of mustard gas. In total, the four sites have more than 10,000 tons awaiting incineration. Most sites are currently destroying nerve agents and may not begin incinerating mustard agent for several more years.

The only site incinerating mustard agent is Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Utah, where the Army has recently done a preliminary burn, according to Williams.

The Army uses neutralization at some sites already, and the group wants the military to consider it for all sites.

EPA Rule at Issue.

Another factor the group cited as a reason why the Army should reconsider its plans for incineration is a finding that mustard agent is solidifying at higher-than-expected levels, and the Army's process is designed to incinerate liquid mustard agent.

Also, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Aug. 24 that it is reconsidering emissions standards for new and existing hazardous waste combustors. The standards are based on maximum achievable control technology (MACT) and are designed to reduce emissions of a variety of hazardous air pollutants, including lead, mercury, arsenic, dioxin and furans (165 DEN A-1, 08/25/06).

The Army should be looking at contingency plans for an alternative to incinerating mustard agent because changes to the MACT rule "could lead to an impossible level for these incinerators to meet" and more delays for the project, Williams said.

The Army announced in May that it would not meet a 2012 deadline under the Chemical Weapons Convention for destroying the nation's chemical weapons and cited several factors for the delays. They include problems in obtaining environmental permits, lower-than-estimated destruction rates, start-up delays, and deteriorating munitions that complicated handling and destruction.

Army Disagrees with Group.

The Army acknowledged that mercury has recently been found in an unknown amount of mustard agent at the site in Utah.

While mercury is a problem in air emissions, "we're doing everything we can to prevent it from going out the stack," said Greg Mahall, a spokesman for the Army's Chemical Materials Agency.

At the Utah facility where the mustard gas was found to contain mercury, the Army is sampling every container and will segregate those containers that contain more mercury than allowed under the state standard for incineration.

Also, solidified mustard agent has shown up in a higher percentage of containers than was expected and will have to be burned in a manner different from the process for liquid mustard agent.

However, the Army's chemical weapons program has safely destroyed 39 percent of the weapons tonnage, Mahall said. "Why stop a successful process?" he said.

The working group's feasibility assessment was simply its annual call for a switch to use of the neutralization process, Mahall said.

Army Has Used Neutralization.

Since 1985, the Army has more experience with neutralizing mustard gas than with burning it, according to the advocacy group. Between April 2003 and March 2005, the Army used a water-based batch neutralization process to destroy more than 1,800 containers of mustard agent at their Aberdeen, Md., site but has only incinerated 67 containers at a facility in the Pacific.

Lessons learned from the use of the neutralization process were not made available to the working group, Williams said.

The Army is currently using the neutralization process for other chemical weapons at sites in Colorado, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Though the Army has released information sparingly to the working group, officials have not been interested in discussing incinerator alternatives with the groups, said Williams.

If the Army does not choose to look at alternatives, "we will continue to work on the political level," he said.

The working group and citizen groups near the sites will go to Congress "to muster the political clout to direct [the Army] to do a thorough analysis," Williams said.

By Joyce Hedges