Chemical Weapons Working Group
P.O. Box 467; Berea, KY 40403
606-986-0868

Carol Browner, Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20460

December 15, 1997

Dear Carol Browner:

We write in support of the citizens of Calhoun County, Alabama in their environmental justice complaint against the chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston. The proposed facility will be an unnecessary health and safety hazard for people of color and low income in a community with a long history of environmental abuse. There are safer disposal technologies available. We ask that you fulfill President Clinton's Executive Order on Environmental Justice by requiring Alabama regulators to implement safer technologies.

Citizens of Anniston and surrounding communities have already suffered more than their share of toxic pollution. The Army's toxic release inventory ranks the Anniston Army Depot second in the nation for emitting over 581, 000 pounds of toxic chemicals in 1994 alone. The African-American communities of Cobbtown and Sweet Valley have sued Monsanto for PCB-poisoning. Their toxic neighborhoods were bulldozed in l997. The residents who were evacuated have high levels of PCBs in their blood. Additional PCBs, along with nerve agent, dioxin, heavy metals and other unknown and unanalyzed chemicals, will be emitted from the smokestacks of the proposed incinerator.

There has been no assessment of the impact of releasing these additional chemicals on the health of those who have already been exposed to toxic chemicals. Nor has there been an assessment of the increased burden on people of low income who may not have access to adequate health care and nutrition or who may work in toxic environments. Moreover, no adequate assessment of the impact of chemical emissions has been done for the most vulnerable population of all--the infants and children in Anniston.

If there were to be an accident at the proposed Anniston chemical weapons incinerator, African-American and low-income populations who live closest to the depot would suffer the most. Emergency preparedness plans do not provide full protection if an incinerator accident involving nerve agent were to occur. There are safer disposal technologies available! The Army has abandoned chemical weapons incineration plans in Maryland and Indiana in favor of safer technologies. Last year, President Clinton vowed to make alternative technologies the "highest priority" in the chemical weapon disposal program and Congress placed a moratorium on incineration in Kentucky and Colorado until safer technologies can be considered. Unfortunately, as alternatives move forward, so does a pattern of discrimination.

We ask that you intervene to ensure that alternative technologies are equally available to all communities regardless of race, income, or national origin.

Sincerely,

Elsie Boateng
Jacksonville, AL

Jacqueline Garad
Anniston, AL

Serving Alabama's Future Environment (SAFE)
Nikki and David Christian
Bob and Judy Lawrence
Tom and Nancy Lutchendorf
Suzanne Marshall
Anniston, AL

Alabama Sierra Club
Peggy Griffin
Birmingham, AL

Chemical Weapons Working Group
Melissa Tuckey
Berea, KY

Cassandra Roberts
Sweet Valley/Cobbtown Environmental Justice Task Force
Anniston, AL

Michael Marvinny
Burnbusters
Jacksonville, AL

Rufus Kinney
Jacksonville, AL

Vikki Tolbert
Families Against Nerve Gas Incineration
Anniston, AL

Don Patterson
Anniston, AL

Conner Bailey
Auburn, AL

Kerstin Gearheart
Alabama Environmental Council
Birmingham, AL

Daisy Carter
Project Awake
Coatopa, AL

Cleo Askew
Espes, AL

Jean Luse
Martha Val
Betty Ann Wilson
Charles Wilson
Wayne Bosworth
Cynthia Edwards
Bobby Grimes
Carol Watson
Acmar Moody Environmental Justice Society
Moody, AL

Gwendolyn Griffin
Tuscaloosa, AL

Kay Kiker,
WE CAN
York, AL

Pam K. Miller
Alaska Community Action on Toxics
Anchorage, AK

Libby Hill
Arkansas Public Policy Panel
Little Rock, AR

Brainard Bivens
Evelyn Yates
Pine Bluff for Safe Disposal
Pine Bluff, AR

John Monroe
Presbyterians for Restoring Creation
Phoenix, AZ

Lyle Talbott
Desert Citizens Against Pollution
Lancaster, CA

Edith T. Eddy
Palo Alto, CA

Jane Williams
California Communities Against Toxics
Rosamond, CA

Dan Fahey
San Francisco, CA

Lenny Siegel, Director
Pacific Studies Center
San Francisco, CA

Robert Ukeiley, Esq.
Boulder, CO

Rick Warner
Worldworks I
Broomfield, CO

Alan Urban, Group Chair
Sangre De Cristo Sierra Club
Westcliffe, CO

Sonny Evers
Gulf War Veterans of Delaware
Wilmington, DE

Natalie Aloyets
Washington, DC

Judith Anderson
Washington, DC

Laura Catalina
Washington, DC

Richard Condit, Esq.
Washington, DC

Eliza Klose
Washington, DC

Gawain Kripke
Friends of the Earth
Washington, DC

Robert Mueller
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
Washington, DC

Damu Smith
Greenpeace
Washington, DC

Bob Tiller
Physicians For Social Responsibility
Washington, DC

Jim Tuite
Gulf War Research Foundation
Washington, DC

Rev. John Jackson
Presbyterians for Restoring Creation
Orlando, FL

The Concerned Citizens League of America
Florida

Abbie Illenberger
Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide
Atlanta, GA

Glenn Johnson, PhD
Clark Atlanta University
Atlanta, GA

Sherill Marcus
Jackie Ward
Environmental Justice Project
Southern Organizing Commitee
Atlanta, GA

North Georgia Afro-American Environmental Justice Action Network
Atlanta, GA

Paul Sullivan
National Gulf War Resource Center
Atlanta, GA

Vincent T. Williams
Save the People
Brunswick, GA

Terry Clark
Tifton, GA

Lakata Mjumbe
African American Environmental Action Network

Poka Laenui
Pacific Asian Council of Indigenous People
Wainae, HI

Bob Pickering
Carbondale, IL

Sara Morgan
Citizens Against Incineration at Newport
Newport, IN

Mark Hudson
Newport Study Group
Newport, IN

Jen Hofer
Iowa City, IA

Robert Futrell
Lawrence, KS

Corrine Whitehead
Coalition for Health Concerns
Benton, KY

John Capillo
Berea, KY

Gina Chamberlain
Common Ground
Berea, KY

The Crowe Family
Liz, Chuck and Hannah Rain
Berea, KY

Peter Hille
Berea, KY

Charles R. Schindler
Berea, KY

Craig Williams
Kentucky Environmental Foundation
Berea, KY

Liz Nader
Democracy Resource Center
Lexington, KY

KY Alliance Against Racist and Political Represssion
Louisville, KY

Lois Kleffman
McKee, KY

Lou Coots
Heartwood
Paducah, KY

Gary Wold
Green Party of Tennessee
Paducah, KY

Althea Wiggs
Sand Gap, KY

Shirley Brook
Baton Rouge, LA

Nathan Brown
Baton Rouge, LA

Juanita Stewart
North Baton Rouge Environmental Association
Baton Rouge, LA

Patricia Melancon
St. James Citizens for Jobs and the Environment
Convent, LA

Kathy Lemar
Military Toxics Project
Norway, ME

Peter Montague
Environmental Research Foundation
Annapolis, MD

Richard Ochs
Aberdeen Proving Ground Superfund-Citizen's Coalition
Aberdeen, MD

John Nunn
Coalition for Safe Disposal
Worton, MD

Vivian Newman, President
Maryland Conservation Council
Mariotsville, MD

Gary Cohen
Healthcare Without Harm
Jamaica Plains, MA

Bob Schaeffer
Public Policy Communications
Boston, MA

John Pruden
National Citizens' Alliance
Huron Environmental Activist League
Ossineke, MI

Tom Goldtooth
Indigenous Environmnetal Network
Minneapolis, MN

Bob Kochtitzky
Mississippi 2020 Network, Inc.
Jackson, MS

Fred Striley
Dioxin Incineration Response Group
Eureka, MO

Steve Taylor, Co-founder
Times Beach Action Group
St. Louis, MO

Ashley Shannauer, Esq.
Helena, MT

Kerry Margaret Butch
New Jersey Environmental Justice Network
Asbury Park, NJ

Ellen and Paul Connet, Editors
Waste Not
Canton, NY

Jennifer Adibi
CEC International
New York, NY

Cherokee Defense League
Cherokee, NC

Lenore Yarger,
Durham, NC

Dollie B. Burwell
Warrenton, NC

Carolyn Raffensperger
Windsor, ND

Alonzo Spencer
Save Our County, Inc.
East Liverpool, OH

Toni Lampkin
Hermiston, OR

Mark Brown
Oregon Clearinghouse for Pollution Reduction
Portland, OR

Bill and Vicki Smedley
Arrest the Incineration Remediation (AIR)
Lockhaven, PA

Robert J. Brulle, Ph.D
Philadelphia, PA
South Carolina Environmental Watch
Gadsen, SC

Johnny Horne
Chattanoga, TN

Doris Bradshaw
Defense Depot Memphis Tennessee-CCC
Memphis, TN

Rita Harris
Mid-South Peace and Justice Center
Memphis, TN

Erin Rogers
Foundation for a Compassionate Society
Austin, TX

Chip Ward
West Desert HEAL
Grantsville, UT

Cindy King
Utah Sierra Club
Salt Lake City, UT

Lisa Puchner
Families Against Incinerator Risk
Salt Lake City, UT

Lois Gibbs
Center for Health and the Environment
Falls Church, VA

Meredith Dean
Appalachian Women's Alliance
Floyd, VA

Jeff Allen
Charleston, WV

Laura Olah
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
Merrimac, WI

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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.