Colorado CAC votes against incineration

(Excerpted from the May 2000 issue of the CWWG newsletter "Commen Sense")

In October 1999 the Colorado Citizens Advisory Commission (CAC) voted 4-3 to proceed with one of the technologies recently demonstrated by the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program rather than implementing incineration at the Pueblo Army Depot. Over several months the Army's Office of the Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization (PMCD) had been putting pressure on local officials to lobby Congress to force a decision moving forward with disposal, hoping their rhetoric on the "maturity" of burning would win the day.

However, as in previous public meetings, almost every citizen who commented at the October meeting spoke against incineration and in favor of the safer alternatives. The CAC agreed with the citizens. The CAC, a governor-appointed citizens' group addressing local chemical weapons disposal issues, does not have the power to decide which technology will be used, but does make recommendations to the Army and legislators.

Colorado CAC member, Ross Vincent, who is also a CWWG member and Chair of the Sangre de Cristo Group of the Sierra Club, said, "I hope the CAC's commitment to advanced technologies here in Pueblo will send a clear message to PMCD leadership. Their relentless, decade-long, multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded, disingenuous spin campaign hasn't worked. They might want to consider honesty and integrity in the future."

Unfortunately, PMCD officials responded to the CAC vote with a revised incineration proposal for Colorado, accompanied by lobbyists who renewed efforts to pressure local city and county officials to support it. The Army's misleading message -- that incineration will be faster than non-incineration technologies -- is directed to local business people, eager to develop the Pueblo Army Depot property once the chemical weapons are gone. However, the Army's failed incineration program is more than a decade behind schedule and since its "new and improved" incinerator proposal has never been tried or tested there is no guarantee it can destroy chemical weapons any quicker than the Army's flawed incinerator operating in Utah.