August 14, 2001

The Honorable Mitch McConnell
361 A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator McConnell,

Last night the Kentucky Citizens Advisory Commission (CAC) held a public meeting at which representatives of the Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization (PMCD) and the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) made presentations concerning the projected schedules using incineration and non-incineration technologies to dispose of the Kentucky chemical weapons (CW) stockpile.

The goal of the meeting was to give citizens an opportunity to compare these projected schedules as we in Kentucky move toward a technology decision. However, most of the meeting was spent correcting and clarifying the erroneous data on the incineration schedule presented by the PMCD representative (Steve Bushman).

Bushman began by putting up a chart of a projected incineration schedule for Kentucky which he claimed, "contained the most current schedule information, including all the latest operational data from JACADS and TOCDF." PMCD's chart was inaccurate and misleading in the following ways:

• 18 months were shown for disposal of the Blue Grass stockpile using incineration. When Bushman was questioned, he admitted the schedule was actually one developed in 1995 and did not contain any operational data from either JACADS or TOCDF.
• 12 months were shown for permit issuance from the State of Kentucky. A representative from Kentucky's Department of Natural Resources present at the meeting countered that 24 months was the very least amount of time needed for permit approval for any technology. Bushman said that Maryland and Indiana received their permits in less than 2 years, failing to mention these sites are going with non-incineration technologies. A citizen made that clarification. Bushman then claimed they received their incineration permit in Alabama in 3 years. When confronted with actual permit data, he agreed that no CW incinerator had received a permit in less than 7 years from submission of the application.
  
• 26 months were shown for construction. Upon questioning, Bushman admitted it would probably be more like 34 months.
  
• 18 months were shown for systemization. Bushman later admitted that no site had done it in less than 24 months and that TOCDF took 36 months to systematize.

The cumulative time difference between PMCD's projected schedule that was presented by Bushman at the beginning of the meeting and the timelines he had to admit to when confronted with the facts by members of the audience was more than 6 years! So instead of the 7 year schedule as represented on the PMCD chart, it is actually closer to 14 years to complete the job.

It was unbelievable! Had not I and other folks with knowledge of the issue been there to catch these intentional misrepresentations, the citizens present and more importantly, the media, would have taken PMCD's information as accurate and reported a completely fictional picture of the time needed for destruction of our stockpile using incineration.

In contrast, the ACWA representative (Jim Richmond) was straightforward and honest in his presentation. He stated that based on the best information available they felt 2008 - 2009 was a realistic time frame for destruction of the Kentucky stockpile using alternate technologies. He made no promises and presented no mythical charts with misleading data. Richmond admitted up front that those dates could slip by a year or two but stated that, under any circumstances, ACWA technologies could achieve Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty compliance by the 2012 (extended) deadline.

We know and appreciate all the work you have done on this issue. Incredibly, in spite of your focus, determination and your letters to Secretary Rumsfeld calling for accountability and reform within this program, PMCD marched into Kentucky last night and purposefully and intentionally presented false and misleading information to the Governors' Commission, the media and the public.

I seek your advice and continued assistance on forcing accountability and oversight within this most important program.

Sincerely,

Craig Williams, Director
Chemical Weapons Working Group

cc: Senator Jim Bunning
Representative Ernie Fletcher
Governor Paul Patton
Kentucky Senator Ed Worley
Kentucky Representative Harry Moberly
Judge Executive Kent Clark
Madison County Commission
Richmond City Council
Berea City Council
Citizen Advisory Commission Members