Defense Environment Alert

an exclusive biweekly report on defense policies for cleanup, compliance and pollution prevention

Vol. 15, No. 8

April 17, 2007

ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAY CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION COULD SPEED CHEM DEMIL

Environmentalists believe a new investigation by a federal grand jury into alleged criminal misconduct at a Kentucky weapons storage facility might help in their push to more quickly eliminate existing stockpiles of chemical agents, the last of which is currently not expected to be destroyed until 2023 - 11 years after an international treaty deadline.

DOD sources deny any such possibility, but they concede DOD is exploring whether additional funds could accelerate the destruction of chemical weapons at the Bluegrass Army Depot in Kentucky, and another similar site in Pueblo, Colorado.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), an advocacy group for government environmental employees, recently released documents revealing that a prosecutor convened a federal grand jury last year to look into allegations concerning improper conduct by management at Bluegrass, with regard to both weapons storage and treatment of employees. PEER is representing staff at Bluegrass, who blew the whistle on what they saw as wrongful and bullying behavior by senior managers at the facility. The grand jury proceedings will remain confidential unless the jury issues indictments against specific Army or civilian staff. Should an indictment be issued, a public criminal prosecution would follow. The letter is available on InsideEPA.com. See page 2 for details.

"This criminal investigation into problems at Blue Grass is long overdue," PEER Director Jeff Ruch said in an April 2 statement. "Even if the misconduct at Blue Grass does not rise to the level of a crime, there has unquestionably been a complete breakdown of management competence and integrity at this sensitive facility as well as severe lapses in oversight by the Depot's parent agency, the Army Material Command."

The United States is bound under international treaty obligations to eliminate its chemical weapons by 2012, but has already admitted that it will miss this deadline. According to the military, the last storage site slated to destroy its inventory will be the Bluegrass Army Depot, due to complete the process by 2023. Chemical weapons
stored at Bluegrass and six other sites in the United States remain a terrorist "threat target," according to DOD. Since its inception, the chemical demilitarization program's costs and timetable have spiraled. Many of the chemical weapons stockpile sites are not expected to meet the 2012 deadline for destruction.

An activist at the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a longtime citizens watchdog group, argues that the negative publicity that would result from any grand jury indictments would help force the issue back up the political agenda. "Recent attention will only lend credibility to our argument that these things are ticking time-bombs," says the source, who adds that the grand jury's involvement is "a huge step, which was a tremendous revelation to us."

One whistleblower at the site, Donald Van Winkel, alleges that monitoring devices to detect escaping vapors from deadly VX nerve agent were knowingly installed incorrectly, rendering them ineffective and exposing workers to possible harm. A lawyer for PEER confirmed that in all, three Bluegrass employees have come forward to express their fears, but only Van Winkel has done so publicly.

Van Winkel says he suffered discriminatory treatment at work as a result of his claims over the detectors; he has now left his position. Another PEER source says that the allegations from other whistleblowers are broader, and also involve concerns over inadequately qualified and trained managers not running the facility as they should. It is not clear whether these wider allegations are also before the grand jury.

The wider allegations relate to "concerns over the qualifications of officials to deal with [chemical] agents," and the "retaliatory environment," says the second PEER source, who adds that while the case may result in a management shake-up in the near term, it should speed up rather than slow down the weapons destruction program.

The budget for the Kentucky and Colorado sites where neutralization is going to be used to destroy chemical weapons has been tight, with DOD documents earlier this year revealing the department plans to stretch out the costs and schedule for the two sites, despite higher overall costs with such a plan.

Total funding for chemical demilitarization in fiscal year 2007 stands at $1.272 billion, while DOD documents indicate that the chemical demilitarization budget request will be $1.456 billion for FY08, and $1.434 billion for FY09, excluding military construction costs.

Then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced in April 2006 that the country would not meet its 2012 target, even though the U.S. and Russia have already been granted an extension under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the international treaty that mandates the destruction of chemical weapons by six signatory countries with existing stockpiles.

The current legal proceedings are the culmination of internal inquires by the Army's inspector general, although Army spokespeople would not comment on the specifies of the case.

In a prepared statement, the Army's Chemical Materials Agency (CMA), which manages storage of all chemical weapons agent stockpiles in the United States, defended practices at the Bluegrass facility. "While the Army cannot comment on matters that are currently under litigation, our top priority is the health and safety of our workforce, our communities and the environment," the statement says. "CMA's state-of-the art monitoring technology is reliable, provides sufficient monitoring capability, and protects workers, the general public, and the environment."

A DOD source disputes the environmentalist argument that negative publicity might result in an acceleration of the destruction program. "The current allegations have no bearing on the safety of the stockpile. We are committed to getting rid of the chemical weapons in a safe and environmentally-friendly way," the source says.

Budgetary constraints remain an obstacle to faster disposal of the weapons, and DOD is currently evaluating whether extra funds might speed up the process, the source says, adding that there are several schools of thought on how much difference additional funding would make.

However, due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, "funding is a tight commodity," and DOD "does not expect any windfalls," says the source.