Defense Environment Alert
June 18, 2002

KENTUCKY CITIZENS'BOARD ENDORSES NON-INCINERATION METHODS

A governor-appointed citizens' advisory board in Kentucky has unanimously endorsed non-incineration technologies to destroy stockpiled chemical weapons now stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot. The June 10 vote comes after a year-long review of both non-incineration technologies and the Army's baseline incineration process.

The Kentucky Citizen's Advisory Commission (CAC) voted 7-0 in favor of alternative methods to incineration, based on the "significant advantages" that technologies demonstrated under DOD's Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program have over incineration, according to a CAC resolution. And the "nine years of input from the public to the CAC makes clear that Kentuckians overwhelmingly support an alternative to incineration," the resolution says.

According to a June 10 press release from the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), the CAC cited several advantages of the non-incineration technologies over incineration: agent destruction at low temperatures and pressure; control of agent during the destruction process; low levels of toxic emissions; the process meets local citizens' criteria; and "the finding by the National Academy of Sciences and the Pentagon that the alternatives can effectively and safely destroy all the materials contained in the Kentucky stockpile." The Kentucky-based CWWG has long advocated non-incineration methods over incineration for destruction of the nation's chemical weapons.

According to CWWG, the CAC will give its recommendations directly to the Defense Acquisition Board, a high-level DOD review board that provides advice on critical decisions concerning acquisition programs, including the decision regarding the destruction technology at Blue Grass.

"The Commission obviously made the best decision for everyone concerned," said CWWG's Elizabeth Crowe in the press release. "The advanced non-incineration technologies have been proven to be viable for all the agents and weapons stored here. They are safer and according to the latest Pentagon data, will get the job done faster." With regard to her claims about quicker weapons destruction, Crowe in a followup interview said she was referring to the Army's own data on schedule and processing, some of which stem from an October 2000 internal Army report.

The CAC vote comes not long after the Army released a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) evaluating the impacts of four different technologies for destruction of chemical weapons at the Kentucky site (Defense Environment Alert, June 4, p 10). The Army in the draft document did not cite a preferred technology for the job, but said none would likely breach emission standards or exposure levels for human health. The draft EIS examined the environmental impacts of incineration, chemical neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation (SCWO), chemical neutralization followed by SCWO and gas phase chemical reduction, and electrochemical oxidation. The Kentucky site is one of two places where Congress in 1996 barred spending federal money to construct an incineration facility until the effectiveness of alternative demilitarization technologies had been examined.

The public comment period on the EIS ends July 15. "The CAC's vote is timely," Crowe said. "Their decision will be part of the public record and should positively impact the Arrny's decision, which will be made sometime this fall."