Defense Environment Alert

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

Vol. 15, No. 22

October 30, 2007

CITIZENS' ONGOING CLAIMS AT UMATILLA COULD AFFECT DESTRUCTION DEADLINE

Citizen activists are charging that the Army has failed to follow the proper environmental requirements in preparing its Umatilla, OR, chemical weapons incinerator for the burning of VX nerve agent, adding to ongoing challenges at the facility that could potentially push the VX destruction campaign past its expected completion deadline of 2012, sources say. That in turn could endanger an Army deadline of 2017 for all destruction operations at Umatilla.

Activists claim that the Army has not taken the necessary steps to prepare for the switchover from burning GB nerve agent to incinerating VX at the Army's Umatilla incineration facility. Specifically, they charge that by not changing out the carbon in smokestack filters, the Army is endangering local inhabitants and the environment. Oregon regulators, however, disagree, and are siding with the Army.

Disputes at Umatilla highlight the kind of challenges that could further delay a national program already behind schedule. Over the years, the Army's chemical demilitarization program has been riddled with challenges over its disposal methods and regulatory compliance.

Under the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the treaty governing the elimination of chemical weapons worldwide, the United States has until 2012 to dispose of its stockpile, a target the Bush administration has already admitted it will not meet. Different installations are following different timetables, however, and the five sites being operated by the CMA Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) -- Umatilla, Tooele, UT, Anniston, AL, Pine Bluff, AR, and Newport, IN -- should be finished with their stockpiles by 2017, according to an Army source. That leaves Bluegrass, KY, and Pueblo, CO, where destruction is managed by DOD's Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) program -- Bluegrass is slated to be the last site to complete disposal, in 2023.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is pushing to set a legal deadline of 2017 for the country to destroy its total chemical weapons stockpile, with several lawmakers recently urging House defense authorizers to accept a Senate amendment setting down the 2017 deadline as part of the soon-to-be conferenced fiscal year 2008 defense authorization bill (/see related story/).

Although Umatilla should not fail to meet the 2012 VX deadline, spokesmen with the Army's Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) say this is contingent on smooth progress being made, and that in turn depends on the progress of current and future litigation.

In addition to their opposition to incineration of VX and other agents, activists also criticize the Army for allegedly failing to use a specialized incinerator for secondary waste, and for its proposed techniques for burning mercury-laced mustard agent. Mercury-containing mustard agent is also a problem at the Tooele facility.

Army spokesmen on the site say they will begin the VX destruction campaign in a couple weeks.

A coalition of activist groups, led by Oregon-based GASP, is harshly criticizing the Army for not replacing the carbon in filter systems used to catch any escaping agent as it moves from the GB to the VX nerve agent destruction campaign. The groups, in recent comments, ask the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to deny the Army's request for a modification to its operating permit that would allow the carbon in the filters to remain unchanged.

In the comments, submitted on behalf of GASP, the Oregon Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club and individual plaintiffs, the activists state that leaving the filter carbon in place "removes safeguards that are essential to help minimize the release of agent from the facility." The comments further state: "GASP /et al./ suspects that one of the reasons this request [to leave the carbon in place] is even being made is to prevent more delays to the time schedule, which has already fallen many years behind."

The DEQ, however, temporarily authorized the permit change for six months, earlier in October, after the Army re-submitted a permit modification request originally submitted in April. A source with the DEQ says that leaving the carbon in place does not constitute a risk, and in fact removing it would present waste issues, as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requires that hazardous waste be minimized. A spokesman at Umatilla says that changing the filters would produce tens of thousands of tons of hazardous waste.

Umatilla is also at the center of a lawsuit brought by the activist groups against the DEQ's supervisory body, the Environmental Quality Commission (EQC), over other aspects of the plant's operation. The plaintiffs won a court injunction requiring the EQC to re-examine the incineration of secondary or "dunnage" waste to ensure that it constitutes the Best Available Technology (BAT), a requirement under state law. Also, the court required EQC to examine whether incinerating mustard agent containing mercury, using carbon filters to trap any toxic release, would meet the BAT requirement.

The EQC has now signed off on the secondary waste issue, according to spokesmen for the Army at Umatilla and the DEQ source, with waste such as protective suits now being sent to an existing metal parts furnace to be burned. EQC has yet to decide on the mustard agent issue, these sources say.

Incineration of mustard agent at Umatilla is not due to proceed until completion of the VX campaign, which should take about eighteen months, Army spokesmen say.

Meanwhile, the activist coalition Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) is claiming victory, after persuading the Army to screen containers filled with mustard agent for mercury prior to burning them at the Tooele site. The Army is leaving aside those containers found to have high mercury levels until it comes up with a method to dispose of them, says a source with the group.

Spokesmen for CMA have previously said that the method being proposed for disposal of the mercury-containing mustard agent at Tooele, which envisages fitting existing incinerators with sulfur-impregnated carbon, could serve as a model for Umatilla if successful.

CWWG opposes this method, and may choose to eventually challenge it in court, claiming that the mercury may not be effectively removed, the CWWG source says. This is an important battle, the source says, as it might prevent the incineration of mustard stocks at Umatilla and Pine Bluff.