Defense Environment Alert

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

Vol. 15, No. 23

November 13, 2007

KENTUCKY OFFICIALS PRESS FOR EPA CRIMINAL PROBE AT CHEM WEAPONS SITE

State environmental regulators in Kentucky are citing the Army for multiple violations of hazardous substance storage regulations at a chemical weapons storage facility following a recent inspection, asking EPA to step in and criminally investigate several of the matters, new documents reveal.

The public-interest watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) recently released documents from the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), showing several violations of state regulations that may indicate criminal misconduct at Blue Grass Army Depot, KY, where a portion of the country's stockpiled chemical munitions are being stored until they are destroyed on-site. These allegations include possible exposure of staff to a nerve agent without the affected workers being notified, falsification of safety reports, and deliberate deactivation of monitoring equipment to hide problems. The DEP has referred these matters to the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division for further study, the documents reveal. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com. See page two for details.

Also, the DEP has issued notices of violation to Blue Grass depot managers for several infractions, including failure to test spills from rockets containing chemical agents, improper storage practices that result in crushing rockets and causing leaks, and failure to ensure employees are properly trained to prevent release of agents.

The storage facility at Blue Grass is already the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into alleged mismanagement and criminal misconduct. It would be the last such storage facility to destroy its weapons, disposing of the stockpile by 2023 under the Pentagon's current timetable.

Lawmakers, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), are pushing for an accelerated timetable that would see all U.S. stockpiled chemical weapons destroyed by 2017. The United States is technically committed to destroying all its weapons by 2012 under the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the international treaty governing elimination of stockpiles, but DOD has resigned itself to the 2023 deadline as other budget priorities have taken precedence (Defense Environment Alert, Oct. 30, p16).

Environmentalists have argued previously that the negative publicity surrounding Blue Grass, which is regarded by the Pentagon as a potential terrorist target, could energize the political process and speed up weapons disposal. The faster disposal plan backed by McConnell features in the Senate-approved version of the FY2008 defense authorization bill, but does not appear in the House version, and a decision on whether to include it in the final bill has not yet been made.

A PEER source says that in light of the string of allegations surrounding the Blue Grass site, the group is lobbying Congress to start an investigation into possible wrongdoing at the site. The source says PEER has asked the House Energy & Commerce Committee to look into this, but so far to no avail. House committee sources could not be reached to give their views.

Meanwhile, the PEER source indicates that the grand jury investigation in Kentucky, begun in 2006, has been extended, and will now end sometime in 2008. It is unclear exactly when the jury was empaneled, and proceedings relating to the case are confidential, the source says.