Defense Environment Alert
December 3, 2002

ACTIVISTS HAIL DOD DECISION TO BACK NEUTRALIZATION AT KY SITE

Environmentalists and Kentucky's two senators are hailing the Defense Department's decision to back a neutralization technology for destroying chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, choosing the technology over the Army's baseline incineration method.

DOD officials last month endorsed neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) as the military's preferred technology for full-scale pilot testing at the depot, according to a news release from DOD. Defense Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics E.C. "Pete" Aldridge signed a memo Nov. 19. The agency-preferred alternative is the technology DOD believes would best fulfill the mission of destroying stockpiled chemical weapons, while taking into consideration safety, cost, schedule, environmental and technical factors, according to a fact sheet from DOD's Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program, which tested and evaluated non-incineration alternatives.

The Army will next publish a final environmental impact statement (EIS) citing the agency-preferred alternative. Then Aldridge, as the defense acquisition executive, will make the final technology decision based on the final EIS, according to the fact sheet. That decision will be included in both an acquisition decision memorandum and a record of decision, it says.

"After enduring more than a decade of constant condemnation of its incineration program, and demands to protect our community from lethal chemical agents, the Army has finally changed its mind and recommended safer, non-incineration technology for chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot," said Kentucky Environmental Foundation and Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) Director Craig Williams in a press release. CWWG is a coalition of citizen groups that advocates non-incineration destruction methods for chemical weapons destruction.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has long been a watchdog of the chemical demilitarization program, called it a victory for ensuring safe destruction of the weapons, but warned the Army that he and the community "will remain vigorous in our oversight to make sure every appropriate measure is taken to protect the safety and interests of this community," according to a CWWG press release.

And Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) also praised the decision, noting the role played by CWWG and area residents in exerting public and political pressure. "When you all speak, we listen. And I and my Kentucky colleagues in Congress will continue to keep DOD on track to rid these munitions in the safest way possible," he said in the CWWG press release.

The technology chosen as the preferred alternative first entails neutralizing agent and energetics by caustic or water hydrolysis, according to another ACWA fact sheet. Then the resulting hydrolysate is destroyed using SCWO units. SCWO uses high temperatures and pressure to break down the hydrolysate into carbon dioxide, water and salts. The dunnage is also destroyed in the SCWO units. The high-level defense acquisition review board that backed the neutralization/SCWO technology considered three other technologies for use at the Blue Grass site. These were the traditional incineration process, neutralization followed by SCWO and gas phase chemical reduction and electrochemical oxidation with silver and nitric acid.