(Excerpted from the May 2000 issue of CWWG's newsletter "Common Sense")

In mid-January, Gary E. Harris, the former Permit Coordinator at the Tooele, Utah chemical weapons incinerator, held news conferences in D.C., Utah and Oregon, revealing that his job was threatened unless he agreed to submit false data and withhold vital environmental information to get the facility permitted.

Speaking at the National Press Club in D.C. January 11, Harris said, "Many questionable practices that were not environmentally protective, safe or legal occurred at Tooele during my five years of employment there, and many documents were submitted to Utah regulators by the Army and its contractors that were dishonest or misleading. As Permit Coordinator I was directed to submit modifications to the plant that did not comply with Federal Law. I reported health, safety and environmental issues to the contractor and the Army which I was directed not to bring to the attention of the State under the threat of losing my job."

Harris provided a list of more than 100 improper activities at the incinerator, allegations he has sworn to under oath in a deposition for a Utah legal proceeding. His specific charges include the following.

• Political influence was applied by the Army to "fix" Utah process to cover-up dangerous practices and avoid public review and comment. The Utah permit did not reflect the facility actually built.
• The incinerator's Health Risk Assessment was politically adjusted to obtain desired results by removal of data about people living and farming close to the incinerator facility.
• Incinerator trial burns were falsified to avoid revealing that the Metal Parts Furnace cannot safely burn gelled agent in munitions and containers.
• Information was purposefully withheld from the regulators that a key component of the planned agent destruction process, the Dunnage Incinerator, designed to handle agent-contaminated material like protective suits, could not work.
• Data was manipulated to conceal the fact that agent was not staying in the Deactivation Furnace long enough to be destroyed.
• Staff were directed not to incorporate "Lessons Learned" from the Army's facility in the Pacific, such as the fact that the incinerators could notcompletely incinerate mustard agent, into the Utah design and not to contact any sites under construction to share information on problems.
• Nerve gas residues were improperly disposed of off-site.
• Nearby communities never agreed to provide emergency response for accidents as required by the permit.

The facility has been severely criticized by former plant officials. The Utah facility's Safety Chief, Steve Jones, was terminated for refusing to certify the plant was safe but returned to his job after the U.S. Department of Labor found that he had been illegally fired for raising safety and environmental concerns. Subsequently, the facility's General Manager, Gary Millar, resigned charging that the incinerator remained unsafe. Then the Hazardous Waste Manager, Trina Allen was forced to resign after raising concerns about environmental violations. A Department of Labor judge ruled in favor of Allen on her whistleblower retaliation complaint.

CWWG Attorney Mick Harrison, who accompanied Harris on the tour, stated, "Gary Harris' revelations demonstrate that the Army knowingly violated the law, covered up known dangers and corruptly influenced state agencies to proceed recklessly with a technology they know does not work."

Commenting on the state regulatory agency's complicity in the permit fraud, local Utah activist Chip Ward, a participant in the Salt Lake City news conference, said, "Clearly Utah state regulators are lapdogs, not watchdogs. And they know only one trick--roll over."