Pacific Incinerator Gets New Permit;
Army Estimates 3 More Years of Burning
(The following is excerpted from the July 1998 issue of "Common Sense," the newsletter of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, published by the Kentucky Environmental Foundation.)
On June 11, Region 9 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved a new permit for the Army's Kalama Island chemical weapons incinerator, known as the Johnston Atoll Chemical Disposal System (JACADS). Although the Army anticipates only three more years of operations before the stockpile has been destroyed, the EPA says it granted the Army a 10- year permit to include clean-up projects, including dismantling of the incinerator, and so that schedules would not take priority over safety.
In its eight years of operations thus far, JACADS has destroyed 75% of the Island's stockpile, and has undergone hundreds of modifications. JACADS has experienced fires, explosions, and many more technical and operational problems, some of which have resulted in releases of chemical agent out the smokestack. In November 1997, a plant employee was killed when, while making repairs, a large piece of equipment fell on him. The accident may have been the result of a failure to properly train employees on repairing modified equipment. Marsha Joyner, of the Pacific Asia Council of Indigenous Peoples, said "For the past ten years we have lobbied, cajoled, begged and pleaded to every leader of our 'democratic government' to get the Army and EPA to stop incineration because of what it does to the environment and human health. Hopefully the alternative methods of disposal currently being tested will be used." Other Pacific activists agree that if incineration continues, the facility must be taken apart as soon as the stockpile is destroyed, and no additional wastes must be shipped to the Island.
Many of the requirements in the new permit are more stringent than in the old one. Some differences include: Refined reporting requirements for monitoring systems; Clarified mercury and dioxin feed rate limits; Clarification of prohibition on treating off-site waste; New monitoring location requirements for the HVAC system, and; Monitoring for all types of chemical agents simultaneously when processing secondary wastes.
For more information on the Kalama Island incinerator, see the CWWG web site at www.cwwg.org, or contact our office to be put in touch with Pacific activists.
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