PUBLIC GETS PEEK AT PROJECT

By Larry Ault/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

German Traktor rockets are sometimes found in the area adjacent to the Pine Bluff Arsenal and may be dangerous, a civilian spokesman for the facility said Thursday night at a public hearing on the proposed destruction of non-stockpile chemical warfare items stored there.

"Leave them alone and call the Arsenal," said William R. Brankowitz, deputy product manager for the Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Program.

The German Traktor rocket accounts for about 38 percent of the recovered chemical weapons stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal. Mortars (about 4.2 inches) account for about 58 percent.

The public was given an opportunity Thursday to view equipment the Army plans to use to destroy non-stockpile chemical warfare items stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal. The Army scheduled the public hearing "to solicit public comment and answer citizen questions" about its plans.

The Army plans to use the Explosive Destruction System, a treatment system designed to destroy "explosively configured World War I and World War II-era munitions at a recovery site."

Brankowitz said "a pretty good amount of German" rockets were transported to the facility in 1946 to be tested and stored.

Brankowitz said that if anyone finds what appears to be a German Traktor rocket in the area near the Arsenal that they should call the Army.

Iraq was the last nation to use chemical warfare during the Iran-Iraq war, he said.

During a 45-minute public hearing Thursday evening, the Army briefed the public on its plans to station three Explosive Destruction System units at the Pine Bluff Arsenal to treat more than 1,200 recovered chemical warfare items stored at the facility.

Approximately 97 percent of the inventory was recovered during Arsenal environmental restoration programs in the 1980s.

On Thursday afternoon, David Hoffman, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Chemical Materiels Agency, said about 20 to 25 people showed up during the public inspection who were not affiliated with the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

"We've got a good testing team and good operations team," Hoffman said. "It has proven itself in the field."

John Gieseking, a spokesman for the project, said 3 percent of the stockpile was brought to the Arsenal on a national emergency basis.

"It is not our intention to make the Arsenal a dumping ground," he said, noting that the Arsenal is "a very safe facility."

"We've destroyed more than 100 rounds around the country," he said.

The meeting was held at Creasy Auditorium, where members of the public were to be able to view one of three Explosive Destructive Systems that the Army plans to use. The EDS was on display in the auditorium parking lot, adjacent to the Plainview-White Hall gate to the Arsenal.

The Army intends to apply to the state Department of Environmental Quality for a permit to use the EDS gear to process and treat recovered chemical warfare items.