Environmental prize awarded

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, May 6, 2006

The director of the Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group was recently awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize during a ceremony at San Francisco.

Craig Williams, 58, of Kentucky, organized the CWWG and has guided the national citizens' coalition for 15 years. He received a $125,000 prize along with the award, which was created by philanthropist Richard N. Goldman in 1990 and is awarded annually to six grassroots "environmental heroes"--each from a different continental region.

Often referred to as the "Nobel Prize for the environment," it is the largest award of its kind in the world. Williams was chosen to receive the award for North America.

He was honored for his unprecedented success in effecting environmentally protective changes in Pentagon decisions concerning destruction of the U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons.  In March 2006, the Pine Bluff Arsenal began incinerating 12 percent of that stockpile.

Through Williams' work he convinced the Pentagon to identify, test and deploy destruciton technologies that are considered safer for the environment than the incineration proceess used at Pine Bluff and three other sites across the country. One method in particular is neutralization, a process in which agent and energetics are chemically mixed with caustic or water to destroy the chemical agent using hydrolysis.

Joe Steward of White Hall is a member of the Arkansas chapter of CWWG and livs near the Arsenal. He said Williams deserves the honor.

"His main goal is the same goal as you and I have.  To get rid of these weapons in a safe manner so that nobody gets hurt," Steward said. "He's worked so tirelessly and spent many nights on the roads going to meetings and trying to get people to keep us safe. And that's the goal of everyone I think, including the Army."

In January, Arsenal officals halted operations at the chemical weapons disposal facility to replace piping to the furnaces' pollution abatement systems.  Raini Wright, public affairs officer for the facility, said Friday that operations are expected to resume "sometime this month."

So far, the Pine Bluff facility has eliminated 4.6 percent of the total amount of chemical agent at the nation's second largest chemical weapons stockpile. The stockpile consists of GB, or sarin, rockets, VX rockets, VX land mines and mustard agent.

The sarin rockets are the first waeapons being destroyed, as they pose the greatest risk.  A total of 34,207 have been incinerated, or 37.9 percent of the sarin rocket inventory there.