for more information contact
Craig Williams 859-986-7565
Ross Vincent 719-561-3117
for immediate release Thursday, March 28, 2002
Under Secretary of Defense Edward "Pete" Aldridge has announced that the mustard agent munitions stored at the Pueblo, Colorado Army Depot will be destroyed using a water-based neutralization process rather than incineration. This decision comes after a powerful coalition of local organizations and affected citizens, elected officials, including Colorado Governor Bill Owens and U.S. Senator Wayne Allard, called for neutralization for Pueblo, based on successful proof of the process under the Congressionally-mandated Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment Program.
Pueblo residents are relieved that the decision is now official because they believe strongly that neutralization has been proven to be safer and more effective than incineration.
Ross Vincent, Pueblo resident and Senior Policy Advisor for the Sierra Club commented, "It has been a 14-year battle for us here in Pueblo. The Army's decision means that we can move ahead quickly and in harmony to destroy the 780,000 mustard-agent-containing rounds stored here. It also means that incinerator salesmen can no longer argue persuasively that incineration is 'state-of-the-art' -- the 'best' way to dispose of combustible wastes. There are better ways which substantially reduce impacts on public health and the environment."
For grassroots organizations who have pushed for safer non-smokestack alternatives to incineration, the Army's decision has important implications at all chemical weapons stockpile sites. With this decision the Army has for the first time chosen neutralization as a viable process not only for destruction of bulk containers of chemical agents but also for chemical agents that are encased in munitions. Earlier Army decisions for neutralization were made for bulk agent sites--VX in Indiana and mustard agent in Maryland. Until today Army officials have insisted that neutralization was not viable at sites that have agent in munitions.
Pamela DiFatta, United Food & Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) said," This victory shows that organizing and building can pay huge dividends. Democracy works. If small communities working together can move giant bureaucracies like the Pentagon, just about anything is possible."
If neutralization, which doesn't emit toxic chemicals out into the atmosphere, is viable for Colorado's munitions, it is also viable for munitions stored in Alabama, Oregon, Arkansas, and Kentucky.
Anniston, Alabama, where an incinerator is poised to begin burning later this year, is already over burdened with PCBs, lead and mercury from industrial polluters. These same toxins and more have been identified in the emissions from the Army incinerators - Pentagon documents show it will take nine years or more to burn this stockpile, spewing these contaminates into the community 24 hours a day 7 days a week . "There is absolutely no justification to further poison this or the other communities that store these weapons, " said Craig Williams, Director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a national coalition of organizations pushing for safe disposal.
Williams said, "These incinerators have a history of releasing agent and chronically emitting dioxins, furans and other carcinogens. Neutralization is a controlled approach that eliminates these public health threats - it's proven and protective. The reality is that in Colorado they're breaking out the champagne -while in Alabama they're breaking out the gas masks."
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