for more information:
Craig Williams (859) 986-7565
for immediate release: Monday,
April 12, 2004
SENATOR SEEKS $2 MILLION FOR
IMPROVED CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGENT MONITORS FOR KENTUCKY AS DISPOSAL PROJECT
NEARS
In a submission to the Senate Defense Appropriations
Committee, Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning has requested $2 Million for improved
chemical warfare agent monitors at the Blue Grass Army Depot.
According to Bunning, "I secured language in the FY04
Defense Authorization Act last year to have the Army provide improved chemical
monitoring devices at Bluegrass Army Depot. But that doesn't mean I'm going
to wait around for them to move at Army-time to meet that requirement.
Therefore, I have made funding these monitors my top priority this year from
the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense."
Bunning's funding request notes that since 1994 the
National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences, has been
recommending upgrading the chemical warfare agent airborne monitoring systems
at all U.S. storage and disposal sites.
Craig Williams, Director of the Chemical Weapons Working
Group said, "Before hundreds of workers begin building the disposal facility,
we owe it to them to have the most advanced monitoring capabilities deployed
at the site, which sits immediately adjacent to where the weapons are stored.
We don't want what happened in Oregon and Alabama, to happen here."
In 1999, during construction of the Oregon disposal
facility, more than 30 workers were made violently ill by exposure to a mysterious
chemical that to this date the Army says it cannot identify. More recently,
in March of this year, VX agent was confirmed at the Depot boundary in Anniston,
but the Army can't say where it came from or how much was present.
According to Bunning, "Now is the opportune time to
go hard and strong on securing these devices as work gets underway at the
Depot. We need to work together to help expedite this process to ensure
that our community, its workers, and the environment don't suffer, and that
safety and common sense prevail."
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Copies of the Bunning request to the Appropriations
Committee are available upon request.
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