U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES
$2 MILLION FOR
ADVANCED CHEMICAL AGENT MONITORS IN KENTUCKY
The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a Defense Bill that
included $2 million for installation of an advanced chemical agent monitoring
system at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky. The Depot is home
to 523 tons of lethal nerve and mustard agents, configured in explosive weapons,
scheduled for destruction by 2012. The request for advanced monitors
in Kentucky was made by Senator Jim Bunning, a member of the Senate Armed
Services Committee.
The Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), a national coalition of citizens
living near weapons stockpile sites, has long demanded that the Army install
a grid of infrared beams around chemical weapons storage areas and destruction
facilities. Such infrared systems quickly and accurately detect chemical
agents and provide immediate notice in the event of a chemical agent release,
unlike the Army's current outdoor monitors which can take anywhere from 20
minutes to several hours to confirm the presence of chemical agent.
Local activists say that's too long.
CWWG Organizer Elizabeth Crowe said, "Protecting citizens from deadly chemical
weapons begins here at home, and $2 million is a small price to pay for the
safety of the folks who live near, and work at, the Depot. Fortunately
Senator Bunning understands this and we appreciate his efforts to look out
for our safety."
Senator Bunning's efforts to obtain the advanced systems began last year,
when he and legislators from other chemical weapons stockpile sites included
a "Sense of the Congress" statement on agent monitors in the 2004 Defense
Bill. The statement cited ongoing recommendations from the National
Research Council (NRC) that the Army take action to provide real-time chemical
agent monitoring at weapons destruction facilities.
However the Army has still not taken such actions, something which troubles
residents who watchdog Army chemical weapons incinerators. Hermiston,
Oregon resident Karyn Jones, who lives near the Umatilla Army Depot, sees
irony in the Army's resistance to advanced monitors when right now Army officials
are saying in an Oregon court that they were not able to identify the toxic
chemical that in 1999 poisoned dozens of Oregon incinerator construction
workers who have sued the Army for damages.
"Here we have a group of workers who are suffering tremendous health problems
from exposure to some toxic compound that neither the Army nor its contractor
say they can identify. Then we have the Army, who won't install a monitoring
system that has the capability of identifying all airborne chemicals," Jones
said. "If the Army is so certain that chemical agent isn't being released
into the air, why are they so afraid of installing advanced monitors?
It just doesn't make any sense."
Jones praised Oregon Senators Wyden and Smith, and Representative Walden
for supporting the "Sense of the Congress" statement last year, and said
she hopes they and Oregon Governor Kulongoski will work to secure additional
monitors for the Umatilla site.
Since May the CWWG has stepped up efforts to ensure that advanced monitors
are deployed in Kentucky and the other seven U.S. chemical weapons stockpile
sites -- Utah, Alabama, Oregon, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland and Colorado.
The CWWG estimates that installation of advanced monitoring systems, in addition
to current chemical agent monitors, could be done with no impact to the chemical
weapons destruction schedule, and little impact to cost. The costs
for advanced monitors at all sites are estimated to be one tenth of one percent
of the total cost of the weapons disposal program, which now stands at $24
billion.
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Background information on the chemical agent
monitoring issue is available from
the CWWG upon request, and on the web at http://www.cwwg.org.
