for more information contact:
Craig Williams 859-302-1103
for immediate release: Monday, November 12, 2001
Ten years after making their initial call against chemical weapons incineration, Chemical Weapons Working Group members gathered in Anniston, Alabama to demand immediate action to reduce the threat of exposure to the lethal U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons. Responding to the increased threat of chemical weapons, the group proposed a solution that would cut years off the current timeline for chemical weapons disposal by incineration.
Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) spokesperson Craig Williams called on the President and U.S. Congress to convene a task force to produce a plan, within 60 days, to eliminate the risk posed by chemical weapons more safely and expeditiously than the Army's current incineration program.
The CWWG proposed that this task force consider modifying dangerous incinerators with systems to take apart the weapons and neutralize the chemical agents. Through this approach, according to the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences "international treaty obligations would be met and the risk from continued agent storage would be eliminated."
"This approach made sense when the CWWG first proposed it years ago, and it makes sense now," said Williams. "It is time for the Army to defend the health and safety of our communities - to ensure maximum protection of U.S. citizens - rather than defending a doomed incineration program."
The Army's chemical weapons incineration program has recently come under fire for disposal timelines extending to 2016 at a cost of $24 billion. Chemical weapons incinerators in Utah and the Pacific have released live chemical agents through the smokestack, and continue to experience extreme delays due to technical failures and decreased weapon processing rates. More stringent regulations on incinerator emissions may further delay the program.
By contrast, weapon disassembly and neutralization of chemical agents using hydrolysis - a chemical reaction with water - can be accomplished in a much shorter timeframe and with little risk to the health of local communities. Ross Vincent, a Pueblo, Colorado resident and chemical engineer says the process is "simple, straightforward and controllable." Vincent cited the Army's own experiences with neutralization as evidence that the method can be implemented on a fast track. This and other non-incineration technologies have been demonstrated through the federal Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program as viable alternatives to incineration at all chemical weapons stockpile sites.
Evelyn Yates from Pine Bluff, Arkansas said that use of safer weapons disassembly methods would help bring about environmental justice to communities like Pine Bluff, Anniston and others where people of color have already suffered exposure to toxic contamination. "Why should some communities get the benefits from safer technologies and others not? It is time for justice for all of us."
In Anniston, where the Army's chemical weapons incinerator is scheduled to begin burning weapons in Spring 2002, a chemical weapons disassembly system would be particularly good news. Brenda Lindell, member of the local group Families Concerned About Nerve Gas Incineration, noted that Army incinerator managers have asked for a permit to "chop up chemical weapons and throw all the parts into the same incinerator at the rate of 30 per hour! Is this the Army's idea of reducing risks to the community?" Lindell continued, "the incineration program is a proven failure and must be halted in favor of safer methods."
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