Chemical Weapons Working Group
P.O. Box 467; Berea, KY 40403
606-986-7565 or 606-986-0868
for further information contact: Craig Williams: (606) 986-7565
Karyn Jones: (541) 567-6581
Stu Sugarman: (503) 234-2694
Richard Condit: (303)444-1188x219
for immediate release: August 21, 1998
OREGON GROUPS/CITIZENS CHALLENGE CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATOR PERMIT
The Sierra Club, Oregon Wildlife Federation, the Hermiston-based group known as GASP and twenty two Hermiston-area residents filed a motion late yesterday for summary judgment in Oregon Circuit Court as part of a case they brought challenging decisions by State agencies permitting the Army to build five incinerators to destroy chemical warfare agents stored at the Umatilla Army Depot. The groups filed their Petition challenging the decisions of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) earlier this year in the Circuit Court for Multnomah County.
In their 60-plus page filing the groups emphasized that the DEQ/EQC had violated the law by failing to determine whether the proposed incinerators would cause a major adverse effect on public health or the environment and was the best technology for disposal.
For example, the groups emphasized that the DEQ/EQC abdicated their statutory and regulatory obligations by failing to fully consider the impacts of emissions of nerve agents, dioxin, and other dangerous chemicals on sensitive members of the effected population such as developing fetuses, infants, persons who are fighting or who have had serious illnesses like asthma or cancer, and the elderly. Karyn Jones one of the leaders of GASP and a former chairperson of the Governor's Citizens Advisory Commission commented: "The DEQ and EQC have really failed us in this process. We feel like they have been serving the needs of the Army instead of the communities who will be subjected to these dangerous chemicals and to the impacts of potential accidents."
In addition, the groups take issue with the State's review and approval of significant components of the incineration facility. The groups charge that carbon filters that have been promised as an addition to the pollution control system for the five incinerators have never been tested or proven to function. In fact the carbon filter system plan, originally scheduled for deployment at the Utah incinerator was abandoned due to its potential to increase the risk of fires and explosions.
Moreover, the groups argue that other essential systems such as the nerve agent monitors, dunnage incinerator, brine reduction equipment, and deactivation incinerator do not work or have malfunctioned regularly at the Pacific and Tooele, Utah Army incinerators.
The groups have also raised a serious challenge to the procedures employed by the agencies in reaching their decision to permit the incinerators. The groups believe that they should have been given a contested case hearing to address the evidence the DEQ/EQC relied upon in making their permit decision.
Finally, the groups focused heavily on the choice of technologies available to dispose of nerve agents. Neutralization, a non-emitting process to destroy the nerve agents, was rejected as were other non-incineration technologies without much explanation by the DEQ/EQC.
Craig Williams, spokesperson for the Chemical Weapons Working Group, said "The real issue in Oregon as well as at other sites is the refusal by some environmental regulators to recognize and understand that there are several technologies that can treat these dangerous nerve agents in a manner that is far more protective of human health and the environment."
The case is scheduled for a hearing in October.
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