LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Fix burner troubles now

Editor:

Your Aug. 17 edition contained two articles about the deadly nerve gas incinerator that were very upsetting. One article on the first page reported exactly what David Yarbrough and Tom Cramer have begged everyone to understand for several years. “The sampling of the incinerator stack is so filled with problems that operators must constantly babysit, manipulate and do improper things to keep the incineration process moving to meet the schedule.”

Obviously, operators will not do this if the system could be reliably and dependably operated. The Army and EG&G can no longer turn a blind eye so they can keep processing VX. This article announced just what the operators are expected to quietly do, “Cheat to make a poor system appear safe so incineration of VX can continue!”

In the article on page two, the Army boldly brags about how they have bullied the VX stockpile through the faulty sampling system of the stack into the air of Tooele County. No two articles reported in the same edition could better describe years of tragic events and ridiculous “news releases” about safety neglect and cover-up at the deadly nerve gas incinerators by the Army.

Please stop this dangerous processing and collect all of the facts to provide a complete answer for each one of the issues made public by Misters Yarbrough and Cramer. Don’t wait up to 50 years to rely on “downwinders” to go back in history to find problems that we know exist today.

But, most of all, please do not put another employee in prison!

Scott Andersen
Stockton