(The following is excerpted from "Chemical Weapons Disposal and
Environmental Justice" written by Suzanne Marshall PhD. and published by
the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, November, 1996, with funding from the
Educational Foundation of America.)
"Throughout the Cold War, one corner of Earth was bombarded with nerve gas, germ
warfare, nuclear fallout and other radioactive dust - spread to the winds by bombs,
airplanes, artillery and even intentional nuclear reactor meltdowns. It was Utah."
--Lee Davidson
Washington Correspondent
Deseret News, December 22, 1994
The Tooele Army Depot (TEAD) lies about 35 miles southwest of Salt Lake City in
northwest Utah in Tooele County. The depot is actually located in two sections--TEAD
North and TEAD South--about 15 miles apart and situated between the Oquirrh Mountains
and the Stansbury Mountains. The chemical weapons storage site, the Chemical Agent
Munitions Disposal System (CAMDS), and the new Tooele Chemical Demilitarization
Facility (TOCDF), the incinerator complex, are at TEAD South. Another military
installation in the county is Dugway Proving Ground, first established in 1942 for the
testing of chemical weapons and currently contaminated from various chemical agents,
non-stockpile munitions and biological weapons (Bradbury, et al. 1994, Appendix G)
On August 24, 1996, TOCDF was fired up to burn nerve agent for the first time. Within
72 hours of the start-up, the facility had to be shut down due to a nerve agent leak. Two
weeks later the facility was again shut down when liquid seeped through a concrete floor
into an electrical equipment room. With these kinds of flaws in the design of TOCDF,
there is a possiblity of a serious accident involving the release of nerve agent. Prior to the
start-up, a preliminary injunction was brought against the Army by the Chemical Weapons
Working Group to try to stop the burning of agent. At that hearing Army experts testified
that these kinds of start-up problems were not going to happen because of the lessons
learned from operating a prototype facility on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. The judge
ruled against the injunction on the basis of the Army's "expert" testimony.
In the region near the sites, 70% of the population live in either Tooele, a city of 13,887
people, or Grantsville, a town of 4,500. Grantsville's percentage of Native-American
population is 151% higher than the national average of 0.81%. The small towns of
Stockton, Rush Valley and Ophir are closest to the incinerator--within a 3-15-mile radius.
Stockton's percentage of Native Americans is 170% higher than the national average. The
Skull Valley Indian Reservation is located approximately 15 miles west of TEAD South and
the reservation is the burial site for sheep that were poisoned by chemical weapons
experiments at Dugway in the 60s. Latino Americans, most of whom live in the cities of
Tooele and Stockton, make up about 11.30% of the population in Tooele County, a figure
higher than the national average (Bureau of the Census, 1990; Bradbury, et al. 1994,
Appendix G).
Mormons, who make up a large percentage of the population in Tooele County, face
disproportionate risk because of the food consumption patterns mandated by the doctrines
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to Mormon teachings,
"[t]here are blessings in being close to the soil, in raising your own food, even if it is only
a garden in your yard and a fruit tree or two (Benson 1974, p. 269)." The head of
Mormon households are enjoined to "see to it that he has on hand enough food...for at least
a year ahead...Let every man who has a garden spot, garden it; every man who owns a
farm, farm it (Clark 1937, p. 26)." Mormons who put by their own food are at
disproportionate risk to danger from air pollution transmitted into the food chain.
In Tooele County, 11.46% live below the poverty level, lower than the 13.12% national
average (Bureau of the Census, 1990). The main employers in the region since World War
II have been Dugway (1994 employment--1200) and the depot which provided
employment for 45% of the county's labor force prior to realignment which began in 1993.
An estimated 1,900 jobs may be lost once realignment is completed (Bradbury, et al. 1994,
Appendix G). These communities, like Anniston and Pine Bluff, have been economically
dependent upon the military for years and very reluctant to criticize Army plans (Ward,
Interview 1995).
Past exposure to low levels of nerve agent has occurred and seriously compromises the
public's health. During the 1950s through the 1970s, the equivalent of 2.5 trillion doses--
494,700 pounds--of nerve gas was released into the air at Dugway Proving Grounds in
experiments and tests. During these years, 1,174 open-air test firings of munitions filled
with nerve gas were conducted. On March 14, 1968, nerve agent was sprayed from an F-4
Phantom jet and resulted in the death of 6,000 sheep in Skull Valley. Citizens in the area
were unaware of the extent of exposure they had experienced. But, they are living lives
characterized by poor health (Ward, 1996).
Ray Peck is one of those citizens. On the evening when the nerve agent was sprayed,
Peck, then an employee of Dugway, was working on a tractor 25 miles downwind. The
next morning he ate some of the snow that had fallen during the night because it was so
beautiful. It is believed that Peck and other residents were exposed to small amounts of the
agent VX. Since that time Peck and his family have suffered long-term illnesses including
violent headaches, numbness and paranoia. Peck reports that after the exposure he
experienced "bouts of paranoia" where he became terrified and fearful of making mistakes
in his job at Dugway and in the mechanical and upholstery work he had done for years. He
also has had "nasty" headaches which doctors have not been able to explain. Peck's wife
had three problem pregnancies after the exposure and his daughers have had problems with
miscarriages. Because Peck was worried about being seen as unpatriotic or a disgruntled
worker at Dugway if he said anything about his symptoms and what he believed caused
them, he kept quiet (Davidson, 1993).
The Army has never conceded that nerve agent was responsible for the sheep kill but it paid
$1 million in damages to ranchers. Nor has the Army admitted that residents could have
been affected.
Exposure to nerve agent is only one danger that has been imposed on Utah by the military.
Utahns have been exposed to radiation from nuclear devices that were exploded in Nevada
only when the winds were blowing toward Utah and not toward Las Vegas, Los Angeles
or other more populous areas. In addition, Dugwa was the site of at least 20 open-air, non-
nuclear explosions to test the spread of radioactive dust. Between 1949 and 1963, the total
radiation released in Utah was 10,000 times more than the Three Mile Island nuclear
accident. More than 328 open-air germ warfare tests were conducted at Dugway with
bacteria for parrot fever, Q fever, the plague, tularemia, brucellosis, botulism and anthrax
(Deseret News 1994, December 23, p. A8).
"The whole story of experiments with exotic and chilling weapons and methods of
warfare leaves Utahns with a sense of betrayal. It is going to take a lot more than
reassuring words to win back their trust."
--Deseret News
Editorial
December 23, 1994
Tooele County is home to other non-military hazardous industries which some residents
believe have affected their health and which threaten to give the region a reputation as a
hazardous waste mecca. During 1988, a 100 square mile part of the West Desert was set
aside as the West Desert Hazardous Industry Area. Three hazardous waste companies have
set up operations since then. A low-level radioactive waste disposal facility is owned by
Envirocare. Two hazardous waste incinerators, one run by Aptus and the other by United
States Pollution Control, Inc., are currently burning (Bradbury, et al. 1994, Appendix G).
The operations of Magnesium Corporation, known as MagCorp or AMAX and identified
as the number one toxic air polluter in the US, annually spews 25 tons of chlorine and
approximately two tons of hydrochloric acid into the air of Tooele County.
"Stories about working conditions at MagCorp are legion and employees have invented
their own lingo to describe various levels of pollution. 'The air is green today' illustratres a
day of moderate chlorine inundation, but 'the bees are out' means that the air is so saturated
that it stings the skin. They say there is no wildlife, or even insects of any kind around the
facility, and talk of ducks falling out of the sky when they hit the clouds surrounding the
area. Car paint is quickly destroyed by the airborne chemicals, so employees drive
clunkers, surrendering any pretensions of automotive aesthetics. Local beauticians say that
'MagCorp hair' is easily recognizable, far beyond the extremes of green swimming pool
hair. Less cosmetic is the lung damage that many workers claim they have suffered from
working at the magnesium plant."
--Diane Olson Rutter
Catalyst, April, 1996
The EPA reported in 1987 that 88% of Utah's toxic air pollution originated in Tooele
County (Bradbury, et al. 1994, Appendix G). The area has been disproportionately
affected by the military and polluting industries since World War II, resulting in significant
health problems, destruction of the environment and environmental injustice.
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