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In Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon and Utah,
the U.S. Army is preparing to spend a decade incinerating 12,000
tons of leftover "mustard agent" -- a chemical weapon
intended to immobilize enemy soldiers by producing painful, debilitating
blisters on skin and lungs. In Tooele County, Utah, where about
half the nation's mustard agent resides, incineration began last
week.[1]
The mustard agent is presently
stored in aging cannisters on military bases in the four states
and the Army says it is safer to incinerate it than to do nothing.
But this week a coalition of
citizens issued a sophisticated
engineering report arguing that there's a third alternative
besides "do nothing" and incineration: chemical neutralization.
The Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) in Berea, Kentucky
concluded that it seems feasible for the Army to neutralize mustard
agent using warm water.
CWWG acknowledged that it lacked
sufficient information to demand that the Army immediately shift
from incineration to neutralization. Instead, they want the Army
itself to study chemical neutralization, with citizen participation.
"The purpose of the report is to try and compel the Army
to perform due diligence of the fundamental questions,"
says Craig Williams the leader of CWWG.
Neither CWWG nor its constituent
citizen groups oppose destruction of the chemical warfare agents
-- they just want it done as safely as possible.
This is a classic example of
citizens taking a modern approach to community protection --
setting goals (destruction of the mustard agent), examining available
alternatives to find the least hazardous, and creating opportunities
to participate in decision-making. And, as Elizabeth Crowe of
CWWG points out, it shows that it is never too late to pay attention
to new information, to heed early warnings and invoke the precautionary
principle.
The Army announced new information
recently -- it discovered the toxic metal mercury in the mustard
agent at the level of 65 parts per million (800 pounds of mercury
in 6200 tons of mustard agent). If this level of mercury were
present in all 12,000 tons, the incinerator program would be
releasing 1560 pounds of mercury into the environment -- a very
large release of a metal that is poisonous in microgram quantities.
In addition, there's a distinct possibility that the Army has
underestimated the total quantity of mercury involved.
So far, the Army's response
to the mercury problem has been to say it will burn the mustard
agent more slowly than initially planned, so that the concentration
of mercury in the incinerator's smoke stack will never exceed
the air quality standards set by U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). Of course with this approach, the mercury emitted
would still total 1560 pounds -- it would just leave the stack
more slowly. On the other hand, EPA announced recently that it
is now re-evaluating controls for incinerators -- which could
put the Army's chemical weapons incinerators out of compliance
and delay the whole program. Williams says this is another reason
for the Army to abandon incineration now, to avoid an unpleasant
surprise later.
History
of the Program
The Army decided in 1984 to
incinerate leftover chemical warfare agents -- "mustard
gas" (which is actually a liquid), plus far more deadly
agents, VX and GB, also known as sarin, which are true gases
-- at eight locations: Anniston, Alabama; Pine Bluff, Arkansas;
Umatilla, Oregon; Tooele County, Utah; Aberdeen, Maryland; Richmond,
Kentucky; Pueblo, Colorado; and Newport, Indiana.
By 1985, opposition was growing
at each location as people began wondering whether incinerating
chemical warfare agents could be done without accidentally releasing
deadly gases. No one opposed destruction of the chemical warfare
agents -- but many questioned whether incineration was the best
option.
The Army basically stonewalled
the questions, insisting that it knew best. Citizens had reason
to wonder where the Army's programs always made good sense.
In the mid-1980s, the Army
built an experimental incinerator for chemical weapons on Johnston
Island, an atoll 700 miles southwest of Hawaii. Congress's General
Accounting Office examined the test program and reported that
"unplanned and unscheduled maintenance downtime problems...
occurred on an almost daily basis." Still the Army insisted
all was well -- a stance of denial that did not inspire confidence
in communities slated for incinerators of their own.
In 1989 it was revealed that
the Army owned at least 14,000 contaminated sites -- including
some of the largest and most dangerous environmental hazards
imaginable. For example, it was revealed that over the years
the Army had fired or dumped an estimated four million rounds
of ordinance into the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay near
Aberdeen. Many of these rounds were unexploded bombs and rockets
filled with mustard agent, nerve gas, chlorine gas, or tear gas.[2]
They have never been recovered. Nautical charts show the area
as "restricted -- keep out" but people who are fishing
in a skiff don't necessarily consult charts.
In 1991 community groups from
the eight communities targeted for chemical weapons incinerators
formally launched a coalition, the Chemical Weapons Working Group
(CWWG), led by Craig Williams, a Vietnam veteran in Kentucky.
Since then their coalition has grown to over 200 groups nationwide.
The same year, 1991, CWWG commissioned
a study of alternative methods for destroying chemical warfare
agents. That study indicated that chemical neutralization would
work well for mustard agent. Mustard agent contains chlorine,
which -- if burned -- would produce dioxins and furans, among
the most toxic chemicals known to science. Neutralization would
avoid production of these most toxic of byproducts.
The Army stonewalled and resisted,
but CWWG and its constituent citizen groups went to Washington
and bent the ears of their Congressional delegations. The citizens'
position -- we want this done, but we want it done as safely
as possible -- resonated. Eventually Congress ordered the Army
to consider alternatives to incineration.
As a direct result of CWWG's
member groups bringing relentless pressure on the Army at every
possible opportunity, providing detailed alternatives for the
Army to consider, and getting Congressional staff involved --
the Army eventually abandoned the incinerators planned for Colorado,
Indiana, Kentucky, and Maryland,[3] where it proceeded to neutralize
1818 tons of mustard agent at Aberdeen Proving Ground without
mishap.
Now CWWG wants the Army to
consider doing the same thing with mustard agent at all the other
sites. The report released this week showed, from an engineering
perspective, that it seems feasible and affordable to either
retrofit incinerators with neutralizers, or to build new neutralizers
near each existing incinerator.
The Army now has more experience
neutralizing mustard agent (1818 tons) than it has incinerating
mustard agent (67 tons) -- so the Army may have a hard time squirming
out of the embarrassing position CWWG has put it in. And of course
if the Army balks, CWWG has already demonstrated that it knows
how turn the screws in Washington.
CWWG has demonstrated that a tiny group
of citizens can take on a multi-billion-dollar Pentagon program
and win. By sticking to their knitting, keeping their eye on
the prize, and never, ever giving up, Craig Williams and his
seasoned band of incineration fighters across the country have
proven once again, as Margaret Mead famously said:
"Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
[1] Patty Henetz, "Cold
war's killer gas on way to extinction," Salt Lake City (Utah)
Tribune May 19, 2006.
[2] John M. Bull, "Army
Site May be Too Hazardous to Clean," Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News
Feb. 26, 1989, pg. F1. And John M. R. Bull, Phil Galewitz, and
Kenn Marshall, "Nation's military has toxic embrace,"
Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News Feb. 26, 1989, pg. A1.
[3] Juliet Eilprin, "Chemical
weapons disposal drawn-out," Deseret News (Salt Lake City,
Utah), July 8, 2006.
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