CW Incinerator Goes Hot

[KEFWILLI@ACS.EKU.EDU]

Chemical Weapons Working Group 
PO Box 467 Berea, Ky. 40403 (606) 986-7565 (606) 986-2695
(fax)

for information contact: Craig Williams (606)986-7565 or
Cindy King (801) 486-9848
 for immediate release: August 21, 1996

CITIZENS CALL ON PRESIDENT CLINTON TO HALT ARMY INCINERATION
OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON AMERICAN SOIL-IMMEDIATELY

Pentagon admits low exposures will have unknown health
consequences 

 Citizens across the country who have opposed the Army's
plan to burn 30,000 tons of chemical weapons in their
communities were outraged by the Pentagon's admission today
in the New York Times that, "Scientists and health officials
in the Department of Defense acknowledged little is known
about the long-term health effects of exposure to trace
amounts of chemical weapons." 

 The story, on the Pentagon's acknowledging of perhaps
as many as 7 incidents involving chemical weapons during
Desert Storm, was made public less than 24 hours before the
Army fired up its first mainland chemical weapons
incinerator in Tooele, Utah. 

 Craig Williams, spokesperson for the Chemical Weapons
Working Group (CWWG) and Vietnam Veteran said, "Americans
should be infuriated by the fact that while the Pentagon
admits they don't know the impacts on our health, they have
simultaneously begun a program that will guarantee exposures
of trace amounts of agent to the civilian population. This
is unconscionable." 

 Cindy King, with the Utah Sierra Club and CWWG member
said, "We are on edge here, wondering if we will be the next
victims. We know this incinerator is going to emit chemical
warfare agents into the environment, we just don't know how
much. The Army has proven it can't be trusted when it says
a little bit won't hurt you. The fact is they don't know."

 "We call on President Clinton, as Commander in Chief,
to direct Secretary of Defense Perry, to shut down the
Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Utah immediately to
prevent exposure of the American public to these warfare
agents," Williams said.

 According to calculations of agent pounds and
destruction capabilities provided in Army documents, 
approximately 27 pounds of agents will be released into the
air through the stack in Utah assuming perfect operations
throughout it's 6.5 year operational life. However,
citizens know that the incinerator will emit even more
agent. During upset conditions, incinerators perform poorly
and release higher concentrations of agents into the
environment. The EPA estimates that incinerators generally
operate under upset conditions at least 20% of the time and
during the first three years of operations the Army's
Pacific incinerator had upset operations almost 50% of the
time. At least 14 releases of live warfare agent, out of
engineering controls, have been confirmed at the prototype
incinerators in the Pacific and Utah . Two of those
releases were made public only recently during federal court
hearings on a motion brought by citizens for a preliminary
injunction to block start up of the Army's full scale
incinerator in Utah. 

 The Chemical Weapons Working Group advocates safer
technologies be used for disposal of these weapons that
conform with the federal law directing "Maximum protection
to the public and the environment.". 
 
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