From: | KEFWILLI@ACS.EKU.EDU |
Date: | 31 Oct 1996 17:48:40 |
Reply: | cpeo-military |
Subject: | Citizens Endorse Alternate CW Disposal |
Subject: Citizens Endorse Alternate CW Disposal CHEMICAL WEAPONS WORKING GROUP P.O. Box 467, Berea, Kentucky 40403 Phone: (606) 986-7565 Fax: (606) 986-2695 e-mail: kefwilli@acs.eku.edu for more information contact: Craig Williams: (606)-986-7565 Bob Schaeffer: (617) 489-0461 for immediate release: Thursday, October 31, 1996 INCINERATION FOES ENDORSE ALTERNATIVE CHEMICAL WEAPONS DESTRUCTION AT ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND; ACTIVISTS SAY, 'NIMBY' LABEL WAS ALWAYS FALSE Opponents of Pentagon plans to incinerate the nation's chemical weapons stockpile today endorsed an alternative approach for eliminating mustard agents stored at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland facility. In a resolution unanimously adopted by members of the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), leaders of community organizations near all U.S. stockpile sites supported the use of chemical neutralization followed by on-site biological treatment to destroy mustard agents stored in bulk containers at Aberdeen. Citizens' long-standing demands for non-incineration technologies were advanced recently by recommendations to the Pentagon for neutralization at Aberdeen by the National Research Council, the Army Material Systems Analysis Activity and the Army Core Evaluation Team on Chemical Weapons Disposal. "Those who have labeled incineration opponents NIMBY's (Not In My Back Yard) were always wrong," explained CWWG spokesperson Craig Williams. "We have always made clear that we support destroying chemical warfare material at the facilities where they are stored if the technology is safe in protecting human health and the environment. Our support of this alternative approach shows what can be accomplished when citizens are directly involved in decision-making. If the Army seriously considered incineration alternatives at the other facilities, similar progress could be made to eliminate the stockpile nationwide." The complete CWWG resolution reads: "With unanimous support of its members in communities near the Aberdeen Proving Ground, and in keeping with the principles expressed in the International Citizens' Accords on Chemical Weapons Disposal, approved by the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) at its initial meeting in 1991, opposing incineration at any stockpile site, the CWWG and its members in all of the chemical weapons stockpile communities unanimously support the use of chemical neutralization, followed by on-site biological treatment of the residual hydrolysate, for destruction of the mustard agents currently in bulk containers at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland." CWWG community contacts: Pine Bluff, Arkansas Dr. Abdullah Muhammad (501) 534-3320 Johnston Atoll, Pacific Pua'Ena Burgess (808) 696-5157 Blue Grass Depot, Kentucky Gina Chamberlain (606) 986-5667 Newport, Indiana Mark Hudson (317) 569-5887 Umatilla, Oregon Karyn Jones (541) 567-6581 Tooele, Utah Cindy King (801) 486-9848 Anniston, Alabama Suzanne Marshall (205) 236-5234 Aberdeen, Maryland John Nunn (410) 778-5968 Pueblo, Colorado Alan Urban (719) 783-9755 --30-- | |
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