[CPEO-MEF] COURT CLEARS TOOELE CHEMICAL WEAPON INCINERATOR FOR USE

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

COURT CLEARS TOOELE CHEMICAL WEAPON INCINERATOR FOR USE

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 17, 20000 (ENS) - A federal court ruled
Friday that there is no risk human health or the environment from the
U.S. Army's destruction of chemical weapons at the Tooele Chemical Agent
Disposal Facility near Salt Lake City. The decision clears the path for
continued operations at the facility and for the destruction of about 40
percent of the nation's stockpile of these weapons. The Army is required
to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons by 2004. The ruling by the
U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City will help the Army meet that
deadline. "The decision assures that the Army can complete the
destruction of these extremely dangerous weapons in an environmentally
safe manner," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for
Environment and Natural Resources at the Department of Justice. 

In 1996, several groups, including the Chemical Weapons Working Group
and Sierra Club, challenged the Army's decision to begin operating the
incinerators. The groups claimed the destruction of the chemical agent
and munitions create risks to human health and the environment in
violation of several federal environmental statutes. Judge Tena Campbell
rejected these claims, holding that the Army's chemical agent
incinerators presented no imminent or substantial  endangerment to human
health. The court held that the citizen  groups failed to prove that any
violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act were ongoing or would
reoccur. The same judge also rejected challenges from these citizen
groups in 1996 and 1997.
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Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 S Illinois Ave, Ste 208, Oak Ridge, TN 37830
Phone (865) 483-1333; Fax (865) 482-6572; E-mail loc@icx.net 
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