[CPEO-MEF] FEDERAL LAWSUIT SEEKS HALT TO U.S. CHEM WEAPONS INCINERATION PROGRA

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

For immediate release: Tuesday, March 11, 2003

CHEMICAL WEAPONS WORKING GROUP
P.O. Box 467, Berea, Kentucky 40403
Phone: (859) 986-7565 Fax: (859) 986-2695
e-mail: craig@cwwg.org web: www.cwwg.org

for more information contact:
Craig Williams: 859-986-7565

FEDERAL LAWSUIT SEEKS HALT TO U.S. CHEM WEAPONS INCINERATION PROGRAM
Groups in Eight States Claim Army Plans Violate National Environmental
Policy Act;
They Ask "Why Not Here?" for Safer Agent Destruction Technologies

Nearly two dozen organizations representing the interests of communities
downwind of bases where the U.S. Army plans to burn the nation's
stockpile of chemical weapons today sued the federal government for
violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in its pursuit of
the incineration program.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., claims
the Army "failed to adequately assess and compare the impacts from the
incineration of chemical weapons with non-incineration alternatives"
and, "failed to update their assessments of the impacts expected from
the baseline incineration program, including the impacts on workers." It
seeks to ban any additional spending on incinerator construction or
operation until the Army complies with NEPA requirements to review and
update its agent destruction plans.

The plaintiffs charge that the failed performance of prototype
incinerators in the Pacific and Utah was never incorporated into ongoing
environmental plans as legally required. According to reports from other
federal agencies, the incinerators released live nerve agent releases
into the environment and exposed facility workers to agents. In
addition, the emissions from the two facilities contain significantly
greater quantities of toxic compounds than contemplated in the Army's
original environmental planning documents.

The Army decided to build and operate chemical weapons incinerators at
eight stockpile sites in 1982. Since then, public pressure has forced
the abandonment of incineration plans in Maryland, Indiana, Colorado,
and Kentucky. Instead, the Army has agreed to destroy the lethal agents
at these facilities using technologies that advocates say present fewer
environmental dangers.
According to Craig Williams, Director of the Chemical Weapons Working
Group, "These safer alternatives have never been adequately considered
for the sites named in today's suit."
NEPA requires Supplemental Environmental Impact Statements to be
prepared if, "There are significant new circumstances or information
relevant to environmental concerns and bearing on the proposed action or
its impacts," or "[t]he agency makes substantial changes in the proposed
action that are relevant to environmental concerns."

"The unacceptable performance of the existing incinerators, even after
hundreds of major modifications to their original designs, coupled with
the Army's own acceptance of safer disposal options at four sites
clearly meets the NEPA requirements for a supplemental study," Williams
concluded.

Evelyn Yates, leader of Pine Bluff for Safe Disposal in Arkansas
summarized the plaintiffs' position, "If some communities are being
afforded safer destruction methods, Why not here in Arkansas and at the
other sites? We all deserve 'maximum protection' as directed by Congress
and required by federal law."

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Copies of the Suit are available from the CWWG office upon request

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