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urgent action on chemical weapons disposal

Dear Friends and Allies,


FY 2000 Defense Appropriations language being proposed by the House Committee on Armed Services would "allow non-stockpile chemical agents, munitions, or related materials specifically designated by the Secretary of Defense to be destroyed at stockpile facilities once the affected states have issued the appropriate permits."

This language must be removed! Here's why:

1) Currently, most "stockpile facilities" are incinerators. Despite a growing movement for safe, non-incineration chemical weapons disposal, chemical weapons incinerators are currently operating in the Pacific and in Utah. Incinerator construction is moving ahead at stockpile sites in Alabama, Arkansas and Oregon. Colorado and Kentucky are not yet guaranteed implementation of an alternative technology.
Chemical weapons incinerators don't work. All incinerators release toxic compounds, including PCBs, heavy metals and dioxins out the smokestack. Once emitted these dangerous toxins bioaccumulate in our fish, milk, eggs and other foods at levels that threaten our health.The incinerators in Utah and the Pacific have experienced fires, explosions and releases of chemical agent into the environment.

2) Portable, non-incineration technologies are already being developed to treat non-stockpile materiel. Two technologies, the Rapid Response System and the Munitions Management Device, have received a Research and Development permit by the state of Utah and may soon be tested. Additional treatment technologies are on the way. The Army should continue to develop and implement safe innovative technologies rather than relying on antiquated incinerator technologies.

3) As it is written, the proposed language may open the floodgates to stockpile communities to receive unknown amounts of military hazardous wastes to be burned. This is clearly inappropriate.

4) Shipments of non-stockpile materiel into some stockpile sites violates the spirit of environmental justice. Each of the chemical weapons stockpile sites currently moving ahead with incineration has a high people of color population and/or has suffered disproportionately from exposure to toxic compounds. It is unjust to propose that these communities receive additional shipments of military wastes, particularly if those wastes would be burned. It is even more unjust to do so when alternatives are clearly available.

Please act now to remove this language from Subtitle D, Section 141 of the House Armed Services Committee proposal! Following are the names and phone numbers of Committee members. Call your Representative now and encourage others to do the same.

For more information please contact the CWWG or non-stockpile Coalition at (606) 986-0868 or by email at kefcrowe@acs.eku.edu.

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Background

Non-stockpile materiel is in short, the leftovers of Army chemical weapon production and testing. Some non-stockpile weapons date back to the early 1900s. Non-stockpile materiel can be found at hundreds of sites in over 30 states, in the form of chemically-configured bombs, rockets, projectiles, chemical agent testing kits, agent-filled ton containers and much more.

The Non-Stockpile Chemical Weapons Citziens Coalition (Coalition) is a grassroots network of environmental justice organizations and citizens living near non-stockpile sites in the U.S. Our mission is to ensure that non-stockpile chemical materiel is retrieved, handled and destroyed in a manner which is protective of public health and the environment.

The Coalition is a "sister" network to the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), which has for eight years fought the Army's plan to build incinerators to destroy the large stockpile of chemical weapons stored in 9 U.S. communities. The CWWG has successfully promoted safer, non-incineration technologies for chemical weapons disposal at two of the stockpile sites, however the Army continues to move forward with incineration. Stockpile communities have for years feared that if incinerators are built, they will serve not only the chemical weapons disposal program, but as depositories for all kinds of military wastes.


Both the CWWG and the non-stockpile Coalition have strongly stated that non-stockpile chemical materiel should not be sent to stockpile facilities for destruction, especially while the Army's choice disposal facility is incineration. Rather, we support destruction of stockpile and non-stockpile chemical weapons using "closed-loop" non-incineration technologies, which will not randomly emit toxics into the environment. The Army has already developed three portable, non-incineration methods which will soon be tested for disposal of non-stockpile materiel. More such technologies are to come.

Another set of non-incineration technologies have been identified and demonstrated through the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment for disposal of stockpiled chemical weapons. A report will be issued in September 1999 to determine what technologies may be implemented in place of incineration.

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House Armed Services Committee Members


AL Terry Everett (202) 225-2901
AL Bob Riley (202) 225-3261
AZ Bob Stump (202) 225-4576
AR Vic Snyder (202) 225-2506
CA Duncan Hunter (202) 225-5672
CA Mary Bono (202) 225-5330
CA Steven Kuykendall (202) 225-8220
CA Mike Thompson (202) 225-3311
CA Loretta Sanchez (202) 225-2965
CA Ellen Tauscher (202) 225-1880
CA Howard McKeon (202) 225-1956
CO Joel Hefley (202) 225-4422
CT James Maloney (202) 225-3822
FL Joe Scarborough (202) 225-4136
FL Tilly Fowler (202) 225-2501
GA Saxby Chambliss (202) 225-6531
GA Cynthia McKinney (202) 225-1605
GU Robert Underwood (202) 225-1188
HI Neil Abercrombie (202) 225-2726
IL Lane Evans (202) 225-5905
IL Rod Blagojevich (202) 225-4061
IN Steven Buyer (202) 225-5037
IN John Hostettler (202) 225-4636
KS Jim Ryun (202) 225-6601
ME Tom Allen (202) 225-6116
MD Roscoe Bartlett (202) 225-2721
MA Martin Meehan (202) 225-3411
MS Gene Taylor (202) 225-5772
MO Ike Skelton (202) 225-2876
MO James Talent (202) 225-2561
NV Jim Gibbons (202) 225-6155
NJ Robert Andrews (202) 225-6501
NJ Jim Saxton (202) 225-4765
NY John McHugh (202) 225-4611
NC Robin Hayes (202) 225-3715
NC Walter Jones, Jr. (202) 225-3415
NC Mike McIntyre (202) 225-2731
OH John Kasich (202) 225-5355
OK J.C. Watts (202) 225- 6165
PA Curt Weldon (202) 225-2011
PA Joe Pitts (202) 225-2411
PA Donald Sherwood (202) 225-3731
RI Patrick Kennedy (202) 225-4911
SC Lindsey Graham (202) 225-5301
SC Floyd Spence (202) 225-2452
SC John Spratt, Jr. (202) 225-5501
TN Van Hilleary (202) 225-6831
TX Solomon Ortiz (202) 225-7742
TX Silvestre Reyes (202) 225-4831
TX Jim Turner (202) 225-2401
TX Ciro Rodriguez (202) 225-1640
TX William Thornberry (202) 225-3706
UT James Hansen (202) 225-0453
VA Herbert Bateman (202) 225-4261
VA Norman Sisisky (202) 225-6365
VA Owen Pickett (202) 225-4215
WA Adam Smith (202) 225-8901

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Elizabeth Crowe
Chemical Weapons Working Group
Non-Stockpile Citizens Coalition
(606) 986-0868 (work)
(606) 986-2695 (fax)
(606) 985-0641 (home)
kefcrowe@acs.eku.edu