for immediate release: Monday October 12, 1998
KENTUCKY'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION UNIFIED IN SUPPORT OF COMPLETE ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS FOR CHEMICAL WEAPONS DISPOSAL
In a strong showing of unity, the entire Kentucky U.S. Congressional Delegation has signed a letter to Defense Secretary William Cohen requesting that he, "...dedicate the funding appropriated by Congress to complete the demonstrations of all six alternative treatment technologies that passed the stringent criteria within the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) Program." Currently funds are only being made available to demonstrate three of the six technologies identified through ACWA as viable disposal options to incineration for destroying the chemical weapons stored in Kentucky and elsewhere around the country.
ACWA legislation was initiated by Kentucky Senators Wendell Ford and Mitch McConnell in 1996. After Senator Ford's ACWA amendment to the 1997 Defense Authorization Act was killed in Joint Conference Committee, Senator McConnell succeeded in getting his legislation passed as an amendment to the 1997 Defense Appropriations Bill. The Senators have continued to work together to ensure that the ACWA program fulfills the Congressional intent which is to deploy the safest method to dispose of these weapons.
To that end, Senator McConnell, with Senator Ford's co-sponsorship, succeeded in getting an Appropriations amendment passed this year that gave Secretary Cohen the discretion to spend not more than $25 million to complete the ACWA demonstrations. In August four Senators joined McConnell and Ford in a letter to Cohen urging him to expend these funds for ACWA, and in September they wrote President Clinton urging him to have Cohen release the funds. Thus far the Pentagon has been unwilling to take the $25 million needed from its $16 billion disposal budget.
Now, the six Kentucky U.S. Representatives have unanimously joined the effort by signing on to a similar letter to Secretary Cohen requesting the Pentagon fund the demonstration of all the alternative technologies found viable by the ACWA program. The letter to Cohen points to the need for complete ACWA funding, saying, "The ACWA program implements technologies to destroy the nation's chemical weapons stockpile in a manner more protective of the public health and safety than the current baseline incineration program. These technologies are more protective of human health and the environment and more acceptable to communities across this nation."
Craig Williams, Director of the Berea based Chemical Weapons Working Group said, "The solidarity and bipartisanship of the Kentucky U.S. House and Senate delegations concerning this issue is a tremendous asset for the people of the Commonwealth. It reflects the total commitment by all our elected officials to ensure that only the safest and most environmentally protective disposal technologies will be used here in Kentucky."
The letter to Secretary Cohen also states that the importance of complete funding for the demonstrations goes beyond ACWA's application to chemical weapons disposal: "Moreover, the ACWA program will accelerate our nation's ability to deploy cutting-edge technologies to destroy Superfund waste, hazardous waste, and such things as napalm, obsolete pesticides and a host of military wastes. Furthermore, since clean disposal technologies are in high demand around the world, ACWA acts as an investment in America's economic and environmental future by supporting innovative, alternative remediation technologies."
Williams agreed, saying, "The complete execution of this program is recognized by the Kentucky delegation as having implications well beyond the primary objective of safe chemical weapons disposal. Representatives Rogers, Baesler, Bunning, Lewis, Northup and Whitfield are playing an important role not only in protecting Kentucky citizens but in leading the way towards marketable clean-up technologies world-wide. This is good for us, good for the environment and good for America's long term economic growth."
"Unfortunately, certain interests don't want incineration to be shown inferior," continued Williams. "For the Pentagon to claim they can't afford $25 million out of their $16 billion chemical disposal budget is ludicrous."
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