Chemical Weapons Working Group
PO Box 467
Berea, KY 40403
(606) 986-0868 fax: (606) 986-2695
www.cwwg.org
for more information:
Craig Williams (606) 986-7565
Elizabeth Crowe (606) 986-0868
for immediate release: Friday October 16, 1998
ARMY'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATOR PRODUCING HAZARDOUS WASTE AT A RATE 15 TIMES THE AMOUNT OF CHEMICAL AGENT PROCESSED
Toxic residual material then dumped, pumped and burned in communities across the nation
The Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) today released information showing that the Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Utah, the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility (TOCDF), is producing 15 pounds of hazardous waste for every one pound of chemical agent burned.
From August 1996, when agent operations began, to March 1998, the facility processed 2,995,954 (less than 3 million) pounds of chemical agent, contained in M55 rockets, ton containers and MC-1 bombs. In that same timeframe, TOCDF produced 45,028,256 (over 45 million) pounds of hazardous waste, which was shipped off-site to landfills, incinerators and other disposal facilities including deep well injection sites all across the country. While the Army measures the success of its incineration program based on the amount of agent burned, citizens groups say the massive amount of hazardous by- products generated by TOCDF must not be ignored.
During the 1970s, the Army experimented with neutralization as a disposal method, and later rejected that option, a main reason being the "high" amount of secondary waste generated.
CWWG spokesman Craig Williams said, "The Army stated in the 1980s that a primary reason for choosing incineration as a disposal technology was the low amount of hazardous waste it would generate compared to neutralization. However, the agent-to-waste ratio with neutralization in the 70's was nowhere near 15 to 1 at that time, and non-incineration disposal methods have greatly improved since then."
Grantsville, Utah resident Chip Ward said, "Incineration is clearly an unsafe technology, releasing thousands of toxic chemicals, such as dioxins, PCBs, and heavy metals from the smokestacks. Not only is TOCDF polluting our communities, its by-products are polluting communities across the country."
Since startup of operations at TOCDF, hazardous brine, incinerator ash, laboratory wastes, metals and other wastes from the Utah incinerator have been shipped to these locations:
•Corpus Christi, TX •Los Angeles, CA •Millington, TN •Pecatonica, IL •Deer Park, TX •Grassy Mountain, UT •Vernon, CA •Denver, CO •Clive, UT •Chicago, IL •Grand View, ID
Hazardous wastes from the Army's incinerator in the Pacific (JACADS) have been shipped to:
•San Jose, CA •El Dorado, AR •Knolls, UT •Kettleman, CA •Westmorland, CA •Clive UT •Aragonite, UT •Fredonia, KS
The CWWG information that hazardous waste is leaving TOCDF has been verified through documents obtained from the Utah Department of Solid and Hazardous Waste and EPA Region IX.
Many of these communities have suffered from toxic industrial pollution for years. Charlotte Smith, a member of a citizen watchdog group near the Laidlaw "Safety Kleen" landfill close to Millington, TN, where waste from TOCDF is dumped, said "We are very concerned with this information. Our organization was founded in the 1980s to deal with problems our community faces from nearby toxic industries, and our understanding is that the Millington landfill is only supposed to be receiving waste from within a 150 mile radius."
Wastes shipped to the Empak plant in Deer Park, TX and Encycle/Texas Inc. in Corpus Christi, contribute to contamination of low-income, minority communities. LaNell Anderson lives in Channelview, TX near the Empak facility, which has a deep well injection operation. "Channelview is 63% Hispanic, 20% African-American, and 100% low income," she said. "There are millions of toxic bullets coming our way daily from all over the country, and we don't want any more. Our community is already sick and dying."
The CWWG has for years been promoting safe alternative disposal technologies, which show a much lower production of hazardous waste than does incineration. A Congressionally-mandated alternative technologies program is underway to demonstrate several technologies that have been identified as more viable than incineration for chemical weapons disposal with considerably less hazardous end products.
"Incineration is a technology that routinely disperses hazardous material out its stacks, and creates huge amounts of toxic by-products, which then have to be disposed of somewhere else," said Jane Williams of California Communities Against Toxics. "Imagine the amount of hazardous waste that will be dumped on communities if the Army builds the five additional chemical weapons incinerators they have planned," she said. "This approach is a complete failure from a waste reduction/ management standpoint."
The CWWG pointed out that one of the many major systems at TOCDF that has been unable to operate is the Brine Reduction Area (BRA). This system is supposed to reduce the huge volumes of liquid waste down to less amounts of salts to be landfilled. But, according to a letter written by the TOCDF contractor dated July 28, 1998 the decision has been made to "discontinue the operation of the BRA." As a result, massive amounts of liquid hazardous waste will be shipped off site continually for the next seven to eight years of projected operation.
The CWWG's Williams said, "The Army is responsible for providing 'maximum protection' to workers and the public in its chemical weapons disposal program. The incineration program protects neither citizens living at chemical weapons stockpile sites, nor the people living near sites where incinerator by- products are dumped. The real solution to this waste problem is in safe, modern alternatives to incineration." |
