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Strategies & Market Trends : CXI-Commodore Environmental -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: William Bach who wrote (1730)	3/27/2000 1:47:00 PM
From: Czechsinthemail	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1755

posted by hcm1943 on Yahoo: CHEMICAL WEAPONS WORKING GROUP P.O. Box 467, Berea, Kentucky 40403 Phone: (606) 986-7565 Fax: (606) 986-2695 e-mail: kefwilli @ acs.eku.edu web: www.cwwg.org for further information: Craig Williams: (606) 986-7565 Bob Schaeffer : (941) 395-6773 Jason Groenewald: (801) 364-5110 Chip Ward: (435) 884-6291 for immediate release, Wednesday, March 22, 2000 SAFETY HEAD'S MEMOS, "SECRET" DOCUMENTS SHOW ARMY'S TOOELE CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATOR CONTINUES TO ENDANGER WORKERS, PUBLIC AND THE ENVIRONMENT The Army's controversial Tooele, Utah, chemical weapons incinerator presents a current threat to facility workers and downwind communities, according to a senior manager's handwritten notes and previously-secret reports from inside that facility which were made public today. Among the documents is an internal memo by the Army's Tooele contractor, EG&G Defense Materials, which directly contradicts a previously published report claiming that agent had not escaped from the facility. The EG&G memo states, "This [prior] report concludes that agent did not migrate outside the Munitions Disposal Building (MDB), when the data indicate that it did." The EG&G memo also suggests that hundreds of incidents involving agent alarms, which were classified as non-agent events, be reviewed due to "misinterpretation by investigators." Other official documents demonstrate that workers at the Utah incineration facility were exposed to chemical warfare agents on a number of occasions. The documents and notes were compiled from August, 1999 to mid-January 2000 by Steven Jones, a former whistleblower who returned to Tooele as the plant's Safety Manager last summer after a federal court ruled he had been illegally fired. They were released by the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), a national alliance of organizations which advocate alternatives to incineration. Jones' handwritten notes include such statements as: - "Not only did agent leave the Munitions Disposal Building; personnel were exposed, confirmed" - "Yesterday the [chemical agent rocket feed] chutes jammed again. The procedure amazingly enough is to drop I-beams down the chute to dislodge the rocket parts. Keep in mind both gates are open and the furnace is hot. They aren't particularly concerned about an explosion, but should be." - "In total it looks like incineration is a failed technology." According to Jones, Tooele managers conspired to obstruct justice by encouraging employees to mislead the judge at a federal court trial challenging the plant's operating permit and by collaborating with sympathetic state regulators: - "The Army's "Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization (PMCD) threatened to fire anyone who didn't testify 'correctly' during the trial. So they lied or just played stupid . . . everyone here wants alternatives [to incineration] and are fed up with PMCD. These incinerators just simply won't work." - "The real problem here is the state completely works with PMCD to find ways to circumvent the laws and permit. " - "We have released agent." CWWG spokesperson Craig Williams said, "These documents are a telling indictment of the Tooele plant and the entire chemical weapons incineration program. They detail the methods used by the Army to cover its tracks on worker exposure, agent releases and intentional violations of legal regulations and permit requirements. " Williams concluded, "We will be turning this material over to the U.S. Attorney's office and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Criminal Investigations Division and expect a full investigation." - - 3 0 - - Documents and excerpts from Jones' notes are available from the CWWG upon request.