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

To: NicktheGreek who wrote (1321)	11/13/1998 2:26:00 PM
From: hcm1943	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1755

THANK YOU NICK NOW READ THIS AND SEND IT TO EVERYONE IN CONGRESS; for immediate release: Friday, November 13, 1998 RUSSIANS BLAST CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATION TECHNOLOGY; EXPERT CALLS INCINERATION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS "OUTDATED" AND "APPALLING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT" Two international wire service stories reporting Russia's efforts to destroy 44,000 tons of chemical weapons both label incineration, the disposal technology of choice of the U.S. Army, in very negative terms. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that President Boris Yeltsen ordered Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov to increase efforts to attract funding to help destroy the Russian chemical stockpile noting that, "Fears have recently been raised that the cash-starved Russian government will burn the chemical weapons if it can't afford more environmentally safe and internationally accepted methods of disposal." Current Russian plans call for neutralization of the chemical agents and a non-combustion secondary treatment of residuals at the Russian stockpile sites. In a Reuters article, Dr. Aleksander Pikayev, an expert at the Moscow Carnegie Center and the former Chief Counselor to the Office of the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Arms Control of the State Duma said, "The country's dire financial situation might make arms elimination impossible or pose an even greater threat to the environment." Dr. Pikayev, who is also a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences specifically condemned incineration stating, "If the [neutralization] program falls through, the chemicals will have to be destroyed in an outdated way: by incineration, which is appalling for the environment." Meanwhile, the United States Army continues to burn chemical weapons in Utah and the Pacific and to construct additional incinerators in Oregon and Alabama. They are also awaiting a permit from the state of Arkansas to begin building an incineration facility there. Additional chemical weapons incinerators are planned for Kentucky and Colorado. According to Craig Williams, spokesperson for the Chemical Weapons Working Group, an international coalition of citizens groups pushing for safe disposal methods, this is the latest example of the state of denial the U.S. Army has adopted concerning their incineration disposal technology. "The Army continues to defend burning these weapons while the rest of the world condemns it as unsound, unsafe and outdated," said Williams. " So while the international community denounces incineration, hundreds of thousands of citizens across America will bear the brunt of the environmental, and consequently the public health, impact of burning these weapons in their backyards. This is an outrage!" Alternative methods of disposal have been approved at the two U.S. bulk chemical agent storage sites, but the remaining seven munitions stockpiles are either being burned or slated to host incinerators. Recently, at the direction of Congress, the Pentagon began evaluating safer alternatives to incineration for the remaining sites, but this effort has been undermined by the Army's refusal to fully fund demonstrating the six alternatives shown to be viable options to incineration. "The incineration die-hards in the Army refuse to admit to the problems incinerators cause and face up to the fact that what they decided was a reasonable approach in 1982 is, as Dr. Pikayev says, "outdated and appalling for the environment," said Williams. "That's why we've taken legal action to stop incineration while pushing for safe alternatives and we will continue to work to protect our communities from the danger these incinerators create."