On February 7, 1997, the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) made it's final decision to accept the United States Army's application to build a chemical weapons incineration facility near Hermiston, Oregon. Despite overwhelming evidence that incineration is the worst available option for destroying the 12 percent of the nation's obsolete chemical weapons stockpile stored at the Umatilla Army Depot, the EQC has given the green light for the Army and Raytheon Corporation to spend $1.3 billion of taxpayer money to construct five incinerators, sacrificing public health and ecosystem integrity for corporate profits and questionable military agendas.
Widespread opposition by citizen groups, environmental organizations, health organizations and Native Americans has not deterred the Army from designating incineration as the preferred method of detoxification for the chemical agents stored at the Umatilla Army depot. The technical literature describing the limitations and adverse impacts of incineration is extensive. The incineration of chemical warfare agents poses unacceptable health risks of both an immediate and long term nature--the greatest dangers being cancer, birth defects, reproductive dysfunction, immune system disorders and neurological damage. These adverse effects are known to occur at even very low exposure to incinerator emissions.
Some of the quantifiable chemicals and metals that will be released at Umatilla include unburned nerve gas and mustard agent; persistent and bioaccumulative organochlorines such as dioxins, furans, chloromethane, vinyl chloride and PCBs; metals such as lead, mercury, copper and nickel; and other toxics such as arsenic. These represent only a fraction of the thousands of chemicals and metals that will be emitted throughout the Columbia River watershed. In addition to emissions, highly toxic ashes and effluents will be created, posing a significant health threat.
Contrary to what incineration advocates claim, the stockpile at Umatilla has small potential for explosion or chain reaction as a result of decay. The danger is not nearly as grave as the Army proclaims. According to a 1994 General Accounting Office report, the National Research Council's original estimate of 17.7 years of safe storage is erroneous; the actual figure is 120 years. In addition, the Army has repeatedly ignored the option of reconfiguring the stockpile (separating the agents from the energetics and propellants), which would eliminate the question of safe storage entirely. The Army has the knowledge and capability to accomplish this quickly, and has testified to this in 1994 Senate hearings. By ignoring this logical option, the Army has been able to capitalize on the public fear of a spontaneous decay explosion, forcing incineration as the only option.
Even a cursory glance at the facts shows that there is no justification for incineration. The National Academy of Sciences report entitled Review and Evaluation of Alternative Chemical Disposal Technologies states, "there has been sufficient development to warrant re-evaluation of alternative technologies for chemical agent destruction." There are several alternatives to incineration that provide the community with a safer, mobile, cheaper and more timely solution while insuring that Oregon will not be saddled with a permanent hazardous waste facility once this ill-fated project is complete.
The alternatives include, but are not limited to, chemical neutralization, molten metals, electrochemical oxidation and solvated electron technology (SET). The SET process is non-thermal, low-pressure, low-temperature and has no air emissions. The process has demonstrated the capability to destroy all of the mustard and nerve gas in the US chemical weapons stockpile. In a February 27, 1997 letter to President Clinton, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen stated, "I am committed to going the extra mile to explore whether there may be safer and more environmentally sound alternatives to incineration." It appears that everyone involved in this national issue is looking for an alternative to incineration, everyone except the Army and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
Recently, the Oregon Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission was told by the Hermiston Fire Chief, Jim Stearns, that in case of a chemical weapons release at the Umatilla Army Depot "Don't call 911." Why? Because the Hermiston Fire Department has not received personal protective body suits, respirators, air monitors, mobile decontamination equipment, antidote kits or adequate medical training. This begs the question, if the Army is so concerned that the Umatilla Depot is dangerously close to leaking live agents, thus the need to incinerate before a disaster occurs, why have they done so little to help prepare the community for the impending disaster?
Testifying at a hearing on an environmental challenge to the Toole, Utah Chemical Weapons Disposal Facility, which is the model for the Umatilla incinerator, Army manager Tim Thomas admitted the following incidents have occurred since incineration began there last year. Agent detection has occurred in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning vestibules. Agent stack alarms sound once to twice a week. Mr. Thomas admitted the Army doesn't know what is causing the alarms to go off but claimed it is not agent releases. Decontamination fluid has leaked through the cracks in the concrete floor into an electrical control room. Mr. Thomas confirmed that cracks continue to occur in the floors of the facility.
The Sierra Club, Chemical Weapons Working Group and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation are asking Judge Tena Campbell to issue an injunction to stop the incineration of the chemical weapons at Toole. One of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Bob Guild, explained, "These serious revelations about the technologies' risks from the highest plant officials and government managers make it clear that the Toole incinerator must be shut down to protect human health and the environment." Based on a review of Army data from Toole incineration operations, Pat Costner, a senior research scientist with Greenpeace, concluded, "the reports clearly indicate presence of GB agent in stack gases." Costner also criticized the incinerator's monitoring system saying, "The Army does not have a reliable system of detection or quantification of nerve agent."
In addition, the Army prototype facility, JACADS, located in the South Pacific, has been a case study in unsafe technology. According to the Army's own data, a fire, an explosion, 32 internal releases of nerve agent and two nerve gas releases into the atmosphere have resulted in EPA fines totaling more than $100,000. The facility is 450 percent over budget and had over 30 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act non-compliances in 1995 alone.
There is still time to stop this tragedy from occurring. Please call or write Oregon Senators Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden and urge them to listen to their constituency. Tell them to demand an immediate halt to the incineration facility at the Umatilla Army Depot. Write: United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510; (800) 972-3524.