GLOBAL GREEN USA DEMANDS PUBLIC DIALOGUE FOR ARMY PROPOSED HIGHWAY SHIPMENTS OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS-RELATED HAZARDOUS WASTE

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP DEMANDS PUBLIC DIALOGUE FOR ARMY PROPOSED HIGHWAY SHIPMENTS OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS-RELATED HAZARDOUS WASTE 

The New Army Plan is the Largest VX-Neutralized Waste Transportation Proposal to Date

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2007 - The U.S. Army confirmed yesterday that it plans to ship over a million gallons of nerve agent VX by-product from Newport, Indiana to an incinerator operated by Veolia Environmental Services in Port Arthur, Texas. The hydrolysate will be trucked through eight states: Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas as early as April 20, according to some sources. Global Green USA urges the US Army to open the proposed shipment to the public eye, and to involve all communities and stakeholders along the 1,000-mile route as soon as possible. 

“The Army cannot afford making another wrong step. The Army has tried shipment from Newport twice before over shorter distances, and twice had to change their plans due to lack of adequate public involvement in the process,” says Dr. Paul Walker, Global Green’s Legacy Program Director.  In December 2002, the Army signed a similar contract with Perma-Fix in Dayton, Ohio, and in November 2003, the Army signed a contract with DuPont Chambers Works in Deepwater, New Jersey.  Both industrial waste processing firms withdrew from their contracts after political and community pressure.

Walker added that the Army is also under legal obligation to involve the public.  The Fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5122) states specifically in Section 921 that “…when selecting a site for the treatment or disposal of neutralized chemical agent at a location remote from the location where the agent is stored, the Secretary of Defense should propose a credible process that seeks to gain the support of affected communities.”  “If these shipments are not based on public dialogue along the whole 1,000-mile route from Indiana to Texas,” Walker emphasized, “then the Army is violating the express wishes of Congress.”

The current shipment plan is of even greater magnitude than previous ones.  The Army must transport some 720,000 gallons of VX hydrolysate, which comes from only half of the Newport nerve agent stockpile which has already been neutralized.  Another similar amount will be produced once the remaining half is neutralized.  According to Global Green USA calculations, this would require a total of some 360 trucks or, at least 60 roundtrips of hazardous waste convoys (the Army has a permit to transport only 2-6 trucks per trip).  This would amount to at least 120,000 miles of highway travel being covered back and forth between Newport, Indiana and Port Arthur, Texas. 

“Transportation of such hazardous waste originating from one of the world’s deadliest chemicals – VX nerve agent – especially of such large scale and over such long distances, is not something to be done without full public scrutiny and dialogue, no matter how pressing the international legal context may be. Moreover, the Army must give public notice well in advance to all communities, local emergency preparedness and hazmat teams along the way, and must allow the States to conduct risk assessments of such unique characteristic waste,” adds Walker.  Data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shows, for example, that trucks are involved annually in approximately 400,000 crashes annually, while 28-35 % of trucks with hazardous cargos involved in fatal crashes spilled their content.  

Under a Chemical Weapons Convention extended deadline, the United States must reach a 45% destruction milestone of its declared 31,500-ton chemical weapons stockpile by December 31, 2007 and total elimination by April 29, 2012. Global Green USA believes that on-site processing, as originally planned, rather than shipment off-site would be a less politically challenging option and likely more cost efficient.  

The destruction of the seven remaining chemical weapons stockpiles in the United States, as mandated by the Chemical Weapons Convention, is very important for international and homeland security, but foremost must be full protection of public health and the environment. 

Global Green USA has over ten years of experience facilitating meetings and dialogues among all stakeholders in the ongoing threat reduction and nonproliferation process for weapons of mass destruction. The Green Cross/Global Green Legacy Program regularly facilitates high-level meetings in Moscow, Geneva, Washington DC, and elsewhere to promote global threat reduction. Green Cross also facilitates public hearings and meetings at the local and regional levels around WMD-elimination facilities.