Water Policy Report - 07/05/2000

Wed, 2000-07-05 00:00

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AIR FORCE TO APPEAL DECISION SENDING FEDERAL AIR CASES TO STATE COURT

The Air Force plans to appeal a precedent-setting Clean Air Act (CAA) decision by a federal appeals court, which recently ruled that state and local governments have the right to try air quality civil penalty cases against the military and other federal entities in state courts. The opinion vacates a district court judgment and remands the case to a state court. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and six other California air districts supported the case, People of the State...

UTAH, CDC CALL FOR CHANGES BEFORE RE-START OF TOOELE INCINERATOR

Worker error and insufficient operating and contingency procedures led to the leak of chemical agent at the Army's chemical weapons destruction facility in Tooele, UT, last May, state regulators say. As a result, the state's environmental permitting agency won't let the facility re-start until a number of actions are taken, including a re-look at the design of feed chutes that lead into one of the furnaces. A spokesman for the Army's chemical weapons destruction program says the Army has already...

HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE TO HOLD HEARING ON TOOELE AGENT RELEASE

A House Armed Services subcommittee plans to hold a hearing, possibly in mid-July, to delve into the Army's chemical weapons destruction program, and specifically question the Army and others on the May release of chemical agent at an Army chemical weapons destruction facility in Utah. In early May, a small quantity of chemical agent was released from the Tooele Chemical Agent Demilitarization Facility's incinerator stack. The incinerator was not burning any materials at the time, and investigators have linked the...

ARMY INVESTIGATORS CALL FOR NUMEROUS CHANGES AT TOOELE FACILITY

Army investigators who examined the May release of chemical agent at an Army chemical weapons incinerator are recommending that the facility adopt a system that would allow operators to cut off the flow of air from an incinerator kiln during upset conditions, thereby safeguarding against such a release in the future. The Army report makes this and other recommendations aimed at mechanical, procedural and management areas in order to prevent a recurrence of the incident. Army Deputy Assistant Secretary for...

DOD MAKING PROGRESS ON JACADS CLOSURE PLAN, BUT ISSUES REMAIN

Top officials in the Army and Air Force are now working together to determine how to clean up the Army's Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) when operations cease, but several issues on what that cleanup will look like remain among various federal agencies, Army officials told a National Research Council (NRC) panel June 22. The panel wrote to the Army in May, expressing concern that a lack of a coordinated closure plan among nine federal agencies with a...

ALABAMA COMMISSION UPHOLDS PERMIT FOR ANNISTON INCINERATOR

Alabama's Environmental Management Commission has unanimously endorsed the conclusions in a 663-page report that finds the state properly issued air and hazardous waste permits for the Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston. The June 20 decision was praised by the Army but decried by citizens pushing for non-incineration destruction technologies; these citizens plan to take the issue to state court, sources say. Two local citizen groups -- Serving Alabama's Future Environment and Families Concerned About Nerve Gas Incineration -- appealed...

ARMY OUTLINES MODIFIED BASELINE FACILITY PROPOSAL FOR PUEBLO

Based on lessons learned while destroying mustard munitions on Johnston Atoll, the Army is proposing a streamlined incineration facility for the chemical weapons stockpile in Pueblo, CO. The so-called modified baseline facility would be about 60 percent smaller than the operating incinerator in Utah, would cost about 40 percent less than the baseline technology and would use about half the amount of water daily, an important consideration in the desert climate of Pueblo, according to the Army. Army officials briefed...

MODIFICATIONS TO ABERDEEN FACILITY COULD FACE PUBLIC OPPOSITION

The Army's plans to significantly modify its permit for a chemical weapons destruction facility in Maryland to include a heat treatment technology could face opposition from citizens who equate any type of heat technology with incineration, Army and citizen sources say. But the Army plans to go ahead with the modification request, saying the public does not have veto power over Army business decisions. At issue is the Army's desire to add an electric "oven" as a back-up method to...

RESIDENTS' RISK PERCEPTIONS LARGELY UNCHANGED BY TOOELE RELEASE

A recent survey of public risk perception in Utah finds that contrary to popular belief, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that risk and trust perceptions have been affected by the accidental release of agent in May from the Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Tooele, UT, according to the survey's coordinator, Bryan Williams. Instead, the survey, conducted following the well-publicized release of nerve agent at the Tooele chemical weapons incinerator plant, shows that residents have become increasingly aware of public...

CSEPP INCREASING PUBLIC OUTREACH EFFORTS IN RESPONSE TO SURVEY

The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) is looking for ways to increase public knowledge about the program after a recent survey found that communities around chemical weapons stockpile sites had low levels of emergency preparedness knowledge and low to moderate levels of perceived emergency preparedness. "Generally, we're disappointed in the figures," John Yaquaint, a CSEPP public affairs officer, told a National Research Council (NRC) panel June 22. "We're going to juice up our public outreach." CSEPP is a joint...

OREGON COURT AFFIRMS CLARIFYING ORDER ON CARBON FILTERS

An Oregon state court has affirmed a state environmental commission's clarification that the commission did not rely on the addition of carbon filters to a pending chemical weapons incinerator when it made a key finding used to support permitting the facility. The Multnomah County Circuit Court ruled June 19 in favor of the state in G.A.S.P., et al. v. EQC and Environmental Quality Commission, et al. , according to a press release from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The...

EPA PAPER AIMS TO IMPROVE REGIONAL USE OF INSTITUTIONAL CONTROLS

EPA officials are developing a new institutional controls (ICs) guidance as part of an effort, set to begin this summer, to improve regional implementation of ICs at both Superfund and Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) corrective action sites. This effort is being prompted by a belief among top-level waste officials that regions are not adequately monitoring and enforcing ICs. Until now, regional officials say they have not been required under the law to implement ICs in the way headquarters...

DTSC'S LOWRY CRITICIZES MILITARY BASE CLEANUP, FUTURE USE PLANS

California toxics department chief Ed Lowry said in late June that he's "troubled" by an emerging trend by the military to inadequately clean up former bases, relying in many cases on unclear future uses of the sites. Speaking before a California Senate select committee, Lowry also reiterated his belief that the military should retain cleanup responsibility over transferred land indefinitely. "The military would like to transfer land and leave and have no more responsibility," Lowry said June 21 at the...

ARMY AUDIT FINDS SOME PROGRESS, BUT CLEANUP DATA STILL INEXACT

Army auditors have given the Army staff a mixed review on the way in which the Army determines and programs for restoration costs. While the auditors found significant improvements in the data-gathering methods used, they still found the Army's reporting of cleanup information to be inaccurate or unsupportable. Inaccuracies led the Army to program $12.8 million in unneeded funds toward cleanups in the future budgeting plan for fiscal years 2000-2005, a recent Army Audit Agency report says. "Although the Army...

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