If the transportation mode becomes so critical that how we transport those munitions out of here, unless the Army is willing to accept in their future site-specific environmental impact statements some safe mode of transportation such as an airlift out of here, to those other sites where there will be, I am sure, competent incineration plants, until we can see that occur and some dealing of good faith with the State of Kentucky, only when that occurs, will I think the State be willing to go along with any sort of agreement with the Army. Short of that, short of any of those actions, I think the State would have no other alternative but to proceed with litigation. Mr. HOPKINS. Mr. Attorney General, let me ask you this, again for the record, and followup on the chairman's question. If the U.S. Army should meet all the necessary requirements as far as permits are concerned, are you, as attorney general, saying that you still have the authority as attorney general to stop this from happening? Mr. ARMSTRONG. I think we have the authority to require the U.S. Army to comply with the Environmental Policy Act. I think any citizens in this country has the right to ask them to comply with that. Mr. HOPKINS. Where are you legally, if, in fact, the Army can say we have complied with the required environmental news? Mr. ARMSTRONG. Congressman, I would not want to project where we would be at that time because I am not assured that the Army will comply with that. You may tell us that there will be that cooperation sometime in March Mr. HOPKINS. I am not implying there will be, you understand; I am just trying to find out what grounds you are on because other people are talking about litigation, as you well know. Mr. ARMSTRONG. I think that the litigation ought to be unified. We don't need a plethora of lawsuits in our Federal courts dealing with this one subject matter. I think as the attorney general, from my conversations with the Governor and the Governor's staff, and I think what would truly reflect the total policy of State government, and that is to see that there is some unified compliance by the Army. Failure to do that, I think I have my marching orders from people of this county and from the State to go ahead and bring litigation. Mr. HOPKINS. In your conversations with the Governor, what has her support of your efforts been? Mr. ARMSTRONG. I should probably go back to some 21⁄2 years when I received a phone call from the citizens groups of this county asking me to become active in their efforts. Since that time, we have been sort of a monitoring, sort of a not active participant as such, but a participant trying to see whether the Army was going to deal in good faith with the citizens over here. Only until June, when we realized that the Army was not dealing in good faith, did I take the action that I did to write to the Army asking for something that I thought would be very simple and in compliance with the law. I have never received an answer to that. I think that is a direct insult to the people of this State. 64-291 0 87 - 10 The areas for study should include, but are not limited to: sites for disposal of the agent stockpile; B. Analysis of transportation of the stockpile, application to the various modes of transport, including cryotreatment, punching and draining agents for shipment, defuzing and otherwise deactivating munitions prior to shipment, a munition-specific transport container, etc.; C. Staggered shipment of entire stockpile to Johnson Atoll or other suitable location for demilitarization; D. Further study of questions and issues not sufficiently addressed in the current decisional process and which warrant further research prior to determining which alternative(s) provide the greatest degree of protection to the environment and public. In order to assure the protection of the public and Depot personnel during the interim storage period while these studies are ongoing, the Council believes that the Army must increase the effectiveness and sophistication of current monitoring of the stockpiles, and should continue to assay the condition and deterioration trends in the stockpiles, and finally to identify and prioritize for disposal those components of the stockpile which are least capable of contined storage. In closing, the Council believes that the current decisional process is so fundamentally flawed that the final product will not begin to adequately assess the true consequences to human and environmental health of on-site incineration. We believe legislative action such as we have outlined above it necessary and timely in order to correct a decisional process that has gotten off track. If Congressional intervention is not forthcoming, and the residents of Richmond and central Kentucky are to be required to follow this process to its conclusion, however, we would ask the Subcommittee to request the Army to make locally available all of the documents referred to in the Draft EIS, and upon which the many conclusory statements in the document are grounded, in order that the public may see and independently analyze the bases for their choice of a preferred alternative. We would ask also that the supplemental studies of each site take the form of full site-specific environmental impact statements, not merely environmental assessments as were proposed by the Army during its briefing to state and federal agencies. Thank you for your concern, and this opportunity to appear before you. Kentucky Post Office Box 1070 Frankfort, Kentucky 40602 Current Status Of Nerve Agent M55 Rocket Stockpile There has been much confusion regarding the current status of the stockpile of M55 rockets in storage at the Lexington-Bluegrass Facility, (Richmond) and the trends of deterioration of the rockets stored at LBAD. A major consideration in the minds of many residents of Richmond, including the Concerned Citizens of Madison County, has been whether there is time for more research into transportation and for refinement of the technologies for handling and disposal of the agents, or whether there is such immediacy regarding the deterioration of the stockpile that any delay will cause a default decision to incinerate the rockets on-site because munition instability will preclude transportation as a viable option. In October 1985, the U.S. Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity group conducted an Independent Evaluation/Assessment of Rocket: 115MM: Chemical Agent (GB or VX), M55, which was a stockpile assessment of M55 Rockets. The stated purpose of the study was "to characterize the current condition of the rockets and to make trend predictions regarding deterioration." The Occurrence unlikely" pertinent findings of the study suggest that "the of a catastrophic event in the near future is highly from continued storage. The study conclusions further indicate that the potential hazard from internal leakage increases the risk of continued storage "slightly," but that the probability of a catastrophic event occurring due to storage is between one in ten million and 1.1 in a million. The specific findings analyzed the components of the M55 rockets, and found that: 1. M55 GB-filled rockets have developed both internal leaking (within the shipping containers) and external leaking. This problem has not occurred significantly in VX-filled rockets. There are four GB agent types, which react with the aluminum metal parts, causing corrosion, pitting and eventually, leaking. Of the four GB agent types, rockets filled with RO-RS type agent have the greatest probability of leaking. None of these agent-filled rockets are stored at Richmond. Rockets filled with PRO-RS and RD-RS agent have a lesser probability of leaking. One lot of these agent-filled rockets is stored at Richmond. Rockets filled with PRO-type agent have the smallest amount of leakers in storage. Richmond has 34 lots of PRO-type GB rockets. The study noted that rocket deterioration will continue, and concluded that "the majority of the GB rocket stockpile appears to be in good condition at this time." 2. The M28 propellant chemical formulation contains a stabilizer which keeps the propellant stable while in storage. The original content of the stabilizer was 1.57-2.17% of total weight. Once the total available stabilizer degrades in weight content below .20%, autoignition of the propellant could occur. Of the stockpile nationally, the stabilizer in the rockets at Johnston Island had decreased to 1.63%. The remaining lot segments for all locations, including Richmond, have a stabilizer content of 1.76%. A "worst case indication of remaining storage life" using the lots that had lost the most stabilizer since their production (Johnston Island), revealed that the first lot would not reach the first decision point (needing increased surveillance) for approximately 25 years. The M28 propellant "has an extensive safe storage life," although it will continue to lose available stabilizer and will eventually become unsafe for continued storage. trends, 3. The assay of the adverse degradation storage life." M62 Igniter Assembly reflected no "indicating extensive remaining safe 4. The a characterization of M417 Fuze safety reflected that the fuzes have not increased in sensitivity in 20-25 years, that "all fuzes submitted to drop and rough handling tests passed" and that "an accidental or autoignition of the M417 fuze is unlikely." M55 rockets were subject to various tests to determine the potential for accidents from handling or transportation of the rocket. A "five foot drop test" designed to simulate accidental dropping of rocket during handling, "seven foot drop/transportation vibration" tests to determine the effect of an accidental drop of a pallet of 15 rockets, and of transportation from igloo to disassembly locations, were conducted, and it was concluded that "the fuze is not likely to arm if a rocket is accidentally dropped, and that the "vibration associated with transportation has no apparent effect on fuze safety, for uncontaminated fuzes." This fact sheet was developed for use by the Concerned Citizens of Madison County, by the Kentucky Governmental Accountability Project of the Kentucky Resources Council, Inc. |