20000416

Judge OKs continued destruction of C-weapons at Utah plant

WASHINGTON: A federal judge has cleared the way for continued destruction of chemical weapons at a government incinerator in Utah, concluding there is no risk to human health or the environment, the Justice Department said on Friday.

The destruction of the weapons, including nerve gas, has been the focus of controversy for years with critics charging lax safety procedures at the US Army's Tooele chemical weapons disposal facility. They also argued that the burning releases harmful levels of toxic chemicals.

But US District Judge Tena Campbell, in a ruling issued in Salt Lake City, said that the incineration of the weapons and chemical agents at the Tooele facility presents no imminent or substantial danger to human health or the environment.

The government under a 1985 law must destroy more nearly 4 million munitions and bulk containers holding 30,000 tonnes of deadly chemical agents Ñ including nerve gas, mustard gas and VX gas Ñ once part of the military arsenal.

So far it has burned about 20 percent of the material in the special incinerators at Tooele and on the Johnston Island in the Pacific. In all, eight incinerators, including the Tooele facility, are to be used for the weapons destruction.

Campbell's decision "assures that the Army can complete the destruction of these dangerous weapons in an environmentally safe manner," said Lois J Schiffer, assistant attorney general for environment and natural resources.

Several groups, including the Chemical Weapons Working Group and the Sierra Club, had filed a lawsuit asking the court to stop the Army from operating the Tooele incinerator, arguing the facility did not meet safety requirements and violated a number of environmental laws.

But Campbell rejected the claim and said the citizen and environmental groups did not prove that any violations had occurred or were likely to occur at the Tooele facility near Salt Lake City.

The plants at Tooele and Johnston Island have been the only incinerators in operation under the Army programme. The pilot project of Johnston Island recently was concluded after more than 1,800 tonnes of chemical agent and about 380,000 tonnes of munitions and containers were destroyed.

About 4,000 tonnes of chemical agents have been burned at Tooele, about 30 percent of the total, so far. In all nearly 439,000 munitions and containers also have been burned, or about 38 percent of the total at Tooele.