Here's a story that likely will not receive a bit of attention outside the two communities mentioned in the article. Here's the background.
In 1997, we and the Ruskies signed an agreement to destroy chemical and biological weapons. These weapons are nasty stuff -- chemical and biological agents in artillery shells, rockets, and bombs. Storage is a problem because, over time, these things can change composition and become unstable, or, they can leak. Transport is a problem -- what happens if a train with one carload of chemical weapons wrecks?
Our stockpile was in seven locations: Anniston, AL; Toelle, UT; Pueblo, CO; Lexington, KY; Umatilla, OR; Pine Bluff, AR; and Johnston Atoll.
When the search began for a way to destroy these stockpiles, the first proposal was to build a destruction facility on Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific. Then, the weapons would be moved by train or truck to a port, shipped to Johnston Atoll, and destroyed. As you can imagine, communities through which this material would be transported were not excited about the idea and, eventually, that proposal was shelved in favor of a proposal to build seven destruction facilities -- one at each storage site -- and destroy the weapons on-site.
In each community, EXTENSIVE public meetings went on involving local citizens, environmental groups, the feds, and contractors.
These weapons are destroyed either by (1) incineration (burn 'em), or, (2) chemical neutralization (open 'em, pour out the bad stuff, chemically neutralize it). Eventually, seven on-site facilities were built -- five incinerators, two neutralizers.
Now that Pueblo and Lexington are on track to complete destruction, it may be time to look back at what has happened, and, more importantly, what has not happened.
The incineration sites (Anniston, Umatilla, Pine Bluff, Johnston Atoll, and Tooele) all destroyed the weapons without incident or environmental harm.
The Pueblo and Blue Grass sites have been extensively tested and their operations have been incident-free to this point.
All communities got a lot of jobs and subcontracts, and the construction firms (Bechtel was the main one) made a tidy profit. And the sky didn't fall.
Everyone involved in this deserves a lot of credit:
-- The local folks and environmental groups who both protested and helped work out a solution;
-- The DoD who listened and helped work out a solution;
-- The contractors who built and operated the facilities, and who also were part of working out the solution.