Army replaces key demilitarization personnel

 Hermiston Herald
Jan. 24, 2003:
By Frank Lockwood (F. Ellsworth Lockwood)
Staff writer

In a national shakeup of chemical demilitarization, several top Army officials, some of whom visited Hermiston last year, are being replaced, and agencies are being combined.

Amidst the changes, anti-incineration groups, now disillusioned with last year's leadership, have disclaimed Assistant Secretary of the Army Mario Fiori, welcoming the Army's decision earlier this month to remove oversight of chemical demilitarization from Fiori.

Resistance to a Umatilla-style CSEPP program was a factor: Intercepted e-mail revealed that Fiori had planned to force such a program into effect as part of the federal agenda for Alabama, but his plan backfired.

Only a year ago, oversight of chemical demilitarization was moved to the Army's Environmental Office, which was under Fiori. Incineration opponents had hoped at the time that they would make progress in their anti-incineration agenda with Fiori in charge. The Army had charged Fiori with the mission of building strong, collaborative partnerships with appropriate Federal agencies, State and local regulatory agencies, and other stakeholders.

"Our objective is to streamline management of the Chemical Demilitarization Program by eliminating ... layers of oversight, clarifying responsibility, and improving accountability," the 2001 orders read. And Chemical Weapons Working Group welcomed Fiori in pubic announcements as he took over programs. Now, however, unhappy over what they view as too-little public input, too-secret information, the CWWG have changed their opinion.

"We thought putting de-mil in the Army Environmental Office made sense at the time," said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, "but we didn't count on a management style based on covert operations and the total exclusion of public participation."

Williams sided with Alabama officials after, in October, news came out of the Army's plan to "challenge" Anniston, Alabama emergency planners to join in a series of monthly, emergency training sessions. Via e-mail, Army officials had discussed ways to implement a Umatilla-style CSEPP readiness
program.

Since then, a major leadership shakedown has occurred. On Jan. 15, the secretary of the Army ordered the chemical weapons disposal program moved out from under Fiori and the Army's Environmental Office, back under back under Acquisitions, Logistics and Technology where it had been a year earlier.

Representing another break from the past, the Office of Acquisitions, Logistics and Technology will manage both storage and disposal. In the past those were handled by separate entities. Both will soon be under Assistant Secretary Claude Bolton, Jr., and Army Materiel Command Gen. Paul Kern, a four-star general.

E-mail War Shakes up Program
In a much publicized E-mail War or, as a Birmingham News opinion called it, the "perverse public relations war," e-mail messages revealed wide a difference of opinions between federal emergency managers and elected Alabama officials concerning how they should approach emergency training.

The rift widened as the e-mail became public, revealing what appeared to many to be a plan to embarrass the Anniston, Ala., CSEPP community into monthly emergency drills whether they wanted them or not.

The e-mail war, reported by newspapers including Birmingham News, Anniston Star, and Tri-City Herald, was, ostensibly, an attempt to document the Army's efforts to help the Anniston community prepare for an accident at the incinerator. E-mail circulated by CWWG cited Lawrence Skelly, a special assistant with the Pentagon, as having written, "This (CSEPP) model has worked exceptionally well at the Umatilla site and we believe it will work in Anniston too."

But critics described it instead as a plot to discredit recalcitrant local officials, and Calhoun County officials objected to spending time and money on the training exercises when they had not received necessary equipment such as protective suits.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., wrote Army Secretary White calling the plan, "a perverse and irresponsible attempt to deflect attention away from the Army's failures." The Anniston Star called the federal move an "Army ambush" and a "scheme" whereby the Army could "launch into a frontal public relations assault."

Bolton in Charge of "One Roof"
In a Jan. 15 memorandum, Secretary of the Army Thomas White directed Assistant Secretary Claude Bolton, Jr. to take over the Chemical Demilitarization Program and, along with the Army Materiel Command's General Kern, to establish an agency to "execute chemical demilitarization plant construction, operation, and closure, as well as chemical weapons storage."

As Williams remarked, "This will put the stockpile storage and disposal responsibilities under one roof." In the past, the Soldier and Biological Chemical Command has been in charge of storage, with the Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization over the destruction of chemical weapons. Personnel changes, both national and local, had been anticipated for some time. Nationally, Jim Dires has replaced Lawrence Skelly, who was the target of criticism over the E-mail War.

In the past, CSEPP Governing board members have expressed a concern that future Army administrators might not remember promises and assurances made by the old guard they replace. In May last year, Denzel Fisher, a high-up from the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, and the one who negotiated for Umatilla's original FEMA money in 1988, visited the Oregon CSEPP Governing Board and told them, "The Army is responsible for the demilitarization program and always will be." He said, "Emergency preparedness will always have the Army's support, "regardless of who is calling the shots."

UMCD officials do not expect the change at the top to bring about any major, immediate changes in the day to day operations a UMCD, according to Mary Binder, the UMCD public information person.

Locally, Lt. Col. Fred Pellisier will rotate out of the command in July, but that is a routine command change, unrelated to larger events.

http://www.cwwg.org/hh01.24.03.html

2002: FEMA remarks catch Army off guard

Hermiston Herald
May 14, 2002
FEMA remarks catch Army off guard
HERMISTON - The Army is as committed to emergency preparedness as ever, despite reports that FEMA wants out of the chemical stockpile demilitarization business, Army officials said Monday.

Oregon Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program determined Friday that they had passed performance measures. That success coincided with reports that FEMA wanted to cut its ties with CSEPP.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh reportedly requested that FEMA be relieved of its duties associated with CSEPP, and was quoted as saying "The Army should have the whole program."

Denzel Fisher from the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, attended Monday's Irrigon meeting of the Oregon CSEPP Governing Board, and gave a "history" of FEMA involvement. Friday's news had taken him off guard, he said, but FEMA has tried on two earlier occasions to be relieved of CSEPP responsibilities. The problems were worked out then and likely will be now as well, he said. At any rate, the Army has always been, and remains, committed to state and local government when critical emergency preparedness items were needed, he said.

"You will not find a time when the Army has failed to support the federal emergency program," he said. Instead, he said, "it was the Army's decision to create this program in the first place. I was the one who negotiated for the original money in 1988." In 1997, FEMA had tried to back out of CSEPP. "It has been a rocky road, but we have always been able to work through things, and this is not going to be an exception," he said.

"The Army's responsible for the demilitarization program and always will be," he said. If more money is needed, the Army will make requests to Congress and negotiate aggressively for it, he said. Emergency preparedness will always have the Army's support, "regardless of who is calling the shots," he said.

Board members asked whether they would be able to have input into any reorganization. Army Special Assistant Larry Skelley, who was also present Monday, said "If we have to reorganize, it will be done, I think, with complete and total participation by the state." As a measure of government commitment to preparedness, CSEPP is the only federal program he is aware of that is fully funded, Skelly told The
Hermiston Herald.

Although Fisher and Skelly were outspoken about the Army's commitment to CSEPP, no one at the meeting had information that would shed light on Allbaugh's comments. They did not know the context, or what Allbaugh meant by the statements, Skelly and Fisher said.

In other business, the Governing Board decided to recommend to today's meeting of the Governor's Executive Review Panel that the ERP's report to the governor say that emergency preparedness is adequate to start up the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, although they agreed the ERP report should be qualified with a letter explaining that there was unfinished necessary work to be done, including the purchase and implementation of a 450-megahertz radio system.

End

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Preserved by Chemcical Weapons Working Group, thank you CWWG (http://www.cwwg.org/hh05.14.02.html)

Chem Demil could lose $Millions (Columbia Basin Media article lifted from CWWG)

Author's note:  Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) preserved this story on their web page at http://www.cwwg.org, on Dec. 19, 2005. Thank you to CWWG

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Story by F. Ellsworth Lockwood

The Pentagon has targeted new "alternative" chemical weapons programs for budget cuts, disappointing anti-incineration groups which view "alt-tech" as cleaner, safer, faster and cheaper than the present technologies.

Anti-incineration groups such as Chemical Weapons Working Group, GASP, Sierra Club and Oregon Wildlife Federation had hailed the new programs in Colorado and Kentucky as proof that the Army had now approved and accepted other methods of destruction besides so-called "baseline incineration" which they believe is dangerous to health and the environment. CWWG indicated the budget changes will eliminate disposal activities at sites important for demonstrating that alternative technologies are indeed viable.

The reports should be credible if the past is any indication: CWWG has at times been even better at projecting such things as cost overrides and scheduling changes than the Army's own press relations department. Pentagon documents showed that for 2006 the Pentagon is planning to allocate only $30 million for both Colorado and Kentucky, although those programs had been estimated to cost at $250 million or more. CWWG says completion of weapons disposal at Colorado and Kentucky would require $2 billion between 2006 and 2011, but that the Pentagon plans to cut funding for these programs down to a little more than $300 million for that time period.

Cuts of that size would likely halt alternative demolition of chemical weapons at storage sites in Richmond, Kentucky and Pueblo, Colorado. The Army apparently had the budget cutting plans before Christmas. Along with local, state and federal elected officials, the CWWG distributed a Pentagon decision document dated 21 December 2004, which referred to the possible delay of the program at both sites due to "external constraints the program must address." The same document is also being circulated in Colorado now. CWWG's Director, Craig Williams, denounced the planned cuts, calling them the Defense Department's “blatant disregard for the safety of tens of thousands of Americans due to extremely poor funding priorities.

The plans, if implemented, have international implications. "This funding approach makes compliance with the 2012 Chemical Weapons Convention deadline impossible, and is an admission by the United States that it is backing off its obligations regarding the Treaty," said Williams. Williams also questioned what he termed an Army “flip-flop” in regard to safety and security of communities living near the Kentucky stockpile. "Communities ... have been told for 20 years that the military will do whatever it takes to get rid of these weapons, because the risks (of continued storage) are so high,” Williams said, “And now that they (the Pentagon) are in a financial crunch we are being told that they have to let the weapons sit."

Williams also said that a 2002 classified report to Congress by the Secretary of the Army indicated Kentucky is considered to be the chemical weapons stockpile site at the highest risk for terrorism after 2007. Already, in 2004,the Pentagon pulled funds for chemical weapons disposal in Pueblo, Colorado, although Congress, fearing that the weapons sites could be terrorist targets, had requested the Army to accelerate the weapons disposal process, CWWG reported.

Pueblo resident and environmental activist Ross Vincent today said, "These funding cuts are a slap in the faces of our elected officials and the citizens of Colorado, who are working together for a safe disposal of these weapons. To the Pentagon we may be a number on a defense budget line item, but this is a real community facing real problems and risks."

Kentucky Senior Senator Mitch McConnell, in a prepared statement read by his representative at a press conference in Kentucky said, "The Department of Defense has an obligation to the citizens of Central Kentucky to dispose of chemical agents at the Blue Grass Army Depot in a safe and expeditious manner, and I will continue to devote my energy to ensuring that it lives up to that obligation."

Other presenters at Wednesday's press conference echoed the Senator's resolve, committing to fight for the funds necessary to move forward and not allow these weapons of mass destruction to languish in their community for another decade.

The cuts come twenty years after Congress ordered the U.S. Army to destroy its stockpile of obsolete chemical weapons, and at a time of concerns about terrorist threats. The Pentagon plans if implemented would cut funds for disposal of more than 3,134 tons of chemical weapons, according to CWWG, and this number represents 15 percent of the U.S. stockpile that remains to be destroyed.
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