GROUPS TARGET FEDERAL LEGISLATORS FOR ACTION ON VX HYDROLYSATE SHIPMENT

Environmental health and justice groups in Texas, joined by the national Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) coalition, today asked Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) for help in challenging the Army's shipment of VX nerve agent hydrolysate from Newport, Indiana to Port Arthur, Texas to be burned. Texas groups involved in this request are Houston-based Citizens League for Environmental Action Now (CLEAN) as well as the Community In-Power Development Association, Inc. and the Lone Star Chapter Sierra Club.

In a letter to Jackson-Lee, the groups asked her to investigate the Army's lack of consideration of environmental justice (EJ) factors in Port Arthur before making a decision to ship the waste there, and also to inquire as to whether or not the Army followed recommendations outlined by the General Accounting Office (GAO) in a January 2007 report on cost assumptions associated with off-site shipment of the hydrolysate. 

The shipment and incineration of hydrolysate "is a classic example of environmental racism," the letter states. Noting the high percentage of people of color and the high poverty rate in the Port Arthur area, the letter goes on to state, "The Army has not performed an environmental justice assessment associated with shipment and destruction of this waste in Port Arthur, Texas, despite the clear disproportionate impact of pollution on southeast Texas and that specific community. This violates the Executive Order on Environmental Justice."

"This situation is exactly the kind that caused President Clinton to sign the Executive Order on Environmental Justice," said Juan Parras, Houston environmental justice activist and community organizer for CLEAN. "We need our federal legislators to stand up in support of disenfranchised communities, even when some of their colleagues won't." 

CWWG Director Craig Williams noted that the Army is required to provide 'maximum protection' to communities and workers throughout the chemical weapons disposal program, but he said this case is a clear example of the Army "shirking that responsibility." "We are looking to Representative Jackson-Lee and other EJ leaders to help bring about a safe, secure solution to this problem, because the Army is simply unwilling to consider safer treatment of the hydrolysate," Williams said.

On Thursday, August 23 these and other Texas groups will also bring their message to Texas state legislators in Austin. A press conference will be held at 11 AM Central Time in the Speakers Committee Room at the State Capitol. The media and public are invited to attend.