Meeting on incinerator is Thursday

Alternatives to burning deadly chemical weapons will be discussed during a Salt Lake meeting sponsored by the federal government on April 13 -- but don't look for those methods to be used on the bulk of the deadly chemical weapons stockpile that is stored in Utah.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Hilton Salt Lake, 150 W. 500 South."Specifically, parties will discuss studies to be conducted at the Deseret Chemical Depot . . . and Dugway Proving Ground," said Carl Eissner of the public involvement team, office of the Program Manager for Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment.

Incineration has been a blazing controversy throughout the country. Chemical weapons are stored at eight sites in the United States, plus Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean.

A prototype plant at Johnston Island has been destroying that stockpile of nerve agent. The only plant in the United States to begin burning chemical weapons is the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, the formal name for the Utah incinerator.

Because of the controversy about the safety of incineration, Congress directed the Defense Department to study alternatives. Several of these will be tested on Utah bases.

However, the $1 billion incinerator near Stockton, Tooele County, will continue the burning it began in 1996, Eissner said. Any alternative methods that may be adopted will be used to destroy other stockpiles of chemical arms.

An exception is the collection of Lewisite weapons stored in Utah. Lewisite is mustard agent mixed with arsenic. Since arsenic is an element not broken down by burning, these arms are to be destroyed with an alternative method that uses neutralization and stabilization.

Destroying the chemical weapons stored at official stockpiles will not be the end of the clean-up. Another class of toxic matter, called "non-stockpile chemical material," also must undergo treatment. This category includes binary chemical weapons, former production plants, miscellaneous material like empty rounds, weapons disposed of in landfills and dangerous material that showed up at old sites.

Meanwhile, alternatives to incineration will be tested at two Utah bases, Dugway Proving Ground and Deseret Chemical Depot.

Dugway studies will be at the Suppressive Shield Facility and Building 4165.

Deseret Chemical Depot, 12 miles south of Tooele, is the base that houses the incinerator and the storage igloos for the chemical arms to be burned in the plant. However, the depot also has other research operations.

The depot's Chemical Agent Munition Disposal System is the site for two of the research projects to find alternatives to incineration. They will be at the Chemical Test Facility and the General Purpose Facility.

Eissner said the meeting is to discuss alternative technologies that have not been tested previously. Other research is to be carried out at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., he said.

The meeting is billed as "an interactive, informal session" with military and state officials present. Utahns are invited to discuss specific topics such as study plans, facilities to be used, safety, schedules and environmental issues.