DogStarMan
22 May 2003, 08:31 AM
-From the Dayton Daily News: 04.17.2003
A Jefferson Twp. group has filed an environmental justice complaint against the U.S. EPA and the Department of Defense about the Army's plans to dispose of a byproduct of the destruction of VX nerve gas at hazardous-waste handling operation in the township's Drexel neighborhood.
"Bringing this dangerous material to the Drexel community is out and out discrimination based on race and income," said Michelle Cooper, a township resident. "The environmental justice Executive Order is supposed to stop this kind of activity."
Citizens For the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley, along with the local NAACP, announced the complaint Wednesday at a press conference in the neighborhood next to Perma-Fix, the company awarded the Army contract. The group has been fighting the plan since it was announced in late December.
Perma-Fix, located just off West Third Street in Jefferson Twp., has a contract to treat hydrolysate, a dangerous but not instantly deadly byproduct of the destruction of U.S. stockpiles of VX nerve agent. Under the Chemical Weapons agreement signed by the United States in 1997, the Army is destroying its 40-year-old stockpile of VX in Newport, Ind.
The hydrolysate will be shipped by truck to Perma-Fix, which will use a biodegrading process to further clean the product before it is released to the city of Dayton waste treatment plant and finally into the Great Miami River. The company plans to start receiving the hydrolysate in July.
Esther Miller, who is named in the complaint, has lived across the street from the plant for five years.
"I am concerned about bringing VX nerve agent byproducts to Perma-Fix, because I am already having health problems that I feel are the result of living next to Perma-Fix," she said.
Environmental justice provisions have been part of U.S. environmental law since 1994. Executive Order 12898 prohibits federal agencies from taking action that would have a disproportionate environmental impact on low-income neighborhoods with high minority populations, according to the complaint.
Ellis Jacobs of the Legal Aid Society of Dayton, who helped prepare the complaint, said that rural Newport, Ind., has a poverty level of 9 percent and no black residents. Drexel has a 33 percent poverty level and is 35 percent black.
"The citizens feel that once again their community is being targeted for environmentally dangerous activities," Jacobs said. "This administrative complaint is just one of the ways that this community is standing up for health and safety and against discrimination."
The complaint will require a public hearing by the U.S. EPA. Jacobs said a civil lawsuit is possible.
Officials from Perma-Fix could not be reached for comment.
A Jefferson Twp. group has filed an environmental justice complaint against the U.S. EPA and the Department of Defense about the Army's plans to dispose of a byproduct of the destruction of VX nerve gas at hazardous-waste handling operation in the township's Drexel neighborhood.
"Bringing this dangerous material to the Drexel community is out and out discrimination based on race and income," said Michelle Cooper, a township resident. "The environmental justice Executive Order is supposed to stop this kind of activity."
Citizens For the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley, along with the local NAACP, announced the complaint Wednesday at a press conference in the neighborhood next to Perma-Fix, the company awarded the Army contract. The group has been fighting the plan since it was announced in late December.
Perma-Fix, located just off West Third Street in Jefferson Twp., has a contract to treat hydrolysate, a dangerous but not instantly deadly byproduct of the destruction of U.S. stockpiles of VX nerve agent. Under the Chemical Weapons agreement signed by the United States in 1997, the Army is destroying its 40-year-old stockpile of VX in Newport, Ind.
The hydrolysate will be shipped by truck to Perma-Fix, which will use a biodegrading process to further clean the product before it is released to the city of Dayton waste treatment plant and finally into the Great Miami River. The company plans to start receiving the hydrolysate in July.
Esther Miller, who is named in the complaint, has lived across the street from the plant for five years.
"I am concerned about bringing VX nerve agent byproducts to Perma-Fix, because I am already having health problems that I feel are the result of living next to Perma-Fix," she said.
Environmental justice provisions have been part of U.S. environmental law since 1994. Executive Order 12898 prohibits federal agencies from taking action that would have a disproportionate environmental impact on low-income neighborhoods with high minority populations, according to the complaint.
Ellis Jacobs of the Legal Aid Society of Dayton, who helped prepare the complaint, said that rural Newport, Ind., has a poverty level of 9 percent and no black residents. Drexel has a 33 percent poverty level and is 35 percent black.
"The citizens feel that once again their community is being targeted for environmentally dangerous activities," Jacobs said. "This administrative complaint is just one of the ways that this community is standing up for health and safety and against discrimination."
The complaint will require a public hearing by the U.S. EPA. Jacobs said a civil lawsuit is possible.
Officials from Perma-Fix could not be reached for comment.