Safe Chemical Weapons Disposal

Since KEF was founded in 1990, our vision has been to ensure that chemical weapons here in Madison County, Kentucky are destroyed as safely and efficiently as possible, not with incineration as the Army proposed, but with a method that could prevent chemical agents and other toxins from being released into the environment. We continue working to ensure a safe future for Kentucky’s children and to ensure that citizens are directly involved in the decision-making process.

In 1991, KEF convened a conference of citizens living near other chemical weapons sites, which then united in a coalition that became the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG)—an effective grassroots force for change in the Army’s chemical weapons program nationwide. KEF serves as the lead organization of the CWWG, which succeeded in defeating eight chemical weapons incinerator proposals through a groundbreaking federally-mandated alternative technologies program called the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment. The decision to move forward with safer weapons disposal in Kentucky came in 2002; our chemical weapons will be destroyed in a “closed loop” neutralization and supercritical water oxidation process.

Even at sites where the Army is currently burning chemical weapons, the CWWG continues to promote the replacement of incineration with non-incineration disposal methods.

For more comprehensive information on KEF’s CWWG Project please refer to the CWWG web site.

Clean Air, Clean Energy

While KEF continues to lead the CWWG and is deeply engaged in oversight of chemical weapons disposal operations, we are also taking on other air quality threats in Kentucky such as from coal-fired power plants. Our experiences in building consensus on technology and process solutions among community residents, activists, elected officials and regulatory agencies; working as partners with legislators for better oversight of the government and industry; and engaging citizens directly in decision making on issues that directly affect our health and the environment, are directly applicable to the need for clean energy in a coal state like Kentucky.

Roughly 92% of Kentucky’s electricity comes from burning coal. Though coal mining and other coal related jobs have declined sharply in the past twenty-five years, the industry still has a grip on local and state economies; the “coal is king” narrative dominates our political landscape. Currently, 22 power plants dot the Kentucky state map, emitting soot, heavy metals and greenhouse gases into the air; the devastating health and environmental impacts of these emissions are well-known.

The East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s (EKPC) is proposing a new coal-fired power plant unit in Clark County, Kentucky. EKPC is an electric generation cooperative, made up of 16 member distributor cooperatives that together serve customers in 87 Kentucky counties.Their proposed plant, called the “Smith” unit, would generate 300 megawatts of baseload electricity, which EKPC claims they need to be able to keep up with increased customer demand. KEF, along with the groups Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and the Sierra Club (Cumberland Chapter, with assistance from the Club’s National Coal Campaign), is promoting an aggressive renewable energy and energy efficiency portfolio for EKPC that will meet the cooperatives’ projected energy demand without the Smith coal-fired unit.

Environmentally Sustainable Neighbors/Depot

The Blue Grass Army Depot covers 14,000 acres in Madison County, Kentucky near the city of Richmond. It is home to a chemical weapons stockpile, has several industrial tenants, and serves as a “storage and transfer station” for a wide range of weapons and other military and warfare items. For better or for worse, the Depot is here to stay. The chemical weapons disposal mission at the Depot is expected to last till 2020 and it is likely that the transfer activities will continue as long as the U.S. is engaged in war and conflict overseas. The Depot is considered by the local government and commerce leaders as a major economic player.

All over the country, communities living near military bases have been economically and environmentally devastated from lasting pollution from the bases, and ultimately the refusal by the military and private industry to clean up its mess. In cases where the military vacates the property and turns it over to local government, the land has even less a chance of clean-up due to the attractive financial benefits of quick development. Often times, community members have little say in what happens at the base.

Based on KEF’s long and successful history of environmental leadership in Madison County, we see the issue of future use of the Blue Grass Army Depot as an opportunity for positive community-based decision making; decisions that will help protect our health and the environment long into the future. Without it, the fate of our community’s economic and environmental well-being will be determined only by “the bottom-line,” which ignores long-term consequences of toxic contamination. Our goal is to develop community leadership on, and a community-based platform for, safe, sustainable future for the Blue Grass Army Depot.

Toxic-Free Future

Toxic chemicals are everywhere: in our homes, schools and workplaces; in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. The scope of this contamination can be mind-boggling…yet there are countless consumer, policy and organizing opportunities we can take to limit our exposure to dangerous chemicals and create a toxic-free future. KEF is taking steps to work with Kentuckians interested in tackling our toxic threats close to home and promote common sense solutions.

KEF's Issues

• Safe Chemical Weapons Disposal
• Clean Air, Clean Energy
• Toxic-Free Future
• Environmentally Sustainable Neighbors/Depot