KC Peace Planters,

4509 Walnut St.,

Kansas City, MO 64111

816-561-1181

Contact: Ann Suellentrop M.S.R.N. 913-271-7925

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION REPORT REVEALS HONEYWELL PUSH TO AVOID SUPERFUND STATUS AT KC PLANT

KC PEACE PLANTERS ASKS: WHY AVOID SUPERFUND CLEANUP?

 
The 2011 Performance Evaluation Report (PER) for Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (FM&T) demonstrates that it played a key role in preventing the Kansas City Plant (KCP) for nuclear weapons components production from being listed as a Superfund site. These reports, which are the government’s scorecard for awarding tens of millions of dollars to nuclear weapons contractors, were released Tuesday by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in response to a March 28 lawsuit by Nuclear Watch New Mexico. While Honeywell’s evaluation provides only a cursory look at operations for fiscal year 2011, and is necessarily biased by the simple fact that largely the contractor is reviewing its own operation, it does indicate areas of concern.

While preparing to move to a new production plant subsidized by the city’s industrial development corporation, the contractor Honeywell “develop[ed] an alternate strategy to avoid listing on EPA’s National Priorities (Superfund) List…[that] could have impacted the ability to dispose of the [old] KCP once the facility is vacated at the end of FY14″. Specifically, in order to avoid Superfund listing, Honeywell asked the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for a modification to the Plant’s waste and cleanup permit. Groundwater at the old plant is contaminated and there are growing controversial worker health concerns.

Contrary to the common perception that the nuclear weapons business is winding down, the Report also documents that the KC Plant delivered over 121,000 weapon-related components. These include new fuzes for the sub-launched W76 warhead, which some experts believe endows that nuclear weapon with more precise heights-of-burst, which in combination with increased accuracy give it new military capabilities.

“Life Extension Programs are the bread and butter of the KC Plant. We’re told we need to ‘modernize’ nuclear weapons for our security, but more and more people are waking up to the reality that they are a suicidal threat to all we hold dear,” said Ann Suellentrop, of KC Physicians for Social Responsibility.

“And why is the government rushing to sell the old plant when it is morally obliged to fully clean it up, not build up, the mess that the nuclear weapons industry has created. While we don’t yet know if Honeywell’s permit modification request has been granted, Missourians need to hold our Department of Natural Resources’ feet to the fire to protect the well being of citizens and not the self-interests of the nuclear weaponeers.”

“It appears that the NNSA with EPA’s help was willing to roll back the odometer to dump a lemon on an unsuspecting buyer,” said Scott Dye, national program director of the Sierra Club Water Sentinels, based in Columbia Missouri.

“Changing the rules of the process for the Superfund’s National Priorities List does not change the widespread contamination at the complex that will clearly not be adequately addressed.”

Dr. Catherine Thomasson, Executive Director of the national office of Physicians for Social Responsibility, stated,

“We question the need for a new nuclear weapons parts plant at all, since we have thousands of weapons being dismantled. Serious health outcomes due to exposure to beryllium, benzene and other toxins were not dealt with adequately at the old factory and are still not addressed fully.”

“Why is Honeywell getting an award for managing the Kansas City Plant? The feds say it’s outmoded and has to be replaced—that’s their justification for building the new plant on Missouri Highway 150, near Grandview,” said Henry Stoever, Board chair of PeaceWorks-KC.

“In reality, the KC Plant at Bannister Federal Complex is a cesspool of contamination, with wells monitoring the toxins there into perpetuity. Honeywell and the NNSA have bureaucratically broken up the individual contamination sites so the KC Plant as a whole is not on the Superfund list, meaning that the KC Plant won’t get more adverse publicity. However, that also means the site doesn’t get as much federal money for cleanup and lacks the supervision Congress might give a superfund site. The award for Honeywell is bizarre. Honeywell and the NNSA are not being transparent about the great problems there, including the many people who have died or suffered illnesses from exposure to contaminants at Bannister Federal Complex.”

“On March 22, the City Council unanimously passed the KC Peace Planters* petition to plan for alternative jobs for the KC Plant’s workers,” said Dr. Rachel MacNair, coordinator of the ballot initiatives. “On April 5, the City Council will consider our second petition to withdraw the city from all financial involvement in current and future contracts concerning the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The citizens of Kansas City have to right to know about and vote on what their city is involved in”.
“We are grateful to our colleagues at Nuclear Watch New Mexico,” said Suellentrop, “for their persistence in getting the release of this information. Now that we see what it is in it, we wonder why, in this age of transparency, NNSA withheld the information and forced the public to go to court to get it. They have a duty to provide information to the public, and NNSA seems to have abandoned that mission altogether.”

The contract between NNSA and Honeywell FM&T states that the term KCP covers operations at all FM&T locations: Kansas City, Missouri; Albuquerque, New Mexico, Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. Copies of the Performance Evaluation Reports for the eight sites in the NNSA’s nuclear weapons complex are available at: http://www.nukewatch.org

*KC Peace Planters is a coalition of 12 local civic, environmental and peace groups. see http://www.foolish-investment.com