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By Alisha Ashby, Jenna Roberts, Peter Riggs
Collection Overview
Scope and Contents of the Materials
The Kentucky Environmental Foundation (KEF) Records documents the community efforts of Madison County residents to encourage the safe disposal of chemical weapons in Madison County. This collection is largely yearly progress reports, chemical weapon risk reports prepared by the federal government, as well as reports prepared by private organizations regarding the safe disposal of chemical weapons. The collection also contains the meeting minutes, agendas, presentations, and advertisements for numerous citizen lead activist groups such as the ACWA, CWWG, and the CAC. Correspondence between community leaders and the federal government, newspapers and other media detailing the effort and risk of the disposal of chemical weapons can also be found in this collection. Finally, this collection contains various newsclippings and publicity materials related to the disposal of chemical weapons across the nine sites in the United States, centered on the work of CWWG and Kentucky disposal.
For more information, please see collections under the related subject headings.
List of Common Acronyms:
KEF - Kentucky Environmental Foundation CWWG- Chemical Weapons Working Group BGCAPP/BGAD - Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant/Blue Grass Army Depot PMCD - Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization CSEPP - Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program
Collection Historical Note
In 1984, the United States Army announced to the public in Richmond, Kentucky that they planned to eliminate the 523.4 U.S. Tons of chemical agent that they had stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot. There was immediate pushback from the community, with citizens in both Richmond and nearby Berea forming community action groups opposing the incineration of chemical weapons in Kentucky. However, community members were beginning to feel that they needed more pull if they were going to join other states/destruction sites in fighting against the U.S. Army to find alternative modes of disposal. In 1990, the Kentucky Environmental Foundation was formed as a state-wide non-profit that could focus on the safe disposal of chemical weapons. In 1991, a short year later, the Chemical Weapons Working Group coalition was formed. It began as a conference of concerned citizens and developed into an "effective grassroots force for change in the Army’s chemical weapons program."
From the KEF Website: "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. In 2006, Craig Williams, then KEF Director, was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for his and the CWWG’s dedication to safe weapons disposal. Through KEF’s Chemical Weapons Working Group, KEF continues to ensure Kentuckians are protected from harmful pollutants during chemical weapons destruction processes. KEF was formed to protect Kentuckians’ health from the chemical exposure; we have since been an integral part of Kentucky’s environmental health and justice movement. For the past 25 years, KEF has participated in many state, regional and national environmental health and justice campaigns and in collaboration with others working to address air, water and soil pollution from both fossil fuels and hazardous waste manufacturing, storage and incineration."
For more infomation, please visit kyenvironmentalfoundation.org
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository:
Eastern Kentucky University - Special Collections and Archives
Acquisition Source:
Williams, Craig
Related Materials:
Nerve: How a Small Kentucky Town Led the Fight to Safely Dismantle The World’s Chemical Weapons For more information please see https://vimeo.com/254920643.
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Series:
[
Series 1: Community Liasion Series],
[Series 2: Correspondence],
[
Series 3: Organizations],
[
Series 4: Publications and Reports],
[
Series 5: Publicity],
[
Series 6: Miscellaneous],
[
All]
- Series 2: Correspondence
- Box 1
- Folder 7: U.S. Senate Correspondence, 1991-2005
- Contains correspondence to and from various US Senators, including Wendell Ford, Mitch McConnell, Wayne Allard, Richard Shelby, and Jim Bunning. Wendell Ford correspondence includes correspondence to and from President Bill Clinton. All correspondence is regarding the plan to destroy chemical weapons across the US.
- Folder 8: Correspondence: Dept. of Army/Dept. of Defense, 1984-2008
- Contains correspondence to and from members of the Department of the Army as well as the Department of Defense. Includes records publishing, information surrounding the Concerned Citizens/Common Ground lawsuit, statements on chemical weapon storage sites, response to publicity, regular updates on the chemical demilitarization program, responses to public concern (especially regarding government accountability), and some budget updates
- Folder 9: PMCD Correspondence, 1987-2002
- Contains correspondence coming from and going to the Public Manager for Chemical Demilitarization (PMCD) - regarding destruction schedules and addressing some public concerns
- Folder 10: Mitch McConnell Correspondence, 1986-2005
- Contains correspondence to and from Mitch McConnell. Includes correspondence with the secretary of the Army and President Bill Clinton urging them to help with safe disposal, writing with concerns regarding management and accountability of Army's Chemical Demilitarization Program, and statements from McConnell regarding the chemical weapons
- Folder 11: Craig Williams Correspondence, 1992-2005
- Contains correspondence to and from Craig Williams, director of CWWG/KEF and Liasion between the community and the military. Correspondence includes: writing between KEF and other community action organizations, to other community leaders and activists, thank you cards, responses to research requests or information sharing, discussion of funds for KEF/CWWG, travel to Russia for research and a conference on chemical weapons, correspondence to and about media outlets, writing to the President as a "spokesperson" for concerned citizens, and some compiled information packets about chemical demilitarization
- Folder 12: KEF Correspondence, 1991-1997
- Contains Kentucky Environmental Foundation correspondence, including board member updates, commentary on reports, research work, letters seeking support from President Clinton and information on meetings
- Folder 13: CWWG Correspondence, 1999-2004
- Contains CWWG correspondence. Includes memos between members, emails with chemical weapon information, information about the Alabama chemical weapons site, and correspondence attempting to halt or pause operations at the Alabama site.
- Folder 14: Correspondence from Congress, 1988-2005
- Contains correspondence from members of congress regarding the disposal of chemical weapons and legislation related to chemical weapons demilitarization. Includes correspondence from Larry Hopkins, Harold Rogers, Scotty Baesler, Bob Riley, Ben Chandler, and John Salazar
- Folder 15: Michael A. Parker Correspondence, 2000-2006
- Contains correspondence to or from Michael A. Parker, who served as Director of the U.S. Army Chemical Material Agency. Includes correspondence regarding destruction schedules, tours of sites, information sheets, information on public meetings and press, and memos regarding chemical weapon reports.
- Folder 16: Kentucky Government Correspondence, 1987-2003
- Contains correspondence related to members of Kentucky Government. Includes correspondence from the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet, statement from the attorney general, and correspondence from Bob Babbage, Governor Wallace Wilkinson, Brereton Jones, Frederic J. Cowan, Charles B. Flood, and various city councils near Madison County. Each of these individuals is expressing concern for the storage and management of chemical weapons in Madison County, and urging others to fight for the safe storage and disposal of those materials.
- Box 2
- Folder 1: Thank-You, 1991-1993
- Contains thank you letters and cards written to Craig Williams for his work to help Madison County and other chemical weapon storage sites across the US
Browse by Series:
[
Series 1: Community Liasion Series],
[Series 2: Correspondence],
[
Series 3: Organizations],
[
Series 4: Publications and Reports],
[
Series 5: Publicity],
[
Series 6: Miscellaneous],
[
All]
