In case you watch cable information, it’s possible you’ll really feel dispirited by the present state of our political affairs. We’re continually informed we’re too left, too proper, too this and that. Partisanship exists, however seeing eye to eye is not a situation for locating widespread floor. Take, for instance, my 30-year friendship with Senator Mitch McConnell. The 2 of us joined forces to tackle the Pentagon and problem its plans for incinerating hazardous chemical weapons close to my hometown.
I first met Senator McConnell in 1985, shortly after he received his first U.S. Senate election. I used to be a Vietnam veteran turned antiwar environmentalist, and he was a Reagan Republican. As you may anticipate, we did not agree on quite a bit.
I had just lately attended a group assembly with 300 different involved residents the place Pentagon officers shared their plans to destroy chemical weapons at Blue Grass Army Depot. They meant to burn these poisonous nerve brokers at a Richmond plant, only one mile from a center college and 6 miles from my household house.
The group was wanting to see these weapons destroyed, however we wished a protected resolution. It was clear the Army would not present the solutions we had been in search of with no push, so I started sharing my frustrations with the senator and a variety of residents.
We enlisted faculties, church buildings, companies, horse farms, physicians and lots of extra to advocate in opposition to the Pentagon’s incineration plans. Over time, our considerations snowballed right into a mass of opposition that the Army could not ignore. Nonetheless, we could not assist however really feel like David gazing up at Goliath — on this case, the USA Army. We had been outspent, out-lawyered, out-just about all the things.
Senator McConnell was a champion of our campaign early on, and simply the highly effective ally we would have liked in Washington. I would offer the senator with the factual data he wanted, and he would carry our trigger and considerations straight to the Pentagon’s entrance door.
In 1993, after practically a decade of regular petitioning, we efficiently delayed incineration funding, forcing the Pentagon again to the drafting board and charging it with exploring safer options. It was an enormous breakthrough, however our work wasn’t carried out simply but.
By 1996, the Assembled Chemical Weapons Evaluation (ACWA) program was established, which held the Army to its phrase on demonstrating options. Due to Senator McConnell, whose modification within the protection appropriations invoice licensed this program, ACWA finally discovered that a number of safer strategies existed.
Over the following decade, the Division of Protection would attempt each trick within the ebook to redirect funding for ACWA and maintain on to its incineration agenda. Even after proving the efficacy of a safer, water-based neutralization methodology, the Army was nonetheless redirecting greater than $300 million in neutralization funding to different incineration websites, placing efforts in Kentucky on maintain. I laid out the proof to Senator McConnell, who took the matter to a number of senior protection officers and sponsored laws mandating the Army launch these funds.
With funding lastly going the place it ought to, the Depot might start eliminating its 523 tons of chemical brokers. That effort formally wrapped up this summer season when the Depot destroyed its final nerve-agent rocket, closing this chapter of American warfare for good.
The end result of our efforts, spanning 4 a long time, seven presidential administrations and most of my grownup life, caused an environmentally sound resolution to one of the crucial necessary nationwide safety missions in a era.
Senator McConnell and I could not be extra completely different, however our victory proves that even the unlikeliest of allies can clear up actual issues and make folks’s lives higher. Some may name this old school legislating, however I name it good management
Now greater than ever, we’d like our leaders to cooperate. Senator McConnell has proven us that is doable for Kentucky. Even amid probably the most contentious debates, he has striven for incremental progress, abandoning the zero-sum video games and avoiding partisan gridlock. I do know this as a result of I’ve witnessed it firsthand all through our 30-year friendship. Frequent floor is on the market — for these prepared to work for it.
The general public is invited to an occasion recognizing the Blue Grass plant staff and destruction of the nation’s declared chemical weapons stockpile Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 11 a.m. ET on the Armed Forces Reserve Heart, 233 Battlefield Memorial Freeway in Richmond, Kentucky.
Craig Williams is program director for the Kentucky Environmental Basis in Berea.
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