Army aerosol laboratory.

Army aerosol laboratory

In the face of the recent court decision that the U.S. Army had not adequately assessed the environmental impact of a proposed toxin-testing facility at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah (SN: 6/8/85, p. 359), the Army has decided to prepare a full environmental impact statement. It decided neither to appeal the court decision nor to rewrite the less extensive environmental assessment intended to demonstrate that no environmental impact statement would be necessary. Jeremy Rifkin of the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation on Economic Trends, a plantiff in the court case, says he is happy with the Army's decision because the preparation of a formal environmental impact statement opens the project plans to comment by other federal agencies and by the public.

The Army plans to use the Dugway Proving Ground to assess the military value of chemical warfare and biological defense systems. Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Craig Mac Nab says, "The [other] modernization at Dugway is proceeding, but we do need this aerosol test laboratory.' The proposed laboratory was designed to meet the safety requirements for work with genetically engineered microbes, although the Army says it currently has no such plans. "We are disappointed [with the court decision] because of the delay,' Mac Nab says. A timetable for preparing the environmental impact statement is currently being set up; Mac Nab says the statement will be prepared on "an expedited schedule.'