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Wednesday, 11 September 2013

Unit Experienced in Chemical Weapon Destruction Stands Ready to Help

A global force of chemical weapon destroyers already exists and, if needed, stands ready to throw itself into a new round of annihilation.

The Times will provide updates, analysis and public reaction from around the world.

Military experts say the policing unit, known as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague, would be likely to play a similar role in Syria if the parties can agree to a verifiable plan.

“It’s a very good step if the Syrians agree to put this under international control,” said Raymond A. Zilinskas, a senior scientist at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a former United Nations weapons inspector. “The inspectors do this kind of thing routinely.”

Syria never signed the 1993 treaty. So an accord by which the policing unit would monitor the destruction of Syria’s chemical arsenal would most likely go through Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations. At his direction, the chemical inspectors have already gone to Syria to investigate the Aug. 21 massacre in the Damascus suburbs.

Under the 1993 treaty, which came into force in 1997, the experts and inspectors of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, known as the O.P.C.W., have overseen the destruction of many chemical arsenals and manufacturing plants around the globe.

To date, seven nations that signed the treaty have agreed to the destruction of their chemical arms and plants — Albania, India, Iraq, Libya, Russia, the United States and an unnamed seventh country. On its Web site, the O.P.C.W. says that more than 80 percent of the world’s declared stockpiles to date have been eliminated.

The nations with the biggest chemical arsenals — the United States and Russia — have received deadline extensions for the scheduled destruction.

Dr. Zilinskas of the Monterey Institute said that the inspectors, if eventually welcomed to Syria, might face the daunting prospect of having to become chemical detectives in search of hidden weapons.

“I worry about that,” he said in an interview. “How to you verify that all Syrian weapons are known and under control?” Still, he hailed the new proposal as a constructive way out of the crisis.

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In South Florida, a Polluted Bubble Ready to Burst

Beginning in May, huge downpours ushered in the most significant threat in almost a decade to the bulging lake and its 80-year-old earthen dike, a turn of events with far-reaching consequences. The summer rains set off a chain reaction that devastated three major estuaries far to the east and west, distressing residents, alarming state and federal officials and prompting calls for remedial action.

With lake waters at their limit, there were only two choices, neither of them good. One was to risk breaching the 143-mile dike, a potential catastrophe to the agricultural tracts south of the lake and the small communities that depend on them. The other was to release billions of gallons of polluted water into delicate estuaries to the east and west.

Following its post-Hurricane Katrina guidelines, the Army Corps of Engineers chose the estuaries, rather than test the dike’s vulnerabilities.

As a result, the St. Lucie River estuary in the east and the Caloosahatchee River estuary in the west, which depend on a naturally calibrated balance of salt and fresh water, were overwhelmed. The rush of fresh water from the lake and the estuaries’ own river basins, along with the pollutants carried in from farms, ranches, septic tanks and golf courses, has crippled the estuaries and, on the east coast of the state, the Indian River Lagoon.

A breeding ground for marine life, estuaries are crucial to the ecosystem. As algae caused by pollutants quickly spread and fresh water overpowered saltwater, oysters died in droves. Manatees, shellfish and the sea grasses and reefs that help sustain the estuaries all were badly hit.

“These coastal estuaries cannot take this,” said Mark D. Perry, the executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, based in Stuart. “Enough is enough. This cannot continue to happen. These estuaries are so important to us, our environment and our economies.”

The damage to the estuaries has been so profound and the clamor from local communities so intense that political leaders have pledged action. Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, visited the affected areas last month and proposed spending a total of $130 million for two separate projects.

One is intended to ease some of the pressure on Lake Okeechobee by allowing more water to go south into the Everglades, where it should flow naturally. The water will flow under a series of bridges that will be completed over the Tamiami Trail. By law, the water flowing into the Everglades is filtered and treated, unlike the water that heads to the estuaries.

South Florida was expressly engineered to prevent too much water from moving south, which is why most of the flow from the lake is pushed east and west. Canals to the south were dug to make way for agricultural fields, mostly containing sugar cane, and for urbanization. The little water that is released flows around those areas.

Environmentalists have fought for decades to correct the flow into the Everglades, a gargantuan and costly undertaking.

A second project would clean more of the polluted water in the St. Lucie River Basin that flows into the river. There are plans for a similar storm water treatment area on the west coast to help curb the damage.

“Every drop of water that we can send south and keep out of the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries is a win for Florida families,” Mr. Scott said recently when he proposed $90 million for one of the projects. “My message to families being impacted is that we will not give up on you.”

Among other projects quickly moving forward is one to store more water outside the lake, including on private property, and another to unclog culverts south of the lake. A prominent state senator, Joe Negron, recently held a hearing in Stuart to talk about the problems stemming from the lake and possible solutions.

A top priority is repairing the frail Herbert Hoover Dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee, which is more than half the size of Rhode Island and is renowned for its bass fishing. A 2006 report on the lake found that the dike, long ranked among the most vulnerable in the country, posed a “grave and imminent danger.”

But the repairs take time and large amounts of money.

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