So far, the 23 million pounds of Vietnam-era napalm has turned out to be explosive only in a political sense, triggering a display of pressure and clout that will send railroad shipments of the chemical through the southwest suburbs instead of the west suburbs to get to an Indiana recycling plant.
The decision by railroad officials and the Navy, which is planning to move the napalm from near San Diego to East Chicago, reflected the power of Democratic U.S. Rep. William Lipinski, whose Southwest Side and west suburban district had been believed to be a primary route for the shipments.
Instead, the napalm now is scheduled to be routed through Will County and southern Cook County, the district of Republican U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller. The 12,000-gallons-a-day shipments are expected to continue for two years, but the Navy has not said when the project will start.
While aides to Lipinski said the congressman would not be happy unless the Navy decides to cancel the shipments through Illinois entirely, it was clear that his status as a high-ranking member of the powerful House Transportation Committee, and of its rail subcommittee, played a role in keeping the napalm, and the controversy it has raised, out of his district.
After plans for the shipments were revealed late last year, Lipinski wrote to U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen and federal and state environmental officials, urging them to stop the napalm project or, at the very least, ship the petrochemicals through less-populated areas outside his district.
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But repeated inquiries by Lipinski and other members of the Illinois congressional delegation never produced a straight answer about the exact routing of the shipments, said Michael McLaughlin, Lipinski’s legislative director.
“If the Navy was forthcoming, it wouldn’t have been a big issue,” he said.
After failing to secure the exact route from military officials, Lipinski called on sources with the Federal Railroad Administration and with officials of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. This week, the route through Weller’s district was revealed.
In Illinois, tanker trains containing the napalm will travel from Galesburg to Joliet, where the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad will take over, passing through Frankfort, Park Forest, Matteson and Chicago Heights, on the way to Pollution Control Industries Inc. in East Chicago. The recycling plant plans to mix the napalm with other wastes, turning it into fuel that would be burned elsewhere.
For months, it had been believed that the napalm would travel along west suburban Burlington Northern tracks through Aurora, Naperville, Downers Grove, Hinsdale and Berwyn, with a two-day stop in Cicero to switch rail lines before heading to East Chicago.
The Navy held public hearings in Chicago and East Chicago in an effort to ease concerns but never revealed the exact train route. Naval officials had tried to reassure worried residents that the jellied napalm, despite its reputation as a war chemical, was less volatile than gasoline.
U.S. Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.) said the rerouting of the shipments was an effort by Navy officials to remove the objections of Chicago Democrats to the napalm project.
“It appears to me as we learn more about this that (the Navy) never really had a well-thought-out plan, and they never considered alternatives,” said the North Side Democrat, who has been one of the most vocal opponents of the napalm shipments. “Once it was discovered by us here in Chicago, they (were) trying to piece together responses for it.
“If they think they can now say . . . they’ve thrown us a bone to claim victory, it’s another example of the cynical attitude on the part of the Navy.”
Blagojevich said he remains upset that the shipments will pass through the south and southwest suburbs.
Weller, a Republican from Morris, expressed shock at the napalm route.
“As far as we know, no route has been finalized,” Weller said, adding that his efforts have focused on trying to strike the Navy contract altogether.
“Furthermore, we’ve contacted the Navy, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway and have been told that there are no plans to begin moving the napalm for the next several weeks,” he said.
The Navy shipments are on hold pending a review of the contract by the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. The Navy agreed to delay the shipments after Pollution Control Industries acknowledged that it had inadvertently accepted waste containing cancer-causing PCBs at its plant. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the East Chicago plant to remove the PCBs or risk being prohibited from accepting all Superfund waste, including the napalm.
Lt. Col. Jon A. Smith, spokesman for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Washington, said the Navy remains ready to ship the napalm and is making final preparations to get started.
Three highly influential Republican members of the California congressional delegation have pressured the Navy to remove the napalm, including U.S. Rep. Ron Packard, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees military construction projects.
Smith denied that the Navy had tried to keep the route a secret. He said Burlington Northern officials did not want to discuss the route because it could be altered by any number of factors, including weather or rail traffic, during the two years that the napalm is to be shipped.
The railroad “has said from the outset the route was flexible,” Smith said.