State
News
Winter 2004
“Continued Engagement
in Anniston’s Incineration Issue - A Must!”
On August 9th of last year, the U.S. Army and their contractors (Westinghouse,
Anniston) fired up their chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston, Alabama.
This, despite a valiant effort by a dozen Alabama environmental and civil
rights organizations in the Washington D.C. federal court to block the startup.
It was a sad day for the citizens of Alabama and those downwind in Georgia
and Tennessee, and for the environment in general. Yet, there remains an
active engagement by citizens within the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG)
coalition in the region to try and force accountability and provide oversight
on the disposal effort.
The fundamental objective of the CWWG has been to insure that the chemical
weapons stored in all eight communities in the U.S. are disposed of in the
safest and most environmentally protective manner possible. Incineration,
falling far short of that criteria, has been opposed, and defeated at four
of the eight sites. Unfortunately, we’ve lost the battle in Alabama, at least
for the moment, but there are still two active federal lawsuits to stop the
burning in Anniston- we’re not giving up!.
The current situation mustn’t translate into apathy regarding the effort
to switch to a safer approach. And certainly we must be diligent in watching
how the facility is functioning, the compliance with existing regulations,
the adequacy of protection of the workers at the facility, the free flow
of information to the public, and the overall impact to the region.
The track record on these and other matters is not encouraging.
Since operations began, the facility has been shutdown at least a dozen times.
There have been problems associated with agent migrations and agent alarms
at the plant, technical problems with the furnaces and other systems, and
a tightening of information flow to the public - all ominous signs of bigger
problems yet to come.
One glaring predicament facing folks resides within the regulatory process
itself. Did you know that the Army has already burned over 15,000 rockets,
filled with Sarin nerve agent, and have not been required to monitor for
emissions of PCB’s, dioxin’s, mercury, lead and a host of other substances,
except during a short Trial Burn Period - about 12 days of the 125+ days
of operation? That’s right, 15,000 rockets, and the 160,000 pounds of agent
burned, along with the explosives, propellants, PCB contaminated firing tubes
and God know what else - and no emissions monitoring required. Well, I can’t
honestly say “no emissions monitoring”.....they are required to monitor for
agent itself and four other substances that are supposed to tell them that
the furnaces are operating within certain parameters (O2, CO, NOx and SOx)
- but that’s it. So, for about 100+ days of operations they haven’t had
to check for the substances mentioned above, or dozens of other contaminates
ALREADY IDENTIFIED as emissions at their two previous incinerators!
Little things, like arsenic, cadmium, hydrogen chloride, benzene, toluene,
furans...you get the picture. This is outrageous, but particularly irresponsible
in a community like Anniston, where folks are already burdened with levels
of some of these same substances well over any acceptable level. And, to
make matters worse, if the results of the Trial Burns pass muster at ADEM
(now there’s some reassurance!!) the plant can operate for years without
ever having to monitor for these substances again. Now that’s what I call
“protection”!
The Army’s agent monitoring systems are nothing to brag about either. Keep
in mind these are some of the most lethal substances ever concocted - designed
to kill humans. The fact is, based on 10 years of reports from various scientific
bodies, it is understood that their current agent monitoring system is unreliable,
outdated and inadequate - but that won’t stop them.
Congress passed a resolution late last year stating the Army upgrade their
agent monitoring systems saying, “ The Army should deploy improved chemical
agent monitors in order to ensure the maximum protection of the general public,
personnel involved in the chemical demilitarization program, and the environment.”
But, well.... the Army just doesn’t seem to have the time to pay attention
to such things and continues to burn merrily along, in spite of this obvious
inadequacy.
Most Americans are familiar with the evidence of widespread Environmental
Injustice or Environmental Discrimination. Simply put, there is no question
that minorities and the poor suffer disproportionate impacts associated with
hazardous waste treatment and production facilities. (There ain’t no incinerators
or hazardous waste landfills in the Mountain Brook area of Birmingham!)
In fact, incineration has been stopped in the predominantly wealthier and
white communities where chemical weapons are stored. But not in Anniston,
where 44% of the population is African-American. - 267% higher than the national
average of 12%. But it doesn’t stop there. The millions of pounds of hazardous
waste generated by the incinerator has to go somewhere - right? Guess where.....
I know how much we all like statistics...so here’s where the Pollution Abatement
System Brines; Lab Waste; Slag; Ash; Dunnage; and heavy metals, etc. will
be shipped for “disposal”:
• East St. Louis, IL: 97.7% African American ; 31.8% below poverty
level
• Emelle, AL : 93.5% African American; 66.7% below the poverty level)
• Port Authur, TX : 67.2% minority (43.7% African-Am; 17.5% Hispanic; 6%
Asian) 28% below the poverty level;
• Creedmor, N.C.: 27% African American; 13.2% below the poverty level;
• Ragland, AL : 17% African American; 15.3% below the poverty level
Anyone not see a pattern?
What we have here is the unmistakable targeting of not only the initially
impacted community (Anniston), via getting an inferior and polluting disposal
technology, but compounding this, the fact that the reception sites for the
secondary waste ALL fit the Environmental Discrimination profile. This
is the most blatant example of such "targeting" by one government agency
in our nations history.
Where is the outrage? Where is the accountability? Where is the oversight?
Where is the pressure to ensure that we don’t look back twenty years from
now and find another Monsanto/PCB situation in this community (and other
communities)? The answer is simply, within the activist community. If we
don't do, it won’t be done. If we don’t force responsibility on those in
charge, it simply will not happen.
Remember, the incinerator in Anniston is scheduled for operate for the next
8 to 10 years! And, with the performance track record to date, perhaps much
longer.
The Alabama Environmental Council, along with our other allies, continue
to demand maximum protection for the citizens of the region and their environs.
The CWWG is committed to assist in this effort and hope you will join us
in making sure we achieve this goal.
Craig Williams, Director
Chemical Weapons Working Group