Al Jazeera Info
August 21, 2003

More Than 200 Rally In Anniston, Alabama: "Burning Chemical is Dead Wrong"

Elizabeth Crowe

8/21/03

 FAMILIES, CHURCH AND CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS, VETERANS DEMAND THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT STOP BURNING WMDs, START PROTECTING ANNISTON, ALABAMA COMMUNITY

Anniston, AL -- More than 200 people gathered in Anniston, Alabama, Saturday morning, to protest the U.S. Army's burning of lethal chemical weapons in the highly populated, highly contaminated area surrounding the Anniston Army Depot. One week ago, the Army began burning the weapons, stored at the Depot since the early1960 s. Residents living in the shadow of the incinerator say that the incinerator is a dangerous way of destroying weapons because it destroys their health.

After a6 -block march behind a banner reading "Burning chemical weapons is dead wrong," the crowd gathered at Anniston's Zinn Park for a rally where local residents and supporters from all over the region demanded that the government replace the incinerator furnaces with safer technology, like the neutralization technologies being used to destroy chemical weapons at four other U.S. sites.

Civil rights icon Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Vice-President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) encouraged the Anniston community to "plant the seeds of truth," and to fight the injustice of the incinerator. "We didn't break the back of segregation only to die together from toxic chemicals," said Shuttlesworth. "We must fight for freedom from this toxic oppression, from a government who cares more about filling the pockets of contractors than it does protecting this community from harm."

Sprinkled throughout inspirational speeches from other civil rights and community church leaders and veterans, local "pink zone" residents--those living closest to the Anniston incinerator--testified that they feel twice betrayed by the government: by the Army's flat refusal to consider safer technologies to incineration that could prevent the release of chemical agents into the environment, and by the state and federal government that allowed the burn to begin even though basic safety measures are not in place.

Rufus Kinney, with the group Families Concerned About Nerve Gas Incineration, said the evidence of harm of incineration is already clear. He shared the story of Anniston resident Arametta Porter, whose exposure to tiny amounts of chemical agent several years ago resulted in severe chemical sensitivity and continuous spasms in her face. On the day that the Army began moving chemical weapons in Anniston, Ms. Porter's physical reaction was so strong she was immediately hospitalized; now her neurologist has advised her never to go back to Anniston.

"Arametta knows the dangers of exposure to even tiny amounts of chemical agents, she feels it every day. She wanted to be with us here today in person, to let her voice be heard, but she cannot," said Kinney. "The state and federal courts say we can't prove harm from the incinerator, but the court of public opinion hereby convicts the Army and the U.S. government of negligence and failure to protect the health of this community."

Jeanette Champion, a grandmother who lives in the PCB-contaminated community of west Anniston, said that industry and the government have made her neighborhood into a "sacrifice zone." "To the U.S. government, my family is like guinea pigs. By the time the Army admits they have ruined our health, it will be too late to do anything about it."

Others pointed out that work continues on numerous schools and churches in the area, which will be overpressurized in the event of a chemical agent incident at the incinerator, and that those projects will not be completed by October. Many special-needs individuals in the pink zone have been "ignored" by the government, and say they would be virtually helpless to protect themselves from chemical agent exposure. And ironically, first responder units will be neither fully trained nor fully equipped for a chemical agent incident until January2004 .

Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) Director Craig Williams said the Anniston community was never given an opportunity to consider safer alternatives to incineration, but that it is not too late for those safer methods to be used in Anniston. "You deserve the same level of protection from these lethal chemicals as do people living in Kentucky, Colorado, Maryland or Indiana. For the Army to continue to deny this community maximum protection is unconscionable," Williams said. "We will stand with you in the fight for environmental justice until that incinerator is shut down for good."

John McCown, from the Sierra Club's Environmental Justice Program, called on the Bush Administration to pay attention to the threat of "weapons of mass destruction in Anniston," even as the hunt for elusive WMDs continues in Iraq. "There's something terribly wrong when people are lining up for government-issued gas masks here in the U.S.," said McCown. "As a nation, we should be outraged that the citizens of Anniston and of the southeast are falling victim to the threat of toxic incinerator emissions."

Rev. N.Q. Reynolds, pastor of Anniston's Seventeenth Street Baptist Church and President of the Calhoun County SCLC said, "It's time for this community to let its voices be heard. Rich and poor, black and white, this community has got to pull together and fight this horrible injustice. It is not too late. We can still ensure that the government destroy these weapons without destroying our health."

The groups say they will continue to educate the community and elected officials on the safer chemical weapons disposal methods, and do "whatever it takes" to bring about justice through safe weapons disposal in Anniston.