Tests show exhaust from Ala. weapons incinerator exceeded maximum levels for PCBs

By JAY REEVES
Associated Press
Published on: 03/05/04

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- An incinerator designed to destroy aging Cold War munitions emitted too many PCBs during trial burns last year, according to test results released Thursday.
 
Since August, the incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot has been destroying M55 rockets, which are loaded with sarin nerve agent and contain small amounts of PCBs.
 
Westinghouse, which operates the incinerator and disclosed the test results, said the emissions were minute and well within safety standards.
 
A once-common electrical insulator, PCBs were banned in the 1970s over fears they caused cancer. Because of that, the incinerator is required to destroy nearly all the PCBs it burns under standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency.
 
It was unclear whether the problem could lead to a shutdown of the incinerator. "We really don't know how it's going to impact the program at this point," Westinghouse spokesman Donovan Mager said.
 
Westinghouse officials questioned whether there could be a link between the test results and Anniston's history of contamination with PCBs, which were manufactured in the city for decades.
 
The Army and EPA met earlier this week with members of a community group to explain the test results. Some 35,000 people live within nine miles of the incinerator, the nation's first chemical weapons furnace built in a populated area.
 
"I'm not afraid of the release of PCBs out there," said David Baker, president of Community Against Pollution, which supports the incineration project. "We're accustomed to sitting in it all day long in a sense."
 
The depot, about 50 miles east of Birmingham, has stored 2,254 tons of Cold War-era munitions since the 1960s. Since burning began last year, it has destroyed 97 tons of sarin weapons.