Associated Press
October 18, 2003

Hazardous waste residue found in barrel from chemical weapons incinerator

The Associated Press
A residue of hazardous waste was found in the bottom of a 55-gallon barrel that was discarded from the Anniston chemical weapons incinerator and later found in Choccolocco Creek, state regulators reported Friday.

The company operating the incinerator, Westinghouse Anniston, contracted with a scrap yard called Shorty's Southern Yard in Anniston to remove the drums in June 2002 but has no further details on the disposal of two barrels later found on the creek bank, said Westinghouse spokesman Donavan Mager.

The chemicals found in one of those barrels are hexachloroethane and tetrachloroethylene. The chemicals were delivered to the facility so Westinghouse could destroy them in a test burn in June 2002, officials said.

According to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, those chemicals break down quickly in the environment and evaporate rapidly.

If the barrel has been in the creek for a year or more, much of the waste may have dissipated, said Scott Hughes, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. By the time they were discovered, the chemicals were so diluted that they are no longer classified as hazardous waste, he said.

Efforts to reach officials at Shorty's on Friday were unsuccessful.