Pine Bluff embraces disposal plan, other cities don't

By GREG GIUFFRIDA
The Associated Press
10/20/03 1:11 AM

PINE BLUFF, Ark. (AP) -- Economics and a desire to rid the region of chemical weapons are behind the way Pine Bluff has embraced a plan to incinerate lethal remnants of the Cold War.

"It's safer than transporting (the weapons) elsewhere for disposal," Mayor Dutch King said. "The sooner they are destroyed, the better."

An anti-incineration group says it has had a difficult time lining up strong opposition to incineration in Arkansas, compared with the response to weapons destruction operations elsewhere in the country.

"(Pine Bluff) is a community that is more dependent on the military presence economically than the other sites," said Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, based in Berea, Ky. "That creates a dynamic in which the community prefers not to speak out about particular operations that they may find distasteful, so as not to be perceived as being opposed to the arsenal."

Pine Bluff is a lot like Anniston, Ala., where the Army is already destroying Cold War-era weapons. Both cities are within 50 miles of major metropolitan areas and both cities' economic heydays are long past -- Pine Bluff with cotton and railroads, Anniston with iron.

Now the cities have as primary employers Army facilities that store thousands of tons of some of the most dangerous weapons on earth and, now, that house the massive incinerators built to destroy those weapons.

But Pine Bluff, southeast of Little Rock, and Anniston, east of Birmingham, differ in the way many residents view the lethal contents of the earthen bunkers that dot both bases.

Some in Anniston have been antagonistic toward the destruction. The community once was home to a Monsanto Inc. plant accused of dumping tons of carcinogenic PCBs into local water and soil. Spin-off company Solutia recently settled court cases brought by thousands of affected residents, for what could total nearly $800 million.

Pine Bluff has more warmly embraced the steady stream of jobs and federal funding at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, for the incinerator, several munitions plants and homeland-security training sites.

"I think it's become evident that we need them more than ever before because of the downsizing of the railroad, and the downturn of industry all over the U.S. It makes the arsenal even more important," County Judge Jack Jones said.

Pine Bluff was once a major center for the Delta cotton trade and for transport of cotton elsewhere by the old Cotton Belt Railroad that runs through the middle of downtown. The downturn of the cotton trade has since hurt the area's economy, along with the closing of textile and paper mills that gave the city a scent that Bob Hope once jokingly compared to "Evening in Paris" perfume.

"I think there's a special relationship among communities and the arsenal, probably one of the better working relationships than any in the world with a military installation," Jones said. "We've got a lot of faith in the way they're handling the destruction of the weapons."

Jones said he and his family live directly across the Arkansas River, in sight of the incinerator, and he sleeps well at night.

The burning of actual chemical weapons began at the Anniston Army Depot in August, after a couple of years of legal action mounted by local and national opposition groups.

While Anniston city officials and the chamber of commerce are in favor of the depot's operation, boisterous rallies were held when weapons burning started and were attended by several local and national groups opposed to incineration. The Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, a civil rights activist and vice president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, criticized the government for what he called "toxic oppression."

The incinerator at Pine Bluff is now in trial stages, with workers doing test burns of non-lethal chemical solvents that they say are harder to destroy than actual chemical weapons. Burning of weapons is currently scheduled to begin in April.

While several groups from Arkansas and elsewhere were active in the late 1990s when plans for the incinerator were being laid, the opposition quickly died out after the plans were approved and the facility began construction in 1999.

Jean Gordon of Little Rock, a member of the Arkansas chapter of Women's Action for New Directions, said her group had been active in opposing incineration back in 1998, and was a plaintiff in a lawsuit meant to force the Defense Department to consider alternative methods.

But there was some resistance in the Pine Bluff community to outside opposition groups, she said, even those from Little Rock, 45 miles to the north.

Anniston and a federal court in nearby Birmingham have seen several legal efforts intended to block the incinerator from operating. One group in Anniston is concerned that there could be emissions of dreaded PCBs from the incinerator's byproducts.

"There are some who want to paint us with the Monsanto brush," said Mike Abrams, spokesman for the Anniston incinerator, which like Pine Bluff's, is built and operated by the Washington Demilitarization Co., a subsidiary of Westinghouse.

"There are challenges, which is good. It gives us another set of eyes for oversight, keeps us from doing something rash or even stupid," Abrams said.

For its part, the lead organization in battling the Army over weapons incineration, the Chemical Weapons Working Group, has spent more time and energy in Anniston because of scheduling. Because Anniston has been roughly a year ahead of Pine Bluff, Williams said, the CWWG has paid closer attention and directed its limited resources to the depot's operation.

Williams said Pine Bluff's demographics, with a higher percentage of working class and near-poverty residents, makes it less likely to foster a healthy atmosphere for political action against the incinerator.

"Most folks are busy trying to feed their families, trying to make ends meet," Williams said, "and that makes it less likely that they're going to take up a cause, regardless of its merit."

Litigation against the incinerator in Arkansas is still pending before the Arkansas Supreme Court. Another case pending in federal court in Washington consolidates all of the incinerator sites, alleging that the Army has violated the National Environmental Protection Act for not considering alternatives discovered after incineration was chosen.

As the burning of weapons continues in Alabama and nears in Pine Bluff, local and state officials say they are satisfied with the safety procedures in place and praise the cooperation of Arsenal officials who keep them well informed on the details of the operation. They also praise the role of the Army and Washington Demilitarization in community affairs.

The arsenal is a member of the city and county's joint chamber of commerce, and a major member of the United Way's fund-raising efforts, Jones said. The arsenal contributes volunteers and workers for a number of city and county events, like the annual Great Arkansas Clean-up.

"(The arsenal) has been here so long that anyone here has some connection to it," Pine Bluff Mayor Dutch King said.

"They've been upfront with us from day one," King said. "If there is a good way to dispose of these weapons, we're satisfied that's what they're doing out there."