Alabama refuses waste from Arkansas depot
The Associated Press
10/22/03 7:10 PM
EMELLE, Ala. (AP) -- A tanker carrying 4,000 gallons of hazardous waste from an Army depot in Arkansas wasn't allowed to unload in Alabama after the state refused the shipment.
Officials said Wednesday the truck was turned away last week at the Chemical Waste Management landfill at Emelle, located in Sumter County a few miles from the Mississippi line.
Officials at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas said the tanker was carrying decontamination fluid that had been used to clean World War II-era containers that held lewisite and mustard gas.
While a new chemical weapons incinerator is located at Pine Bluff, site project manager Randy Long said the liquid sent to Alabama had nothing to do with the incinerator.
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management told Chemical Waste Management it could not accept the waste for disposal, which it described as being from the Arkansas incinerator.
"I think they shipped it with the intention of getting the department's approval while it was en route, but the decision was made to not let them dispose of that product," said ADEM spokesman Scott Hughes.
Hughes said the state requires the Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston to burn its decontamination solution, so materials from Arkansas shouldn't be brought to the state.
"I think the feeling was that since we were requiring Anniston to dispose of its waste on site, Pine Bluff should be able to take care of its waste on site instead of shipping its waste to Emelle," he said.
Larry Wright, a civilian executive at Pine Bluff, said the tanker had returned to the installation with the load.
The incinerator at Pine Bluff has not started destroying weapons. The facility is conducting trial burns in which surrogate materials are incinerated in its furnaces.
A similar series of test burns were used at the Anniston incinerator, which began operations in August and has destroyed more than 6,700 rockets and 7,000 gallons of sarin nerve agent.