Star Staff Writer
| Regulators with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management approved resumption of operations the evening of Jan. 7 after verifying permit requirements. Workers returned to processing sarin-filled projectiles soon after, as an investigation continued into how two burlap bags caught fire in an area used to process explosives. "We’re very thankful ADEM worked quickly to get us back to operations," said Donavan Mager, spokesman for Westinghouse Anniston, the contractor in charge of operations. Alarms sounded shortly after 3 a.m. Jan. 6 when the bags, used to collect secondary waste, caught on fire, apparently from an ember that had come up from a nearby chute leading to a disposal furnace. The fire burned for 20-25 minutes, according to Tim Garrett, the Army’s site project manager, before being extinguished by an automated fire suppression system. There were no workers, explosives or projectiles in the room at the time of the fire and no other combustible materials, Garrett said. Over the weekend, the plant destroyed 243 eight-inch projectiles and 486 gallons of liquid sarin, according to officials there. The projectiles, which hold anywhere from under two pounds to almost 15 pounds each of deadly nerve agent, have been in storage since the 1960s. Garrett has said he expects the plant will destroy all of the stockpile’s sarin-filled projectiles by November. Since operations began in August 2003, the incinerator also has destroyed 42,738 rockets and approximately 47,815 gallons of liquid sarin - about 50 percent of the stockpile’s sarin and about 9 percent of all agent in the stockpile, according to the Army. Officials estimate it will take until 2010 to destroy the 4 million pounds of sarin, VX and blister agent that remain in the Anniston Chemical Activity’s stockpile. |
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About Rob Jordan
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Rob Jordan covers criminal justice issues for The Star. |
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