Anniston Star
January 30, 2003

Shelby: Army must meet preparedness standards

By Jason Landers
Star Staff Writer
01-30-2003

In a blistering letter to the Secretary of the Army, Alabama's senior senator has delivered a stern warning about the startup of the billion-dollar chemical weapons incinerator at Anniston Army Depot.

The Army must meet four community-preparedness benchmarks before the facility fires up, wrote Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, or it will lose his support for burning the weapons.

Dated Jan. 29, the letter calls on the Army to make 31 area schools within a 12-mile radius of the facility airtight against nerve and blister agent infiltration; provide resources that will protect the disabled, bedridden, ill, blind, and deaf, latchkey children and residents who don't speak English, from a chemical release; take responsibility from the county for activating emergency sirens in the event of a chemical release; and provide accurate toxicity thresholds for the nerve and blister agents stored at the Anniston Army Depot.

"In sum, as soon as each of these four items is resolved I will be fully prepared to endorse and support the startup of the incinerator," Shelby wrote in the conclusion of the four-page letter to Secretary of the Army Thomas White. "Until then, however, I remain opposed to any chemical weapons being burned in the incinerator's furnaces."

The loss of Shelby's support could spell financial disaster for a demilitarization program stung by funding shortfalls. Shelby sits on the Senate's defense appropriations subcommittee and the powerful appropriations committee.

With those committee assignments, he could hold up funding if the safety measures are not met.

"Senator Shelby believes we have gotten to the point where the Army can no longer afford to stall," said Andrea Andrews, spokeswoman for Shelby.

As a matter of policy, the Army will not comment on a correspondence from a member of Congress, an official at the Pentagon said. Any response will be directly to Shelby, the official said.

Startup of the incinerator was scheduled for this month, but has been indefinitely postponed. Facility spokesman Mike Abrams says startup will be determined by the demilitarization program's top officials and can't commence until state regulators issue a permit to do so.

Calhoun County's leading emergency management official described Shelby's letter as the strongest congressional support to date for positions the county has taken for years.

"I see that as positive," said county Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Burney. "We are not interested in delay. We are interested in safety. I hope this will prompt additional resources being applied to these problems to quickly resolve the outstanding issues so we can begin to destroy these chemical agents."

Shelby, Sen. Jeff Sessions, Rep. Mike Rogers and Gov. Bob Riley repeatedly have stressed that community safety is the first priority in the destruction of the 2,254 tons of nerve and blister agent stored here.

Burney said he was grateful for Shelby's backing - the most "definite statement" demanding preparedness before startup.

At times chiding and in some lines demanding, Shelby tempered the letter with assurances that he will work to get the money the Army needs to accomplish its preparedness and demilitarization mission.

All four of the preparedness measures are long overdue, Shelby insisted in the letter.

He wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 1995 and 1996 recommended that 25 schools receive "over-pressurization" systems, designed to keep chemical agent from entering the buildings. FEMA began whittling away at the list once the Army obtained a permit to build the incinerator.

Shelby pointed out in the letter that the agency receives all its funds for preparing communities from the Army - hinting that the Army was behind reducing the number of schools to receive the over-pressurization technology.

Though there are a few schools that have the technology, late last year, after intense local pressure, the Army verbally committed to over-pressurize 27 additional schools and daycare facilities. To date, no work has been performed at these facilities.

The Army estimates the school project will take two years at a cost of $26.9 million. "This is simply unacceptable," Shelby said of the timeframe. He called on Army Secretary White to conclude the matter "expeditiously" using the resources of the Corps of Engineers to do it.

On the issue of community notification of a chemical release, Shelby said if the Army doesn't sound the alarm, it will cost the county eight crucial minutes in notifying the public.

"I cannot support the startup of the incinerator until this most fundamental notification issue is resolved," Shelby wrote.

As for toxicity data, the Army is relying on thresholds established in 1972 for healthy men soldiers, despite assurances they would adopt stricter Environmental Protection Agency thresholds in 2001.

Shelby described the Army's toxicity data as "outdated and inaccurate," and demanded Army officials accept the EPA's new numbers, which likely will expand the area of the most critical response zones nearest the facility.

In a statement supporting the senator's actions, Rep. Rogers said, "Senator Shelby and I both have the same objective: to start the incineration process as quickly and safely as possible."

Rogers said he continues to work with Shelby, Sessions, Riley, local officials and the Army to that end.

Rogers, who has had numerous meetings with Army officials since taking office three weeks ago, said, "I believe that everyone involved wants to, and will, reach an agreement on all remaining issues in the near future."