Incineration update: Plenty of work still lies ahead

By Brian Lyman
Star Staff Writer
02-20-2005

The Anniston Chemical Weapons Depot neared destruction of its 50,000th weapon this week, but there’s still plenty of work ahead. The depot currently is destroying 8-inch artillery projectiles, and should have those eliminated by late March or early April. Crews had destroyed 7,012 projectiles and 58,206 gallons (about 529,000 pounds) of sarin through Thursday. Through Feb. 10, the facility had disposed of 5,534 projectiles and 508,905 pounds of liquid GB. In all, the facility has sent 49,774 weapons to the flames. Crews had a good Feb. 11-13 weekend: 863 projectiles went to the furnace, and 8,558 pounds of sarin were eliminated. Destroying the projectiles requires separate disposal of the casing, the agent and explosives in the weapon. Site project manager Tim Garrett said there was a fortunate conjunction of all three processes that weekend. “There will be some days where we’ll have a lot of bullets destroyed, and others not so many, because we may be doing maintenance,” he said. “Projectiles, for lack of a better word, are going to be cyclical.” The Army’s Chemical Materials Agency says about 11 percent of the facility’s total stockpile had been destroyed through Feb. 3, with 7 percent of the munitions incinerated. Nationwide, the Army has destroyed 35 percent of the nation’s chemical weapons stockpile, a percentage unchanged over last week. Tooele, Utah, which had the largest amount of chemical weapons, has destroyed 993,946 munitions (87 percent of its declared inventory) and 14.6 million pounds of chemical agent (53.5 percent). The facility currently is disposing of VX mines. “They really don’t hold a lot of agent,” said Elaine Southworth, a spokeswoman for the Tooele Chemical Weapon Disposal Facility. “When they’re all done, we’ll be done with our VX.” Umatilla, Ore., which began disposal work last fall, destroyed 225 GB-filled rockets from Feb. 11 to Feb. 17, and 2,689 pounds of agent. Crews at the plant have destroyed less than 1 percent of the total amount of Umatilla’s chemical agent, and slightly more than 6 percent of the total munitions stored there. Chemical disposal will begin in Pine Bluff, Ark., in late March. The Army also will begin disposal operations in Newport, Ind., sometime this year.

About Brian Lyman

Brian Lyman covers infrastructure and the cities of Heflin and Lincoln for the Anniston Star. He lives in Anniston.