Incinerator workers prepare to conduct trial burn for ADEM

By Brian Lyman
Star Staff Writer
02-27-2005

While the Anniston Chemical Disposal Facility continues to burn its way through stockpiled 8-inch projectiles, crews are getting ready to perform a trial burn for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Crews destroyed 1,419 artillery projectiles and 2,015 gallons (about 18,337 pounds) of sarin between Feb. 18 and Feb. 24. In all, the disposal facility so far has disposed of 51,193 weapons and 547,000 pounds of nerve agent. Tim Garrett, Army project site manager, said he expects all of the 8-inch projectiles to be destroyed by late March or early April. When that work is completed, workers will spend approximately 42 days preparing the facility’s machinery to destroy 155-mm projectiles. The facility will conduct a trial burn of its metal parts incinerator for sarin the second week of March. “We have to demonstrate to the state what we can do that’s allowed in the permit,” said Garrett. “All along, we will gradually increase destruction to the point where we’re at what’s in the permit.” The pace of munitions destruction at the Anniston incinerator was significantly faster than at the nation’s two other disposal facilities this week. The Tooele Chemical Weapons Disposal Facility in Tooele, Utah destroyed 387 VX mines and approximately 4,000 pounds of nerve agent this week. The facility, which has to dispose of what was the largest chemical weapons stockpile in the continental United States, has destroyed 994,313 munitions – 87 percent of its stockpile — and about 14,586,000, pounds of nerve agent, about 53.5 percent of its stockpile. “Once we finish processing VX, there will be six or seven months of reconfiguring the operations of the plant to handle mustard processing,” said Elaine Southworth, a spokeswoman for the facility. The Umatilla Chemical Weapons Disposal Facility in Umatilla, Ore., had a slow week for disposal, destroying only five rockets and two pounds of sarin. The facility had to shut down to repair a conveyor for one of its furnaces. The outage was scheduled to last through Sunday. Disposal operations are scheduled to begin in Pine Bluff, Ark., in late March and at Newport, Ind., sometime this year. The Anniston incinerator received a safety award Friday from the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations. Westinghouse Anniston, which manages the incinerator, has reported 6.5 million working hours without lost-time injury, or injuries sustained by employees that require them to miss a day of work.

About Brian Lyman

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