Repeat of incinerator's PCBs tests set for this weekend

By Nathan Solheim
Assistant Metro Editor
03-12-2004

The Army’s chemical weapons incinerator will redo parts of critical tests on the incinerator’s ability to remove PCBs from its stack emissions this weekend. Environmental regulators asked for the repeat tests after the incinerator failed by narrow margins parts the original tests, taken back in November. Several officials with the Environmental Protection Agency will monitor this weekend’s tests but will not be available for questions from the press. Officials said the observers will monitor the tests and help in the investigation to determine the source of PCBs. “(The Army) needs to meet the standard,” said Maria Doa, of the EPA. “We want to work with them so they meet the standard. We want to cooperate with them and to make sure the problems are resolved and thus, they meet the standard.” The incinerator’s deactivation furnace, which burns M-55 rocket parts and small amounts of agent, will be tested again for three days starting Sunday. Two preliminary runs are scheduled for Saturday. Results from the tests will be evaluated by the EPA under the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, which regulates chemicals such as PCBs. PCBs are present in shipping and firing tubes for M-55 rockets, amounting to less than 1 percent of the overall composition, officials said. The EPA also asked incinerator officials to study potential sources of PCBs other than the tubes, which could include air, natural gas or gaskets. Officials have been able to rule out some sources, but the study continues. “We’ve done a literature search, you can go on the Internet and (PCBs) appear to be ubiquitous,” said Sharla Barber, the agent trial burns manager for Westinghouse, the government contractor at the incinerator. Barber, as well as an Army representative, also will follow the new samples taken for the tests to a California lab to make sure they are not contaminated with PCBs after they taken and to make sure the lab is not a source of PCBs. Incinerator officials agreed to go through with the tests, which will cost more than $300,000, at the EPA’s request, though some have said the TSCA standards are so high the facility may not be able to surpass them. Mike Abrams, and Army spokesman at the incinerator, pointed out that the facility bested federal Clean Air standards by 20 percent and that emissions met TSCA standards in the ducts coming off the facility’s furnaces. “We are working with other members of the federal work force to make sure we have good operation at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility,” Abrams said. “We are going to follow through with the EPA’s request and identify where the extraneous PCBs are coming from.”

About Nathan Solheim

Assistant Metro Editor Nathan Solheim is Minnesota native and a University of Georgia graduate.