Steady progress continues at incinerator

By Brian Lyman
Star Staff Writer
03-13-2005

Anniston’s chemical disposal kept chugging along, and other chemical disposal facilities in the nation marked milestones this week, but full destruction of the nation’s chemical weapons inventory is still a long way off. Crews at the Anniston Chemical Disposal Facility destroyed 1,007 eight-inch artillery shells and 1,196 gallons of sarin nerve agent (about 10,885 pounds) between Friday, March 4 and last Thursday. To date, the facility has destroyed 10,923 eight-inch projectiles and 42,762 sarin-filled rockets and warheads. In all, the Anniston Chemical Disposal Facility has destroyed 53,685 munitions and 64,087 gallons of agent (about 583,192 pounds), 13 percent of its original inventory. 26 of the facility’s 155 storage igloos have been emptied of weapons. Two other disposal facilities marked milestones last week. The Tooele Chemical Disposal Facility in Tooele, Utah, destroyed its one-millionth munition this week. While the facility itself has destroyed a little more than 996,000 weapons since beginning operations in 1996, about 40,000 weapons were destroyed at a test facility near the area. Tooele currently is processing VX mines on site. It has destroyed 996,248 munitions and 1,460,800 pounds of nerve agent. Elaine Southworth, a spokeswoman for Tooele, said she expects the processing of mines at the site to continue through May or June. Processing will halt for several months afterwards, as crews at Tooele reconfigure their machinery to process mustard agent on site. Mustard agent was the sole chemical agent on site at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Md., Friday, crews transferred the last of its drained mustard agent. “We have taken the last of the drained mustard agent, neutralized it, analyzed it and made sure it was destroyed,” said Jeffrey Lindblad, a spokesman for the Chemical Materials Agency. “We’re going to essentially flip the switch and transfer the neutralized mustard over to a holding tank.” While the mustard agent is gone, the containers still have agent residue in them. The remaining tanks will be sent to a Ton Container Processing Facility, where high-pressure hoses will clean out the interiors. The containers will then be cut in half and cleaned again with high-pressure hoses. Crews resumed weapons disposal at the Umatilla Chemical Disposal Facility in Umatilla, Ore. this week after maintenance on one of the conveyors. Crews destroyed 803 sarin-filled rockets through Thursday. Umatilla did not process any chemical agent this week; it has sent 62,547 pounds of agent into the incinerator. About 35 percent of the nation’s chemical weapons stockpile has been destroyed, including 42 percent of the originally declared munitions.

About Brian Lyman

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