| A federal judge ruled Monday in favor of the
Anniston Chemical Disposal Facility in a lawsuit brought in 2002 by a coalition
that includes the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Kentucky.
U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor said in his ruling
that plaintiffs’ concerns about safety in the plant have been addressed in
the incinerator’s permitting process, and that the court has no jurisdiction.
Plaintiffs said they were pursuing regulatory violations at
the incinerator. They claimed that new evidence — including violations cited
by The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) last August
— showed the facility was violating parts of Alabama’s hazardous waste law.
In a 48-page opinion, Proctor said the 11 groups who brought
the lawsuit were asking the court to make a decision on the permit’s effectiveness,
which he said was unproven by the plaintiffs’ evidence and already settled
by ADEM’s permitting process.
The plaintiffs had claimed the incinerator failed to have
a contingency plan and scheduled inspections, and showed poor design. The
groups also claimed that nine violations found at the disposal facility by
ADEM in August, 2004 showed the incinerator was in violation of state regulations.
Proctor ruled those claims were irrelevant.
“All of the Plaintiffs’ evidence concerning events or potential
events they deem objectionable have been addressed by the permit,” the judge
wrote in the decision. “Plaintiffs simply disagree with the adequacy of the
permit to prevent or manage those events.”
Assessing the validity of the permit, Proctor said, was not
a matter for the court.
Greg Mahall, a spokesman for the Army’s Chemical Materials
Agency, which oversees chemical weapons disposal, said the judge’s ruling
reaffirmed the soundness of the disposal process.
“We have argued long and hard against the people that accused
this technology of being unsafe,” he said. “I think the judge’s say on this
supports our beliefs.”
Mahall declined to discuss the plaintiffs’ charges, saying
only that safety always has been the agency’s top concern.
The groups involved first brought their case to state court
in 2000, following ADEM’s issuance of a permit for the incinerator. The Montgomery
Circuit Court upheld the permit, as did the state Court of Civil Appeals
in 2002.
Monday, Proctor issued a summary judgment for the Army, saying
the plaintiffs used the suit as a “collateral attack,” or a legal challenge
to a ruling in another case.
Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group
in Kentucky, disputed the court’s finding, saying previous judges had found
jurisdiction in the case.
“I think it’s incorrect on a number of levels,” said Williams,
who said he wants to appeal.
The judge’s ruling said the lawsuit sought a shutdown of the
incinerator. Williams said that was part of the original complaint, filed
before the Chemical Disposal Facility began operations. The CWWG, he said,
was seeking regulatory enforcement, not an injunction against the incinerator
itself.
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