Anniston Star
April 26, 2003

Riley, various officials, discuss preparedness progress

By Amy Sieckmann
Star Capitol Correspondent
04-26-2003

MONTGOMERY

Anniston's chemical weapons incinerator is technically ready for use, but officials meeting in Montgomery Friday said they still need more money for equipment to protect the community, and some answers about the significance of the latest data on chemical weapons toxicity.

Federal, state and local officials involved with the incinerator and associated preparedness matters met Friday with Gov. Bob Riley to discuss concerns. The meeting left Riley and the other participants with the conclusion that while communications and community preparedness have improved recently, more work and money are needed.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said about $11 million still is needed for more tone-alert radios, shelter-in-place kits and items to protect special-needs residents in the "pink zone," the area nearest the chemical weapons stockpile. FEMA officials were unable to answer Riley's questions about when that money might come through.

Some $7 million of the awaited money is for FEMA's program to help special-needs residents of the pink zone, officials said.

Terry Hobbs, program specialist with FEMA's chemical weapons stockpile program, said FEMA will use the Anniston company, Metro Mail and Printing, to identify special-needs residents. Company owner and President Vanda Holt said the printing company has a database of special-needs residents and will identify the protection needs of each pink-zone resident on that list.

If a person just needs someone to visit and teach them how to use protective gear, a representative from The Centech Group, the company distributing the protective gear, will be sent, Hobbs said. If the person needs more help, the Army Corps of Engineers will be sent to fix the home, using weatherization, sealing, filters or whatever else is needed to provide protection, she said.

FEMA officials at the meeting also answered questions about tests that have shown that the chemical agent VX is much more toxic than what the Anniston community has prepared for. VX is one of the chemicals used in the weapons awaiting destruction.

FEMA officials said the Army is working to determine how the higher toxicity could impact the community's preparedness for the possibility of a chemical weapons accident at the stockpile. Some officials at Friday's meeting said higher toxicity could mean a larger pink zone and changed boundaries on other zones.

Riley concluded that would mean changes in the protective gear needed by some residents. The governor expressed frustration when the FEMA officials told him they don't know when the Army will be able to say if the zone boundaries will change.

"This is something that has been going on for years," Riley said. "We have asked and asked and asked. That community out there is not going to accept that the toxicity has increased but the boundaries haven't."

Calhoun County Commissioner Robert Downing, who first raised the question about the toxicity tests, echoed the frustration.

"It's obvious the Army still does not want to deal with the issue of the toxicity of agents which they know are wrong," Downing said.

On another matter, Calhoun County Commissioner Rudy Abbott asked officials for a final number on the rate at which gelled munitions will be incinerated. The incinerator has proven through trial burns that it can safely burn material that is harder to destroy than gelled munitions at a rate of 34 an hour. Abbott, however, said residents are concerned that was too many.

The state now is reviewing those trial burns and public concerns about the incinerator. Before the incinerator can begin its work, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management must issue a permit that includes details on how many munitions it will be allowed to burn per hour. The permit is the only thing preventing the incinerator from starting immediately, said Tim Garrett, the incinerator's site project manager.

Garrett told the group he expects the state to tell him the incinerator can burn about 18 gelled munitions an hour. He said he expects the state to issue a permit in the next 30 days. Later in the meeting, however, Garrett changed that number to 17 munitions an hour and added that the incinerator actually is likely to burn eight or nine gelled munitions per hour.

Riley indicated that was not what he wanted to hear.

"So you're telling me we can do 34 safety, but because of citizen concerns we are only going to do 16?" he asked officials.

Riley said officials need to explain the scientific reasoning to the community so that residents will feel more comfortable with whatever burn rate is chosen.

Representatives from Talladega County voiced concerns about preparations for the possibility of an accident at the incinerator at a time when a race is going on at the Talladega Superspeedway.

Bruce Baughman, head of the state Emergency Management Agency, said he plans to use a national team to help put together a special events plan for the race track. Baughman said he is re-energizing the state's Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program's Integrated Product/Process Team, which is essentially a team of experts who can answer questions and funnel communications quickly between the local and federal levels. Baughman said the team has not been active in recent years and he plans to get it going again.

Officials exchanged praise for what has been accomplished in the area of preparedness in recent weeks. FEMA officials were proud to tell the governor that they have developed new plans for overpressuring six additional schools, in Lincoln, Munford and Ragland. FEMA said it has the money to overpressurize the schools, but is not sure it can do it by the October deadline it has set for all the other schools it plans to overpressurize.