Incinerator to shut down for scheduled maintenance

By Rob Jordan
Star Staff Writer
05-27-2004

The Anniston chemical weapons incinerator will stop burning nerve agent-filled rockets June 1 for a maintenance period that could last up to three weeks, according to incinerator officials. The incinerator, in operation since August 2003, will stop processing and burning rockets filled with deadly GB nerve agent, or sarin, so that crews can do preventive maintenance and inspect the facility’s inner workings, said Tim Garrett, the Army site manager at the incinerator. Garrett said the stoppage will be the first in a series of scheduled maintenance periods that will take place about once a year and is not a product of any malfunction or operational concern. The shut down likely will coincide with the destruction of the last drainable GB rocket, according to Garrett. As of Wednesday, the incinerator had destroyed 32,072 rockets, or more than three-quarters of the drainable M55 rockets and more than 40 percent of the Anniston Army Depot’s stockpile of rockets filled with nerve agent, according to incinerator officials. “It just so happens the stars aligned and we can do it,” Garrett said. Despite the accomplishment, the depot still faces a monumental task. Other kinds of munitions, containing more than 4.5 million pounds of GB, VX and blister or mustard agent, remain in the depot’s stockpile according to figures provided by the Army. Garrett said he expects the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) to approve burns of non-drained, or gelled, GB rockets in time for the incinerator’s startup around June 18. If all goes according to plan, Garrett said, the incinerator will dispose of the depot’s GB rocket stockpile by August or September. Cleaning slag from the liquid agent furnace will be among the biggest jobs to handle while the incinerator is idle, Garrett said. The glass-like slag is a combination of silica buildup from burned decontamination solution, used to clean parts and protective suits, and heavy metal deposits from the incinerated GB or sarin agent. The slag itself does not contain any GB, Garrett said. Incinerator employees and sub-contractors also will work to clean and replace parts such as air filters, check for deterioration in heat-exposed areas, test backup generators, and do preparation work on a metal-parts furnace that will be used to burn projectiles drained of GB. ADEM recently approved a trial burn to be held at the metal-parts furnace in July. If the four-day trial burn meets federal emission standards, the metal-parts furnace will go to work full time, burning projectiles weighing up to 200 pounds each. Although drained beforehand, the projectiles will contain residual amounts of agent when they are incinerated, Garrett has said. Although the incinerator will not be operational during the maintenance, the potential for danger to workers likely will be greater than usual, said Bob Love, plant manager for Westinghouse, the government contractor at the billion-dollar facility. Because the maintenance work has not been a part of the incinerator’s operation to this point, Love said, workers will have to accustom themselves to a new routine. The incinerator’s schedule calls for the all the depot’s GB and VX munitions to be destroyed by July 2006, according to Garrett. Blister agent or mustard gas, the least toxic of the three agents stored at the depot, will be last to go into the incinerator.

About Rob Jordan

Rob Jordan covers criminal justice issues for The Star.