Anniston Star
June 6, 2003

Incinerator will be ready to roll July 1

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
06-06-2003

The Department of the Army notified Congress Thursday morning that the embattled Anniston chemical weapons incinerator will be ready July 1 to begin operations.

An Army official called the notification "good news."

It means the military "will soon begin safely eliminating a source of risk that this community has been living with for more than 40 years," said Tim Garrett, the Army's project manager at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

But Gov. Bob Riley said Thursday afternoon that he will not yet sign off on an Army plan to begin limited incinerator operations.

"Gov. Riley will not allow eagerness to compromise the safety and integrity of the chemical demilitarization process," said a statement from Riley spokesman Pepper Bryars. "There are a couple of issues that have yet to be resolved to Gov. Riley's satisfaction, and until then, his administration cannot, and will not, allow the incinerator to begin operations."

Sen. Richard Shelby and the Calhoun County Commission issued statements Thursday, saying they oppose starting the incinerator before certain community safety measures are in place.

"I remain committed to the full implementation of the remaining safety checklist items before I will endorse any plan to commence operations at ANCDF," Shelby said.

Before it starts the incinerator, the Army wants Riley's signature on the interim burning plan it has formulated.

While the Army does not need a go-ahead from Congress, it must send Congress a letter at least 30 days before it is ready to begin burning, and that is what it did with Thursday's notification.

Under the Army's plan, detailed in a proposed memorandum of agreement, the Army would begin destroying M55 rockets filled with GB nerve agent. It would process the chemicals at night and on weekends, and only with 24 hours' notice to the local Emergency Management Agency.

The memorandum must be signed by Riley, the Acting Secretary of the Army, and the head of emergency preparedness and response for the Department of Homeland Security.

It would allow incineration operations to begin before the four safety measures stipulated by Sen. Shelby are completed.

One of them, the overpressurization of local schools, is in progress. By October, the Army Corps of Engineers is expected to have finished that work.

Another has to do with who would notify nearby communities in case of an accident. The Army has agreed to be responsible for activating the warning system in the area closest to the incinerator in such a case, but not all of the necessary equipment has been installed yet, said David Ford, spokesman for the Calhoun County EMA.

Shelby also demanded that the safety of the special-needs population - an estimated 3,000 people who can't respond normally to an emergency because of illness, age or other reasons - be addressed. The funding for that has not yet come through, and no contract has been awarded yet, Ford said. The contract will allow 60 days to do the needed work, he said.

Shelby also wants new chemical weapons toxicity data to be incorporated in planning. The Army has said that is in process.

"It's strange that there is this push to have to start now, and have to start under the auspices of an eleventh-hour plan that we don't fully understand and have questions about," said Calhoun County Commissioner Robert Downing.

In its statement, the Commission renewed questions about the safety of the incineration process, as did the head of an anti-incineration organization.

"What you've got is, you've got the processing of the most volatile of the entire Anniston stockpile first, in a facility that's never operated," said Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group.

Before the incinerator can begin operations, the state environmental agency must approve modifications to the Army's permit to destroy weapons. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management said Thursday that the approval still is pending.

The Army began storing chemical weapons at the Anniston Army Depot in the 1960s. It currently has 2,253 tons of chemical munitions stored in igloos here.

In 2001, Army contractors finished building the incinerator intended to destroy the weapons.