Anniston Star
June 20, 2003

Some fear incineration debate could affect depot's future

By Nathan Solheim
Star Staff Writer
06-20-2003

The Anniston Army Depot may face the Base Re-alignment and Closure Commission in 2005. Photo: Kevin Qualls/The Anniston Star
Analysis

The debate has roiled for years over protective hoods, smokestack emissions, chop-and-drop and public notification about the chemical weapons incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot.

The incinerator, and its image of igloos filled with the detritus of the Cold War, has polarized the community in and around Calhoun County.

Fears have arisen - unfounded or not - that the volatile dialogue on the incinerator could influence the Army and Department of Defense when assembling the list of installations for the Base Re-alignment and Closure Commission.

There are also suspicions the Army has used the idea of closing the depot as leverage to get local authorities to sign off on incineration.

Army officials have said they want to rid the community of what they call the true risk - the continued storage of chemical weapons - while the Bush administration has said it might want to close the depot.

"No message has ever been directly communicated that they're looking at the Anniston Army Depot, they're looking at 25 percent of the Department of Defense," said Anniston Mayor Chip Howell. "It's only logical that we better be making sure that we're as prepared as we can be. Because the 1995 (BRAC) process certainly proved that you can't take anything for granted."

Army officials said the incinerator and the depot are separate and that the idea of such a correlation is no more than a rumor.

Howell, over the past few weeks, has taken a very visible stance on the issue, delivering a pro-incineration resolution to Gov. Bob Riley from the Calhoun County Council of Mayors. It asks that all the stakeholders - from the Army to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Calhoun County Commission - remove remaining impediments to incineration and get on with destroying the chemical weapons.

Anniston would take a huge economic hit if the depot closes, so Howell must walk a fine line.

"They are two separate issues, however, I think we would be naïve to think that, although the Pentagon is a very large place, one wouldn't impact the other," Howell said.

That resolution came on the heels of an Army interim operations plan unveiled a few weeks ago. It outlined plans to start destroying nerve agent on a limited basis before safety measures are in place. The plan would limit operations to after-school hours and put off destroying gelled rockets until protection measures are in schools.

All that remains for limited operations to begin is the signature of Gov. Bob Riley, who said Monday he's ready to sign the document.

Some local officials also worry the message sent to the Army and Department of Defense officials hurts the depot's chances to stave off BRAC.

"I think it's important to look forward, and I think starting the incinerator will be beneficial to us as a community as we start the BRAC process," said Sherri Sumners, president of the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce. "I think the relationship has been a little strained between the community and Washington and that would ease the strain."

The Chamber has long held a pro-incineration stance, and recently it delivered a letter in support of beginning operations to high-level officials inside the Department of Defense and the Army.

However, the Calhoun County Commission has made the Army's job a little tougher. Though the body supports incineration, commissioners long have sought money to prepare the community in case of an accident at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility and nerve agent gets off post. The commission's efforts, and the Army's lack of immediate response to its demands, have delayed the start-up of operations for at least a year.

Commissioner Eli Henderson said he thinks the Army may be trying to leverage BRAC to garner community support for incineration.

"The Army is using that as a tool to force the issue, and they're not looking at the safety measures they should have had in place a long time ago," said Henderson, who worked with nerve agent for 10 of his 25 years as a depot employee.

Henderson, alone among the five commissioners, sees value in the interim operations plan and said it gives the incinerator's workers a chance to train with live agent. The Army hopes to have the incinerator, which to this date has cost taxpayers more than $400 million, running this summer.

Mike Abrams, a spokesman for the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, said he hasn't seen anything that validates a correlation between the startup of the incinerator and BRAC.

Having gone through BRAC in 1995 as a public affairs officer at Fort McClellan, Abrams said he wasn't surprised such thoughts have started to creep through the community.

"It's not unthinkable that people are looking for something they can grab on to," Abrams said. "The rumors are going to, I believe, get real, real outrageous."