Concern gives way to confidence for some living nearest incinerator

By Rob Jordan
Star Staff Writer
06-24-2004

BYNUM — On the brink of entering a new phase in its mission to destroy Cold War armaments, the Anniston chemical weapons incinerator appears to have faded from the radar screen of many of the people who live closest to it. Almost a year after the Army facility began burning sarin-filled rockets amid controversy and criticism, it’s quietly gearing up to burn leaking and undrainable sarin rockets before switching to VX-filled munitions. For some who live in the incinerator’s shadow, concern has given way to confidence. Residents point to a strong safety record and competent managers. Some admit they would rather not think about what could go wrong. Sonny Nance’s rambling old house and backyard vegetable patch lie two miles downwind from the incinerator and the Anniston Army Depot concrete bunkers with millions of gallons of deadly nerve agent. Nance, 73, doesn’t lose any sleep over it. “I lay my head on that pillow about 45 seconds and I’m sound asleep,” he said. “That’s how concerned I am.” The weapons stockpile, full of decades-old armaments, some of them leaking, is a far greater risk to the community than the incinerator is, Nance said. Getting rid of that stockpile is a priority, Nance said, and incineration is the best solution. Mary Waldrep said she trusts her local elected officials to oversee the incinerator. “I leave it up to someone else to take care of us,” she said. Waldrep expressed her sentiment by quoting a bumper sticker popular with some at the time of the incinerator’s startup. “Build it, burn it, forget it,” the sticker stated. Business as usual Although it may be impossible to forget that some of the world’s most deadly substances are being burned nearby, some depot neighbors take comfort in the incinerator’s quiet operating history. During its more than 300 days of operation, the incinerator has had six so-called “events,” involving agent leaks or alarms, according to a chronology compiled by the nonprofit Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington. Most of the events were relatively minor, involving small, quickly extinguished fires or the detection of trace amounts of agent. In one case, monitors detected a small amount of sarin agent in the facility’s medical center. In another case, perimeter monitors detected VX agent four miles from the storage area. Because the incinerator has yet to burn VX, the agent is believed to have leaked from one of the depot’s storage bunkers. Julie E. Fischer, a chemical weapons expert at the Stimson Center, described the Anniston facility as among the safest of the eight chemical weapons destruction sites in operation around the country. Lessons learned from predecessor plants at Tooele, Utah, and Johnston Atoll have helped contribute to what Fischer called a “very minor,” incident record at Anniston. But, Fischer cautioned, the Anniston incinerator has been in operation a relatively short period, and time will tell how safe it is. Eliminating stockpiles The Army decided in 1982 to build incinerators at eight chemical weapons stockpile sites, but has since halved that number. At four sites, the Army plans to use a technology that neutralizes the chemicals with water and other liquids. Carolyn Huddleston is concerned about what time may bring. She lives little more than a mile from the incinerator and worries she won’t have time to protect herself or her 82-year-old father in the event of a major accident. She doesn’t have enough gas masks for her often-visiting grandchildren and doesn’t see plastic sheets and duct tape as an effective defense. The threat is real for Huddleston, and she has trouble believing her neighbors don’t feel the same way. “I think they’ve just pushed it out of their minds,” she said. Calhoun County Commissioner Eli Henderson, who represents much of the area closest to the incinerator, said none of his constituents has ever complained about the facility. Tim Garrett, the Army site manager at the incinerator, said he is not surprised by the apparent public confidence. The stockpile represents a greater threat than the incinerator, he said. Francis Wood of Westover Road figures it’s a waste of time to worry about the incinerator. “We just don’t worry about it because a big spill would pretty much wipe out the place,” she said.

About Rob Jordan

Rob Jordan covers criminal justice issues for The Star.