Incinerator may face penalty for failing to follow ADEM rules

By Rob Jordan
Star Staff Writer
07-09-2004

An “administrative error” has set back plans to begin burning undrainable chemical munitions at the Anniston chemical weapons incinerator, according to incinerator officials and state regulatory officials. During an April trial burn of so-called gelled rockets filled with sarin, incinerator workers mistakenly monitored emissions with a single 4-hour sampling device instead of four 1-hour sampling devices, as required by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM). In a letter dated July 7, ADEM noted the mistake and requested a portion of the trial burn be repeated. “We did not do what we said we would do in the plan and (ADEM is) correct for calling us out on it,” said Tim Garrett the Army site manager for the incinerator. ADEM officials said they were “satisfied” no agent was released because of the mistake and said the test likely would have been accepted if incinerator officials had asked for approval and provided adequate quality control data beforehand. ADEM officials have yet to decide whether to levy a penalty, according to Stephen Cobb, chief of the agency’s government hazardous waste branch. As required for this type of operational change, incinerator officials secured approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Army’s Chemical Materials Agency. Those approvals were not conveyed to ADEM, however. The mistake was not the first time incinerator officials have failed to follow testing requirements, according to Justin Martindale, an environmental engineer with ADEM. Martindale cited similar deviations from operating requirements during trial burns in March 2002 November 2003. “We have warned them and warned them and warned them,” Martindale said. Garrett and Bob Love, plant manager for Westinghouse Anniston, the government contractor at the billion-dollar facility, said they expect to repeat part of the trial burn by Wednesday or Thursday next week. They said they hope to have ADEM approval to burn gelled rockets full-time within two weeks of the test run. The incinerator, in operation since August 2003, has burned all non-leaking, drainable sarin-filled rockets in the Anniston Army Depot’s chemical weapons stockpile. The number represents more than 40 percent of the depot’s stockpile of rockets filled with sarin and VX nerve agent, according to incinerator officials. Munitions with more than 4.5 million pounds of sarin, VX and blister agent remain in the depot’s stockpile. Until ADEM gives approval for gelled rocket burns, the incinerator will burn only remaining leaking, drainable rockets.

About Rob Jordan

Rob Jordan covers criminal justice issues for The Star.