Anniston Star
July 18, 2003

Burning concerns

By Sara Clemence and Nathan Solheim
Star Staff Writers
07-18-2003

HEFLIN

Gov. Bob Riley said Thursday he will meet with a top Army official to discuss some final concerns about safety precautions at the Anniston Army Depot before chemical weapons incineration there can begin.

The governor said he will meet with Les Brownlee, the Undersecretary of the Army, to address a few last-minute concerns before he gives approval to a limited incineration plan that could allow the Army to start burning this summer - maybe within weeks.

Riley did not say when the meeting would take place and has not set a specific date to inform the public on his decision about the limited incineration plan.

"We're closer than we've ever been," he said.

Meanwhile, a small group of incineration opponents gathered in western Anniston to call on Riley not to allow the Army to burn agent at the Anniston Army Depot.

Anti-incineration forces gathered in response to a letter from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management that says the agency is close to issuing a permit allowing the incinerator to fire up. Riley's signature is needed for the incineration to go forward.

At a hastily called press conference at 17th Street Baptist Church, incineration opponents asked Riley, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and President Bush to halt what they called an "illegal" incineration process.

"This is 'Crazy in Alabama' taken to a new level," said Rufus Kinney, of the local Families Concerned About Nerve Gas Incineration. He spoke against the background noise generated by the construction of a protective room being built at the church.

The half-dozen speakers, including representatives from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Sierra Club and Chemical Weapons Working Group, said they would do everything they can to stop the burning before it begins.

"Legal action, direct action, political action - whatever we need to do," said Elizabeth Crowe, an organizer for the Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group.

The groups said they are preparing to file for an injunction against the incinerator. Drawing parallels with the Civil Rights movement, they said they would protest and march against the facility.

"We're black folk, we're poor white working folk," the Rev. N. Q. Reynolds, president of the Calhoun County chapter of the SCLC, said of neighborhoods close to the depot. Locating the incinerator near a low-income neighborhood with a large minority population is a form of racism, he said.

The opponents reiterated several concerns about the incinerator.

They are fearful of emissions from the facility and of a possible accident there.

They say that instead of burning the weapons the Army should fit the facility for a liquid method known as neutralization to destroy the chemical agent. The process is being used at four of the eight chemical weapons storage sites in the U.S.: Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky and Maryland.

Incineration is being used in Alabama, Utah and Arkansas.

The groups also reiterated their belief that neutralization is safer than incineration and pointed out several instances of worker exposures to chemical weapons at other incinerators.

Riley said during his visit that the Army has complied with a list of safety demands, and that the destruction of chemical weapons is ready to begin, even though not all the safety precautions, such as the over-pressurization of schools, have been completed.

Army officials said the process is safe.

"The Army made a decision a long time ago that the best process, the safest process, to destroy the chemical weapons here was incineration," said Army Spokesman Mike Abrams. "We have made a major commitment with funding from Congress to build and prepare a facility to do just that. We know that incineration works."

The opponents also said protective measures for the community should be complete before burning begins. Schools should have special leak-proof rooms in place, and vulnerable people such as the elderly and disabled should receive protective equipment for their homes.

The Army has long maintained that the aging chemical stockpile at the depot is a graver threat to the community than the incineration process itself, and the sooner it is gone, the safer residents will be.