Anniston Star
July 31, 2003

ADEM issues incineration permit

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
07-31-2003

Alabama's environmental agency announced late Wednesday afternoon that it has approved the Army's plan to begin operations at Anniston's chemical weapons incinerator and conduct a trial burn of rockets filled with live nerve agent.

The announcement by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management means the Army now can fire up the incinerator for the trial burn whenever it chooses. The plan, or permit modification, was the last legal obstacle to startup.

The permit approval came even as negotiations appeared to have broken down between Gov. Bob Riley and the Army over whether Riley would sign off on the Army's plan to begin limited operations.

The Army does not need Riley's approval to operate the incinerator, but Army officials have said they would like the governor to endorse the plan.

Riley last week demanded as a condition for his signature the power to stop the incinerator should things go wrong.

In an interview Wednesday, the governor reiterated the demand. "I will not sign any agreement that in some way limits the power of the governor's office to take whatever action he deems necessary over the next five or six years," Riley said.

"We're willing to talk to anyone who will talk to us," he said. "they do not want to give anyone unilateral authority to make the decision of whether they can burn."

It was unclear Wednesday night when the Army would begin operations, or whether it would do so without Riley's endorsement.

"We're still in the process of working the issue," said Cynthia Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of the Army.

But while the Army has not announced a startup date, the facility and the state appear to be gearing up for the start of the trial burns.

ADEM, which will have inspectors at the incinerator around the clock, sent its first team to the facility Sunday, said agency spokesman Scott Hughes.

The permit approval represents the agency's "concurrence that the Army can commence agent shakedown operations," the ramp-up period that leads to trial burns, said Steve Cobb, chief of ADEM's governmental hazardous waste division.

The Army has 720 operational hours to complete the shakedown, he said.

"We will be monitoring that closely," Cobb said.

After the trial burns, the facility must back down to half the normal rate while ADEM evaluates the data gathered during the destruction.

The Army has about 2,253 tons of chemical weapons stored in concrete igloos at the depot. In 2001, it finished building the incinerator intended to destroy them.

The Army had asked Riley to sign off on its plan to begin operating the facility before completion of certain community protection measures, including installing equipment at schools and providing equipment to the elderly and disabled. Riley's approval is not legally needed.

The Army's plan proposes to limit initial operations to burning only at night until the equipment installations at the schools are completed.

Sen. Richard Shelby, who has been deeply involved in the incinerator debate, released a statement saying he backs Riley in his request.

"I believe he has correctly interpreted the proposed memorandum of understanding and support his decision not to sign such a flawed document," Shelby said. He urged the Army to finish the community protection measures quickly so safe incineration can begin.

The Army long has held that the aging stockpile poses a much greater risk to the community than the incinerator does.

The United States. has chemical weapons stockpiled at eight sites around the country, including the site at Anniston. The Army has been using a neutralization process to destroy mustard agent in Aberdeen. Md., and has been incinerating weapons in Utah. It has already incinerated more than 16 million pounds of weapons at Johnston Atoll in the Pacific.

As a signatory to international chemical weapons treaty, the U.S. must destroy its stockpile by 2007.

The Army long has held that the aging stockpile poses a much greater risk to the community than the incinerator does.