Anniston Star
July 31, 2003

Clay County officials ask for incineration delay

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
07-31-2003

Gov. Bob Riley's home county said early this week that it is not fully prepared for a chemical accident at the Anniston Army Depot.

The Clay County Commission outlined its concerns in a letter to Riley, and asked that incineration be delayed.

Among the issues:

• The county has not yet received money for shelter-in-place kits, which have been made available to all Calhoun County residents.
• New data shows that more protective measures are needed in parts of northwest Clay County. The areas are sparsely populated but include recreational areas of Talladega National Forest.
• New computer modeling shows that, in a worst-case scenario, a plume of chemical agent would not be stalled by the mountains that slice across northern Clay County.

"We just don't have a lot of things ready yet," said Ricky Burney, Clay County commissioner. "We feel like we need to make sure we take all the measures to protect our people."

Clay County is one of six that could be affected in event of a large-scale accident at the depot. The other counties are Calhoun, Talladega, Cleburne, St. Clair and Etowah.

The county has not yet received money for shelter-in-place kits for more than 2,000 residents in the "protective action zone," which rings the areas closest to the depot.

"The whole issue is equal protection," said Theresa Daugherty, director of the Clay County Emergency Management Agency. "When the kits were funded for the PAZ of Calhoun County, we asked for equal treatment."

Once the funding comes through, it will take several weeks to bid out the contract and distribute the equipment, she said.

Daugherty said that in recent weeks the county has received new data about the way a chemical plume could move in a worst-case situation.

New modeling software that takes into consideration terrain and weather, "paints a different picture" than before, she said.

"It was always thought that the plume would not go over the mountain," she said. Now it shows the chemicals could migrate around certain hills and pool on the far side, she said.

Also, a state-funded analysis, using new toxicity standards for the chemical agent, shows that two areas in the northern part of the county, around Lake Chinnabee and Cheaha, don't have enough protection.

"Although these zones do not contain a large amount of potential residents, they do received an undetermined amount of seasonal population that would need to be notified of a chemical event at ANAD " the commission wrote in its letter to Riley.

Installing warning sirens in the forest is complicated because of limitations on using heavy equipment in the National Forest, Daugherty said. The EMA and its contractors are formulating a plan for the area.

In addition, two schools that had been designated as emergency centers, Bibb Graves and Mellow Valley, recently closed.

"They were perfect locations to receive evacuees and register them and also to shelter, if necessary," Daugherty said. "We can use those schools today, but nobody can say for how long. I don't think they're going to leave them there with the power on for two years."

A spokesman for Riley said his office had not received the letter yet.