Star Staff Writers
While Army officials, plant managers and local officials extolled the facility’s rapid pace and relatively strong safety record, some experts cautioned the program has stumbled at times and faces significant questions in the year ahead.
When compared to the Army’s other munitions incinerators, the incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot stands out for meeting schedule objectives and operating without a significant incident, said Bob Love, the plant manager for Army contractor Westinghouse Anniston. The incinerator has destroyed 34,361 rockets and 342,928 pounds of sarin nerve agent. More than 4 million pounds of sarin, VX and blister agent remain in the Anniston stockpile.
"We’ve really met our goals," Love said.
An independent study done by a public policy institute, the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, confirmed Love’s safety claim, showing Anniston is on pace to be among the safest such facilities. The incinerator has had six events, involving agent leaks or alarms, according to the study. Most of the events were relatively minor, involving small, quickly extinguished fires or the detection of trace amounts of agent.
Calhoun County Commissioner James A. "Pappy" Dunn pointed to the Army’s safety record as evidence the operation is going smoothly. The Army has done a good job of handling glitches and communicating with the surrounding community, Dunn said.
Tim Garrett, the Army’s site manager, said the incinerator’s efficiency was a matter of smooth and careful operation, not haste. He described the incinerator’s progress as a series of steps based on lessons learned from similar facilities.
"I don’t want that control room operator worrying about numbers," he said.
Over the course of the year, Garrett has worried about various surprises such as specially packed leaking rockets that required more time and effort than expected to destroy.
Love referred to a Feb.4 incident in which a small amount of agent was detected outside engineering controls as a "learning experience," that pushed plant managers to alter some procedures.
The Army also needs to learn from a March incident in which a perimeter monitor at the depot detected VX nerve agent, some say. Although Army scientists have said an unknown "interferent," such as a pesticide, likely tripped the monitor, no source has been found.
Julie Fischer, a chemical weapons expert at the Stimson center, called the Army’s inconclusive handling of the incident "troubling."
Making things worse, said anti-incineration activist Craig Williams, is a lack of thorough and quickly disseminated information about problems such as the March incident. Williams has called on the Army to make available detailed operational information on a regular basis. Currently, the Army provides daily updates on burn totals and safety issues.
Garrett said he would respond to any community concerns and questioned whether more detailed updates would be beneficial.
"What is the average citizen going to do with it?" he said.
Most area residents are confident in operations at the incinerator, Love said.
"I think since we’ve been out here processing without any huge problems, people have kind of forgot about us, except for the opponents," he said.
Dan Long, director of the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency, said the Army had been forthcoming and helpful during the past year. Among other updates, the Army provides the EMA with daily run-downs on munitions movements and potential chemical events.
"I get heads-up calls on everything," Long said.
Calhoun County has made strides in its chemical emergency preparedness, according to Long, who pointed to an early warning system for residents within six miles of the weapons stockpile and a public information campaign to raise awareness about chemical emergency response.
Since start-up at the incinerator, the Anniston Fire Department, the primary agency for chemical event response in the area, has become well prepared to treat victims and decontaminate anyone or anything, according to fire Chief Bill Fincher. The department is equipped with various sophisticated detection devices, 100 doses of an injectable antidote called atropine and decontamination equipment to treat about 100 people an hour. Anniston has trained 55 firefighters so far, with another group set for training, bringing the eventual total to 70 or 75 firefighters trained as HAZMAT technicians.
In the months ahead, operations will shift from rockets to smaller projectiles, necessitating somewhat different processing techniques and the use of a third furnace. Love said workers would go slowly at first to deal with the more complicated campaign.
Before the Army can get to projectiles however, workers must complete destruction of so-called gelled rockets in which sarin has crystallized. That process could present problems, according to Fischer, who pointed out the Army’s projected burn rate of 9.2 gelled rockets per hour far outpaces the 1.6 gelled rockets per hour that Utah regulatory authorities allowed at an incinerator there.
Fischer called the goal "ambitious," and cautioned that the fast pace could wear on equipment or have other unforeseen consequences.
Contact Rob Jordan at rjordan@annistonstar.com or 235-3552. Contact Nathan Solheim at nsolheim@annistonstar.com or 235-3543.