Anniston Army Depot receives environmental awards

By Matthew Korade
Star Senior Writer
09-29-2004

Records show that Anniston Army Depot has not always been a good steward. Between 1950 and 1981, it allowed untold quantities of hazardous chemicals to leak into the surrounding community. This year, with efforts well under way to remedy past mistakes, the depot won some first-place environmental awards from the Army and the Department of Defense. During the ceremony earlier this month, depot officials accepted two first-place awards from the Army, one for preventing pollution, the other for cleaning up the environment. “I think it helps to show that while we’re a large-quantity generator of hazardous waste, we’re doing everything we can to reduce that and improve our environmental stewardship,” said Ann Worrell, the depot’s director of risk management, who flew to Washington, D.C., for the ceremony. The Army cited the depot’s decision to build a state-of-the-art groundwater treatment plant, the use of high-tech modeling techniques to predict the flow of contaminated water as well as the depot’s relationship with the local Residents Advisory Board, a group of civic leaders and concerned citizens that stays apprised of pollution issues. The depot was the only Army installation to receive two first-place awards this year. At the Department of Defense level, the depot’s awards submissions won runner-up, behind the Air Force. The depot’s pollution-prevention efforts try to make its industrial processes more efficient and reduce waste at the source, Worrell said. The depot recycled or found uses for more than 16,500 tons of materials last year, everything from glass to paper to wood pallets to scrap metal. Scrap metal is one of the largest recycled components, saving an estimated $1 million a year. So is the product of the missile recycling plant, which breaks down conventional rockets. The depot was able to divert 54 percent of its solid waste from landfills this year. The Department of Defense’s goal is 40 percent. “So I’d say that’s pretty good,” Worrell said. The depot also has reduced its use of paint by switching to low-pressure paint guns, reducing emissions and saving 35,000 gallons of paint a year – a savings of more than $3 million. Originally built in 1941 as an ammunition storage area, the depot over the decades has become one of the Army’s largest vehicle maintenance bases. In addition, its cache of chemical weapons – on their way to being destroyed – was once 8 percent of the nation’s stockpile. Its missions required it to use industrial processes such as plating, painting, degreasing and paint stripping, which released contaminants such as the chemical trichloroethylene, or TCE, into the soil and groundwater. TCE has been linked to cancer in studies. The extent and severity of such contamination came to the fore in 1989, when the Environmental Protection Agency identified the depot’s southeast industrial area as top-priority hazardous waste site, putting it on its national priorities list for long-term cleanup, according to the Army. The industrial area in question was near the installation’s southeastern border, where there are a number of private drinking wells, and is within one mile of Anniston’s main source of drinking water, Coldwater Spring. Monitoring over the years has confirmed that plumes of contamination have spread beyond the depot property and have crept into the local groundwater. Restoring the site is challenging. The depot has the distinction of being one of the Army’s top-five most complicated sites. The bedrock in the area is fractured and contaminated water has been detected at depths of 400 feet below the ground surface – too deep for technology to provide cost-effective solutions, the Army has said. In addition, there are 47 separate sites that require tracking, including lagoons, disposal pits, underground storage tanks, landfills, open burning and detonation zones and waste treatment areas.

About Matt Korade

New York native Matt Korade is senior writer for The Anniston Star.