Anniston Star
October 9, 2003

Procedures altered after drums found

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
10-09-2003

The Anniston Chemical Weapons Disposal Facility does not have tracking documents for the two 55-gallon drums found on the banks of Choccolocco Creek earlier this week.

“That’s not required under the code,” said Donovan Mager, spokesman for Westinghouse Anniston, which operates the facility for the Army. “They’re definitely not categorized as hazardous waste.”

Talladega County road workers discovered two dented 55-gallon drums bearing Westinghouse labels about 50 yards from Silver Run Road Monday. The drums also bore ”Empty” labels.

One barrel was empty; the other contained a small amount of liquid.

Westinghouse officials said the drums had contained plastic bottles of chemicals used earlier this year in test burns at the incinerator, built to destroy chemical weapons stockpiled at the Anniston Army Depot.

The drums had been sent empty to Shorty’s Southern Yard for recycling, Mager said.

“I don’t think anybody for sure knows they came from my yard,” said Jim Griffin, a Shorty’s owner.

“If it did come from my yard, somebody stole it or we sold it for somebody to burn trash in,” he said “We do that a lot.”

Griffin said he has documentation from the company certifying that any scrap shipped to the yard is contaminant-free.

“I sure don’t want any contamination on my yard,” he said. “I got people working out there.”

Mager said the drums “definitely” went to the yard.

“Shorty’s is the only one that had a contract to dispose of those particular drums,” he said. “Obviously we’re not pointing the finger at Shorty. We thought that painting over the labels was sufficient.”

In the future, all scrap drums will have labels removed and will be crushed, Mager said.

A Talladega County emergency management official surmised that the drums washed up on the creek banks during May’s heavy rains.

“It was a high bank, so the water level had to be high to put them up there,” said EMA Director Nelson Bates. “We had to wade through the briars to get there.”

The two drums were found only a few feet apart.

Workers spotted the barrels from the road, which crosses over the creek, and called the EMA after reading the chemical labels, he said.

Alarmed, Bates arrived on scene with a hazardous-materials team.

When Westinghouse workers arrived, “they assured me that there had been nothing toxic in the barrels,” Bates said.

The drums were taken to the chemical weapons facility for testing and disposal. The Army will give the EMA a written report on the incident, Bates said.

Mager said the plastic bottles were contained in a thick poly liner, and the contents never touched the drums.

“If it was hazardous waste it would have been dealt with completely differently,” Mager said.

The barrels would have been accompanied by a manifest that tracked them “cradle to grave,” he said.

The bottles and bags the drums formerly held were burned in one of the incinerators, he said.

“Believe me, there’s not one thing we do at this site that is not under a microscope,” Mager said. “We definitely will abide by our hazardous-waste permit.”

Officials from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which oversees the incinerator, could not be reached for comment.

Mager previously said Shorty’s was required to immediately crush and recycle the bins. Wednesday, however, he said nothing in the contract mandated crushing or prohibited resale.

“The contract is being renegotiated to ensure drums are disposed of properly,” he said.

Griffin said Shorty’s no longer will sell any of the barrels.

“Not any more, not after this happened,” he said. “We don’t make any money on them at $3 apiece.”