Anniston Star, October 20, 2002

Emergency situation: Responder teams lack essential equipment

By Jason Landers
Star Staff Writer
10-20-2002

The Army's chemical weapons incinerator may fire up months before emergency personnel in Calhoun County are equipped to respond to an incident involving the aging munitions.

In June, the Federal Emergency Management Agency authorized the county to receive slightly more than $1.3 million for equipment to respond to an accident involving chemical
weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot.

That money was awarded through the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) and designated, exclusively, for the Anniston Fire Department to purchase protective suits.

Months have passed and not a nickel of the federal money has reached the department.

"We're still in a stage where we don't know what's coming yet," said Anniston Fire Chief
Bill Fincher. "I think we need to get moving, but I don't know if the delay is normal," said Fincher, who was named chief just last month after serving briefly as the interim.

The money is being held back, awaiting reauthorization, says county Emergency Management Agency director Mike Burney, because of federal guidelines that require the county to itemize purchases.

Initially, the Federal Emergency Management Agency authorized the money for the purchase of protective suits. After a meeting earlier this year with Fincher, U.S. Fire Administrator David Paulison decided the department needed more.

Paulison agreed with Fincher that the department needed the equipment and training for a full-time emergency response team. That included not only personal protective equipment, which FEMA had authorized, but also hazmat and decontamination equipment, response vehicles and extensive training, which FEMA hadn't authorized.

"It will be the first time that Calhoun County has had a team that is fully equipped and trained to respond to a CSEPP event," Burney said.

In August, Burney requested that FEMA reauthorize the county to purchase the equipment and training that Paulison recommended. He said he still is waiting on a reply.

When the money arrives, Fincher estimates, it will take between nine months and a year for the department to make the necessary equipment purchases and fully train its staff.

"Given the equipment to work with and the training, we would be able to readily respond (to any incident outside the depot)," Fincher said. Currently that is not the case, he added.

An Army spokesman said Saturday it is doubtful the startup of the incinerator will be delayed because first responders aren't ready for an incident.

"Preparedness has nothing to do with the startup of operations," Army spokesman Mike Abrams said. First responders, like AFD, are receiving federal funding because of risk posed by the stockpile, not the incinerator. The incinerator is the Army's answer to reducing the risk of storing more than 2,200 tons of aging nerve and mustard agent.
"As we destroy weapons, we eliminate the risk of storing the weapons," Abrams said.

Army officials have not released a firm date for the startup, which has met delay after delay. An announcement is expected sometime this week.

As AFD awaits funding, other emergency responders in the county question their own preparedness. Fran Byrd, the commander of the county's volunteer hazmat team, says his organization hasn't received any federal assistance, although it desperately needs more equipment.

"I'm sort of honked off," said Byrd, who for years has held his hand out awaiting help for the volunteer squad. He felt slighted when all of the CSEPP money for protective equipment was appropriated to the Anniston Fire Department.

Byrd said the 12-year-old hazmat team is not equipped to handle a large incident involving
chemical weapons and questions why CSEPP money hasn't reached it.

"We are equipped to handle a small or medium-size incident, but something large-scale, such as a CSEPP event, we are not equipped to handle it," Byrd said. "We need more self-contained breathing apparatuses. We need some more Level A suits, and we could use another vehicle."

Likewise, other agencies feel ill-prepared.

Sheriff Larry Amerson said deputies are not ready for an emergency event, and no attempt has been made to change that. "This agency is no better off today than we were ten years ago," he griped.

Deputies are equipped with protective suits. Amerson said the suits are defective.

"Law enforcement and fire (officials) have been given virtually nothing that will assist us in
responding to a chemical accident," the sheriff said.

State troopers have protective suits that would help as they escaped an accident, said Jacksonville Post commander, Lt. Joyce Shelley, but they lack a backup communications system, should they receive instruction to evacuate the post. "We are as prepared as we can be for what we have, but it is far from what I would call prepared," Shelley said.

The post has 11 radios that troopers can use during an emergency event should their
communications fail. Those radios would allow limited communication with local authorities, but Shelley said the post doesn't have enough of the radios to equip each of its troopers.

Shelley said the post missed out on an opportunity to overpressurize its communication room, which would have prevented contaminated air from entering the facility in the unlikely event of a chemical weapons accident. Attempts at re-opening a backup communications room in Gadsden also have failed, she said.

More federal funding for equipping first responders could become available next year, said
Burney.

Burney said the money to fund a hazmat team for the Anniston Fire Department marks the firstphase of funding requests. The county will continue to make new requests, he said, until every agency in the county is equipped to handle a CSEPP event.

"We are asking for more funding in the 2003 (CSEPP) budget," Burney said.

A FEMA spokesman said the agency is unaware of any new requests for CSEPP funding. Burney said the funding, the request for which would first go to the state EMA, wouldn't be available until sometime next year.