Several metal barrels have been found in the waters of Choccolocco Creek between Friendship Road and Silver Run Road. Photo: Kevin Qualls.

A creek is no place for a 55-gallon drum labeled “Poison.”

But several scarred metal barrels have found homes among the fish, birds and wildflowers inhabiting Choccolocco Creek between Friendship Road and Silver Run Road.

How they ended up there is a mystery, quiet as the creek waters.

One drum, painted black and naked of labels, is jammed up against a tree that toppled across the creek. Brown foam, Styrofoam cups, plastic bottles and a discarded volleyball press around it.

A second black drum rests downstream, wedged against a mossy rock near the creek’s southern bank. Some of its labels have been scratched out, but others read “Poison” and “Flammable.”

“Attention!” says one, warning about flammable fumes that could linger inside. “This container hazardous when empty.”

A quality control label bears the date, June 13, 2003.

The third drum, even farther downstream, once contained methanol, a wood-based alcohol, according to its label.

“Keep away from food and drink,” it reads. “May cause blindness if swallowed.”

The two labeled barrels originally came from Research Solvents and Chemicals. In its effort to track the barrels, The Anniston Star contacted the Birmingham-based company to trace the drums to their source.

“That kind of thing is reprehensible,” Ron Hamilton, vice president and general manager for the firm, said of the dumpers. “I’d like to deal with them myself.”

But, he said, the company could not provide the Star with a list of local customers Tuesday, for fear of litigation.

In August, road workers found two drums on a high bank of Choccolocco Creek. The barrels bore labels reading Westinghouse Anniston, the company that operates the chemical weapons incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot.

Days later, a local man contacted the Star, saying he had seen several more drums in the creek.

The 29-year-old, who asked not to be named, found the half-dozen cans while fishing for spotted bass, as he has for more than a decade.

“I was disgusted,” he said. “After all the stuff about the creek…

“For every barrel that you see, how many more went downstream or sunk into holes?”

Army and Westinghouse officials said these barrels are not theirs. After the Westinghouse drums were found, workers took a flat-bottomed boat down the creek to check for any others, said Bob Love, Westinghouse project general manager.

Photo: Kevin Qualls.

Besides, said Tim Garrett, the Army’s manager for the incinerator, the plant doesn’t use methanol.

Under federal community right-to-know laws, certain facilities must register the amount of hazardous chemicals they keep on-site.

Three of the facilities in the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency’s database use methanol: Braddock Metallurgical in Anniston, Tull Chemical in Oxford and Union Foundry in Anniston. North American Bus Industries in Anniston also shows up in federal databases as a possible methanol user.

Braddock does not use the chemical in barrels, said Abdul Amani, manager at the plant. A tanker brings the chemical in bulk.

Tull uses methanol in barrels, said owner Charles Wigley, but it buys it from a different company. And the drums are blue, not black, he said.

“I doubt very seriously that they would be mine,” Wigley said. “I don’t recall ever losing any.”

Union Foundry does not use methanol anymore, said Larry Sneed, media contact for the foundry’s parent company, McWane. He said the company hasn’t used methanol for 10 years.

Calls to the bus company went unreturned.

But methanol is a common chemical, Hamilton said, with a wide range of uses.

It’s added to windshield washer fluid and tractor tires as an anti-freeze. It’s used as a solvent. Go-kart racers add it to fuel. It’s a component for acetylene gas, used for welding. Methanol can even be used to make scented potpourri.

“Typically we find (dumpers) wouldn’t throw methanol out,” but use the empty barrels to dispose of other waste,” Hamilton said. “They’re not going to waste a good product.”

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management investigates illegal dumping, but budget cuts have reduced the number of solid waste inspectors from seven to just two, said Larry Bryant, chief of ADEM’s solid waste division.

Those inspectors are responsible for checking active and closed landfills, as well as looking into illegal dumping, throughout the state.

“I have one person spending 25 percent of his time investigating illegal dumps,” Bryant said.

Metal methanol barrels can be rinsed and recycled or crushed and landfilled, Bryant said. They would not be considered hazardous waste, though throwing them in the creek is against the law.

A really bad dumper can face up to $25,000 a day in fines from the state, Bryant said. A facility that was just negligent would likely be made to clean up the mess, with no penalty, he said.

But first, the dumper has to be found.

“I don’t understand how they can have waste like that and not have controls,” said the man who found the drums. “It’s like nobody cares and they just keep doing it. Nobody stops them. Nobody gets held accountable.”