Star Staff Writer
And, a monitoring system that some activists have been calling for as an enhancement probably would not be useful at the Anniston Army Depot, says a Nov. 12 letter to the Army from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The systems, designed to protect workers and surrounding communities by detecting deadly airborne nerve or blister agent, have been criticized by some outside the Army.
A Congressional amendment, passed Wednesday as part of the 2004 Defense Authorization bill, calls for upgraded chemical agent monitoring systems at the nation’s eight chemical weapons storage sites.
There will be a demonstration of one type of technology, called Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, today at 10 a.m. at Jacksonville State University’s Miller Hall.
Some say the system could give residents an extra layer of protection and enable a faster response time in case of an emergency at the chemical weapons stockpile or incinerator.
The event, which is open to the public, is presented on behalf of JSU, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the Calhoun County Commission, and members of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission.
But the equipment, which “reads” open air with a beam of light, would not be useful for monitoring air at the depot perimeter because it doesn’t detect chemical agent at low enough levels, the CDC letter says.
The chemical weapons storage site is too large and the terrain too uneven for the technology to be used easily, the letter says.
It does not say whether FTIR could be useful inside the incineration facility.
The letter summarizes the agency’s assessment of air monitoring systems at the depot.
“Our evaluation concluded with a feeling of strong confidence in the capability of the laboratory and monitoring staff,” says the letter, signed by John Decker, chief of the CDC’s Chemical Weapons Eliminations Team and Paul Joe, chief medical officer of the team.
The program is “clearly meeting intended requirements,” though the CDC has recommendations for further improvements in a separate report, the letter said.
CDC officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Incineration opponents have argued that under the current system, it can take 20 minutes to confirm an agent alarm.
Army officials said Wednesday that it actually takes an hour to confirm an agent reading, but it doesn’t matter because the response to alarms is nearly immediate.
“Every alarm is treated as real until the confirmation says otherwise,” said Tim Garrett, the Army’s project manager for the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.
Rooms are evacuated if necessary, and the public must be notified within five minutes if chemical agent is headed outside the depot, he said.
The incinerator was built to destroy the 2,253 tons of chemical weapons, including nerve and blister agent, stored at the Anniston Army Depot since the 1960s.