Star Staff Writer
Adding another form of monitoring technology around Anniston’s chemical weapons facility would be like adding air bags to automobiles, Pat Byington of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission said at a meeting at Jacksonville State University Thursday.
The “air bag” in this case is not needed, according to incinerator spokesman Mike Abrams, who did not attend the meeting but who spoke with representatives who did.
Scientists, professors, Army, community representatives, students and public officials filled a Jacksonville State University classroom Thursday to hear about monitoring technology that could be used at the incinerator at Anniston Army Depot. What they heard sparked discussion.
Dr. Brent Olive, a professor at the University of North Alabama, and Dr. Donald S. Gamiles, chief executive officer of Cerex Environmental Services, Inc., led a presentation about an open-air monitoring device. The monitors can be used at any location where there is chemical activity, Gamiles said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the device probably would not be a useful addition at the Anniston Army Depot.
Gamiles and Olive recommend the device as a supplement to the monitoring systems already in place at the depot and at Anniston’s chemical weapons incinerator.
The advantages of the system, they said, are that it essentially can provide real-live data, is more flexible, and can monitor larger areas.
Olive held a can of spray used to clean keyboards. He sprayed it in the air, and within seconds, the system gave a reading, continuing to how much of the substance was present as time ticked. Such data can be made available to the public through the Internet, they said.
Audience questions centered on how the device compares with the equipment already in place, and on real-life applications.
A typical system costs between $90,000 and $120,000, Gamiles said.
Abrams said a capable system already is in place at the depot. “We have what we need to guarantee to our elected officials and to our community that we can do our job safely, and we want to be able to continue operating to continue eliminating the risk for the next few years as we have for the past 97 days,” Abrams said.
The presenters said the monitoring system could be installed without interrupting current activity.
In the past 97 days, 12,645 rockets with nerve agent GB in them and 13,526 gallons of nerve agent GB have been destroyed, safely and without harm to anyone, Abrams said. The Army plans within seven years to destroy the 2,253 tons of chemical weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot since the 1960s.
Army representatives said equipment already in place at the facility can monitor at lower levels. The presenters said the device could be adjusted to read at lower levels, but doing so would increase reading times.
For at least one resident who attended the presentation, the details didn’t matter.
“We need all of the monitoring that’s available to make a difference,” he said.
Gamiles said his job has taken him to the neatest places in the world, as well as the most polluted.
“People have taken point monitors and not detected anything,” Gamiles said. Open-air monitors have been installed and plumes were detected, he said.
Calhoun County Commission Chairman Robert Downing said he believes the commission will discuss the technology.
The system could “add another level of safety and confidence” to the public, he said.
Goodloe Sutton Jr., state director for Sen. Richard Shelby, said he would inform Shelby on the events.
Incineration opponent Craig Williams said his Chemical Weapons Work Group, based in Kentucky, will continue to educate the public about available technology.