Anniston Star October 18, 2002

Report criticizes Depot on pollution releases to area waterways

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
10-18-2002

The Anniston Army Depot released more hazardous chemicals into local waterways than it was allowed several times between 1999 and 2001, said a report released by an environmental group Thursday.

The pollutants included cadmium, a metal that over long periods can cause kidney and lung
damage, and the solvent TCE, which can cause liver, kidney and lung damage.

There are two TCE plumes in Anniston-area groundwater, one extending from the Depot and another from Fort McClellan.

The Depot is among more than a dozen facilities in Alabama and 1,700 around the country targeted in the report by U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer and environmental watchdog group. The Alabama Rivers Alliance released the report with USPIRG.

The report was scheduled to coincide with today's 30th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act.

One day in April 2000, the Depot exceeded its permitted concentrations of TCE by 650 percent, the report said. In October 2001, its average releases of cadmium were 50 percent above the allowable limit. The pollutants go into Choccolocco, Dry and Cane Creeks, the report said.

"It becomes obvious through this report that the job of cleaning up our waterways is not getting done," said Jill Johnson, Southern field organizer for USPIRG. "If ADEM and EPA continue to let the problem go on, we're going to be in real trouble with our waterways."

Depot spokespeople said six cadmium discharges listed in the report took place over two and a half years, and were the result of problems with a wastewater treatment plant. Two TCE releases occurred because of problems with the machinery that removes the chemical from water. Two other discharges listed in the report did not happen, the spokespeople said.

All the discharges go from a wastewater treatment plant to a sewage treatment plant, where more is done to remove and dilute the pollutants before water goes into Choccolocco Creek, the Depot spokespeople said.

The Clean Water Act set ambitious goals for cleaning up America's water: Make all waterways swimmable and fishable by 1983, and stop all pollutant discharges by 1985. While there has been some progress, activists say, the country is a long way from meeting those goals.

The Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of reinforcing the Clean Water Act, but the responsibility is often passed on to state agencies. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management oversees compliance with the law in Alabama.

Major facilities that release pollutants into waterways are required to have permits and must submit regular reports on their releases.

Brad McLane, of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, said ADEM does not keep a comprehensive list of Clean Water Act violators, and said the EPA needs to help reinforce the law.

"Polluters can pressure state legislators," he said. The EPA needs to counteract local lobbying forces, he said.

The worst violation in the report, Johnson said, was committed by Honeywell in Fairfield. In
December 1999, the company's average release of trichloroethane was 660 times what it was
allowed.

The report is a followup to one the group released in August.