Anniston residents seek incinerator monitors

WASHINGTON - Anniston-area residents urged the Army on Monday to install more advanced chemical agent monitors around its weapons incinerator. Officials said they were open to the idea, but they did not immediately commit to it.

A two-day public discussion continues today about whether better detection technology is available and whether it would better protect nearby residents in case of a major leak.

Currently, the incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot has more than 100 extra-sensitive monitors inside the plant and another 15 monitors at 13 sites around the perimeter of the property. The heart of the debate is whether that system, especially the perimeter monitors that would presumably catch an accidental large-scale plume of airborne chemical agents, is adequate.

"We want to understand the communities' concerns," said Mike Parker, director of the Army Chemical Materials Agency.

The Army built an incinerator and is destroying obsolete and leaky chemical weapons that had been stored at the Anniston Army Depot for decades.

While activists spoke about specific types of new equipment that are for sale - the kind that detect deadly agents more accurately and more quickly - Parker declined to identify which one, if any, the Army would consider. Multiple vendors from companies that manufacture and sell the equipment are scheduled to make their presentations today.

Congress and government scientists have already urged the Pentagon to provide improved agent monitoring systems at all stockpile sites, but money so far has been appropriated only for the Kentucky facility, $2 million.

Anniston activists in Washington for the meeting Monday said their concern is that the perimeter monitors are checked only every eight to 12 hours and that they are spaced one and two miles apart. In other words, they don't provide a "real-time" notification of a leak, and the full perimeter is not covered.

"We should be talking about which equipment to put out there, not whether," said Rufus Kinney of Families Concerned about Nerve Gas Incineration.

The project manager at Anniston, Tim Garrett, said he is confident the employees working inside the facility, where the monitors are designed to immediately detect extremely low levels of agents, are protected.

"If I take care of the workers, the community is going to be fine," Garrett said.

Participants were skeptical that the Washington meeting would result in better monitors for Anniston.

"I don't know if this is a sign they are really considering this or it's a sign they're just going to squash us," Kinney said.

However, one Anniston resident, Erma Wilkins, said she was unconvinced the technology upgrades were necessary.

"Nothing is going to get out of that plant," she said.

Parker said no decisions have been made.

"We want to deal with this in a wide-open manner without any predetermined outcome," he said.