Congress called for improved nerve gas monitoring at Anniston Army Depot and other chemical demilitarization sites across the country late Wednesday.

The Army has no plans to add another layer to its system based on the resolution, which did not carry the force of law, according to a printed response from the Pentagon Wednesday.

"The Army remains firm in its belief that the current system of monitoring is effective and provides for the protection of its workers, the community and the environment," wrote spokeswoman Cynthia Smith.

Today, state and local leaders are presenting a demonstration at Jacksonville State University of the sort of system Congress recommended, one that would allow nerve gas to be instantly detected at Anniston Army Depot.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, such a system could operate continuously and have a response time of 10 seconds or less.

The Anniston chemical weapons incinerator has immediate alarms within the incinerator complex. But to determine whether nerve gas truly was present when an alarm sounded requires about an hour's work in a laboratory.

The Army and its contractor, Westinghouse Anniston, say each alarm is treated as a confirmed detection until it is verified.

However, anti-burn activist Craig Williams said it has been demonstrated that false alarms lead to worker error.

In May 2000, supervisors at the Tooele, Utah, chemical weapons incinerator discounted a stack alarm indicating sarin had escaped the incinerator. "That was a real release, and they were so convinced it was another `false positive' that they didn't notify anyone off-post for three-and-a-half hours," said Williams, executive director of Chemical Weapons Working Group.

Investigators from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control later concluded that 33 false stack alarms in the previous month led supervisors to discount warnings on the night of the Utah leak.

The existing system is prone to false alarms because it detects nerve gas at much lower levels than the instantaneous monitors. No one is suggesting that the more-sensitive system should be discarded, said Pete Conroy, executive director of the Environmental Policy and Information Center at Jacksonville State.

"The demonstration will provide information allowing the community to evaluate whether this added layer of safety would be appropriate," Conroy said.

The system operating at the Anniston incinerator now is appropriate for the workforce, which should know if it were being exposed to extremely low levels of sarin day after day. But for the community, he said, it is also appropriate to add a more accurate and instantaneous alarm system for a larger release of chemicals.

The Army has no alarms at the perimeter, only monitors that can be checked in emergencies or on a periodic basis to determine whether they have detected the presence of chemicals.

That is adequate since any nerve gas escaping the complex would have to pass alarms in the complex before reaching the fence, a Westinghouse spokesman said.

The public is invited to the demonstration, in Lecture Room 234 of Jacksonville State's Martin Hall. It is sponsored by Jacksonville State, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the Calhoun County Commission and members of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission.