December 3, 2002
The Honorable Bob Riley
Governor-Elect
700 County Road 5
Ashland, AL 36251
Dear Governor-Elect Riley:
On behalf of the 115,000 people of Calhoun County, who we have the privilege to represent, our sincere congratulations on your recent election as Alabama's next Governor. We are pleased that the people have chosen you to lead our state forward, and we wish you every success in the years ahead.
We realize you have been focused on assembling your transition team as you prepare to take the oath of office in January. We do, however, want to take this opportunity to update you on the current status of our long-standing effort to get our safety checklist funded and implemented before the Army begins destroying the 2,254 tons of deadly chemical weapons stored in the middle of a population center at the Anniston Army Depot. We have chosen to write to you at this time because so many problems remain unresolved. The Army and FEMA continue to be unresponsive, and the chemical demilitarization program continues to experience many serious problems. For example, in Oregon, the trial burns the Army conducted earlier this fall failed on both occasions. (Oregon's incinerator is almost identical to the one which has been constructed at AAD.) The level of heavy metals in the emissions during the trial burns greatly exceeded the permit levels allowed by the State of Oregon. Even worse, the Hermiston Tri-City Herald reported on Saturday that the Army "admitted it violated its state permit during recent test burns at the Umatilla Chemical Depot incinerator by turning off alarms that measure the rate hazardous materials are fed into the burner." According to the paper, after the Army's first trial burn failed, the Army asked state regulators for permission to change the feed rate. When the state refused to make such a major modification to the operating permit, the Army simply turned off the alarms which had the effect of masking any spikes in the feed rate. The Umatilla incinerator remains closed while an investigation is underway there, just as the incinerator at Tooele, Utah, remains closed due to an investigation regarding workers who were recently exposed to GB. Obviously, the events at Umatilla and Tooele hardly give our community confidence as the Army prepares to begin the incineration process sometime next year.
In that regard, we know you are aware that the Army filed a request several months ago with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for a major modification of its current permit for the incinerator at AAD. The Army has requested that it be allowed to use a process known as "chop and drop," under which the Army would destroy thousands of gelled GB rockets at a rapid rate by burning the GB agent, the metal parts, and the rockets' energetics at the same time in the incinerator's deactivation furnace. This is a long way away from the baseline incineration our community was promised a decade ago. Furthermore, the National Research Council in 1994 clearly warned against using "chop and drop" as a method for destroying chemical weapons, pointing out that "chop and drop" technology could create an explosion and that mixing energetics, metal parts, and chemical agents was a bad idea. "Chop and drop" has never been utilized at a rate of more than one and one-half rockets per hour, yet the Army wants to utilize "chop and drop" at a rate of thirty to thirty-four an hour at the Anniston incinerator. Furthermore, the Army wants to implement "chop and drop" at a highly accelerated rate for the first time here in the middle of a population center where most of our citizens lack any protection or the ability to evacuate. In the same permit modification application to ADEM, the Army also is seeking permission to reconfigure GB filled mortars and shells so that they can be burned in the metal parts furnace at the same time that "chop and drop" is being utilized in the deactivation furnace. It is important to note that neither furnace was designed for these "new tasks" and both furnaces have efficiency ratings one hundred times less than the liquid incineration chamber which is supposed to destroy chemical agent under the original baseline incineration technology. When the Army previously attempted to use the metal parts furnace at Johnston Island to burn fully agent loaded mortars, EPA Region Nine refused to approve this process based on serious problems which occurred during the trial burns. Although ADEM held a hearing in Anniston on this matter in September, the State of Alabama has been silent regarding whether it would grant this Army's request to make these dramatic and untested changes at the eleventh hour. We would like to know whether you support the Army's unprecedented request, and whether you will use your visibility as Governor-Elect to make certain ADEM does not slip this major modification through during the last hours of the Siegelman administration.
During the past six years, you have worked diligently on behalf of the people of Calhoun County in your capacity as their elected Member of Congress to attempt to bring some much needed accountability and additional resources to the CSEP program. For all of your efforts, we are deeply grateful. As you know, more than a year ago Undersecretary of Defense Pete Aldridge met with Senators Shelby and Sessions and with you in Washington to announce that the Pentagon would provide $40.5 million for a number of safety related items he identified as critical to our efforts to protect the 75,000 people who reside within the Immediate Response Zone. Secretary Aldridge's announcement came at the end of a three month operational assessment team process, which you were instrumental in creating. The OAT held a number of hearings involving federal, state and local officials and Undersecretary Aldridge's decision to award $40.5 million was based on the team's findings.
Although FEMA delayed transferring much of the money for additional seven months, we are now moving as quickly as possible to get our procurement process completed for the protective hoods for the citizens living in the "pink zones" and the level "A" suits for our first responders. Unfortunately, FEMA and the Army continue to serve as obstacles rather than facilitators in this process. Critical technical information has been difficult to obtain from the Army regarding the protective hoods. Furthermore, FEMA has been unwilling to approve a request from our local EMA to reprogram a portion of the level "A" funds Undersecretary Aldridge authorized so that we can begin training rescue personnel at the Anniston Fire Department and purchase a Hazmat vehicle. David Paulison, the top fire official at FEMA, recommended we procure this vehicle and get these firemen trained after he visited Calhoun County earlier this year. This critical training for our local firemen could have been completed at the Center for Domestic Preparedness, and the vehicle could have been purchased already if FEMA had simply followed the recommendation of its own senior fire official. Instead, four more months have passed and our community continues to lack recovery and re-entry capability for our first responders even though we already have the funds to pay for the training which would be conducted right here in Calhoun County. To say this is another bureaucratic delay by FEMA would be a major understatement.
Another major problem involves the collective protection of all of our schools which are within a twelve mile radius of the chemical weapons stockpile. As you know, school superintendents of Anniston, Oxford, and Calhoun County school systems as well as the heads of the Donoho and Faith Christian schools met on several occasions with FEMA officials to demand that these schools be collectively protected by positive pressurization. Initially FEMA only agreed to collectively protect the schools within an eight mile radius of the stockpile. However, after your intervention and with your strong support, FEMA promised to include all schools within a twelve mile radius. FEMA's verbal commitment, however, was contingent upon the Army providing FEMA with an additional $26 million to pay for the cost of making these safety improvements. While FEMA's promise is obviously a step in the right direction, the Army still has not transferred any additional funds to FEMA for this purpose, and no work has begun at these schools. According to FEMA officials, under the Army's unpublished timetable, these schools will not be collectively protected until sometime in 2005, two years after the destruction process is scheduled to have begun. In the meantime, thousands of school children will continue to have no protection in the event of an accident.
A related matter which also remains unresolved involves our local special needs population. More than four years ago Argon National Laboratory produced a study for FEMA showing there are 3900 individuals in Calhoun County who are unable to carry out any protective action recommendation in the event of a chemical accident at AAD. These special needs individuals are either blind, deaf, confined to a wheelchair or bed, or are under-aged children left alone while a parent is working. Undersecretary Aldridge's letter authorized additional resources to further study this problem. Yet, to date, nothing has been done to protect these individuals who remain unprotected on the eve of the scheduled burn date.
Yet another critical unresolved problem involves getting the Army and FEMA to accept and implement the most accurate and up to date toxicity thresholds for all of its emergency planning activities in Calhoun County. As you know, in May, 2001, the United States Environmental Protection Agency published in the Federal Register new AEGLs for VX, GB and Mustard, the three lethal agents stored in our community. The EPA's regulations show that GB is almost five times more toxic than is currently assumed in all of FEMA's emergency planning documents for Calhoun County. VX, according the EPA, is more than ten times as toxic than current planning documents assume. At the last OAT meeting held in Anniston in October, 2001, Denzel Fisher, Special Assistant to the Army Deputy Assistant Secretary Ray Fatz, announced that the Army would accept and implement EPA's AEGLs immediately. Undersecretary Aldridge's letter of November 2001 confirmed this in writing. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, the Army issued one of its many "policy papers" which delayed CSEPP compliance with the new toxicity thresholds for another year, until November 2002. That later date has now passed and all emergency planning for our community continues to be based on the thoroughly discredited 1972 toxicity studies which the Army designed for healthy male soldiers in battlefield conditions. Recently the Army has suggested that the new compliance date would be moved once again to September 2003 and that the Army would not use the EPA's AEGLs. Instead, the Army plans to publish its own new toxicity thresholds which apparently are weaker than those adopted by the EPA. Given how critically important having the most accurate and up to date toxicity thresholds are for every aspect of emergency planning, we are alarmed by the Army's refusal to comply with its own commitments to you and Senators Shelby and Sessions.
Finally, we must once again point out that the Army still refuses to warn and notify local residents living near the chemical weapons stockpile by activating the sirens for these zones during the first five minutes of an accident at AAD. Our local EMA has repeatedly requested that the Army undertake this task because it is the only way that people in these zones can be warned before a toxic plume has escaped off-post. The Army says it is only willing to place a call to our local EMA within the first five minutes of an accident. However, before our local EMA can activate the sirens from our EOC it must go through its own procedures which will add an additional eight minutes to the warning and notification process. As you may recall, Calhoun County formally made its request to the Army at the November 2000 meeting in Anniston, which you convened in an attempt to resolve many of these outstanding problems. At that meeting, the Army refused to undertake this action which would save valuable minutes and potentially many lives. Calhoun County's request was renewed again at the October 2001 OAT meeting in Anniston. At that time local stockpile commander, Lt Col Bruce Williams again refused to agree to turn on the sirens for the close in zones. A June, 2002, letter from local EMA Director Mike Burney to Lt Col Williams was never replied to nor even acknowledged. The Army wants Calhoun County to serve as a local partner by accepting and carrying out the Army's proposed protective action recommendation in the event of a chemical emergency. Yet, the Army's idea of a partnership is really more akin to a one way street when it comes to assuming responsibility for our citizens living near the stockpile.
We realize that very shortly you will have duties that extend beyond those of the people of the Third Congressional District. However, we also believe that you will continue with your long-standing advocacy for the emergency preparedness needs of the 75,000 people who live within the Immediate Response Zone. The Army and FEMA cannot fail to live up to their safety commitments to our community if you decide to hold them accountable. We hope you will use the resources of your current office and the much more powerful office you are about the assume to make certain these problems are resolved quickly and these safety measures are in place before the destruction process commences.
Once again, our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes. We look forward to working with you on this matter and many others after you have been sworn in as our Governor. We hope to hear from you at your earliest opportunity.
Best wishes for the Holiday Season.
Sincerely,
James A. Dunn, Chairman
Robert W. Downing, Commissioner
J. D. Hess, Commissioner
James Eli Henderson, Commissioner
Rudy Abbott, Commissioner
/jh
cc: Senator Richard Shelby
Senator Jeff Sessions
Congressman-Elect Mike Rogers