SAFE (Serving Alabama's Future Environment)
Elsie Boateng and Jacqueline Garard,
Sierra Club,
Chemical Weapons Working Group

Complainants,

-vs-

Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Respondent.

I. INTRODUCTION

1. This is a complaint of discrimination on account of race and poverty on behalf of people of African- American ancestry and of low income who will be disproportionately harmed as a consequence of the action of the Respondent Department in authorizing the operation of a chemical weapons incinerator at the United States Army's Anniston Army Depot near Anniston Alabama. This proposed facility poses a disproportionate risk of harm to human health among people of color and low income living nearby. This discrimination is contrary to the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Presidential Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice and EPA Regulations providing for nondiscrimination in programs receiving federal financial assistance, 40 C.F.R. Part 7B. Complainants ask that this matter be referred for investigation to the EPA Office of Civil Rights and that compliance be achieved through the denial of the subject facility permits or that the discriminatory impact be avoided by requiring the use of an available alternative treatment technology which poses less risk of harm.

II. JURISDICTION

2. The Agency has jurisdiction to receive, investigate and remedy complaints of discrimination on account of race pursuant to 40 C.F.R. Section 7.120 and 7.130. Executive Order 12898 imposes a duty on the Agency to identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects of its programs, policies and activities on minority populations and low- income populations.

III. PARTIES

3. SAFE (Serving Alabama's Future Environment) is a not-for-profit citizens organization which seeks to protect human health and the environment in the Anniston, Alabama area. SAFE has actively opposed plans by the United States Army to construct and operate an incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot for the purpose of burning stockpiled chemical warfare agents and munitions on the grounds that incineration poses unacceptably high risks to human health and the environment. SAFE has advocated the use of safer alternative technologies for treatment of these agents and munitions. Elsie Boateng lives in Jacksonville, Alabama, about thirteen miles east of the proposed incinerator. She is a person of African-American ancestry and of low-income. She has authorized SAFE to represent her interests in this matter. Jacqueline Garard resides in Fort McClellan, Alabama, approximately nine miles east of the proposed incinerator. She is a person of African-American ancestry and of low- income. She has authorized SAFE to represent her interests in this matter.

The Sierra Club is a national nonprofit organization of over 525,000 members dedicated to exploring, enjoying, and protecting the wild places of the earth; to practicing and promoting the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; to educating and enlisting humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to using all lawful means to carry out these objectives. The Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club has over 2,200 members, including African American members and members in Anniston. The Sierra Club's concerns encompass environmental justice and equality.

The Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) is a international coalition of citizens' organizations and individuals in the U.S. and Pacific advocating for safe disposal of the chemical weapons stored in their communities. The CWWG has members at all nine U.S. chemical weapon stockpile sites, including Anniston, Alabama. The CWWG is united in opposing incineration and advocating safer disposal methods.

4. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is an agency of the State of Alabama which is responsible for, among other duties, administering the federally approved and federally assisted program to implement the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) including the licensing and regulation of facilities for the treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes. As part of this federally assisted RCRA program the ADEM issued Hazardous Waste Facility Permit AL3 210 020 027 on June 19, 1997, to the United States Army, Anniston Army Depot for the Anniston Chemical Demilitarization Facility for the incineration of chemical weapons agents and munitions.

IV. COMPLAINT OF DISCRIMINATION

5. The operation of the proposed chemical weapons incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot as authorized by the Respondent Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) will disproportionately and adversely harm people of African- American ancestry and low income living near the facility.

6. Contrary to law, the actions of the Respondent Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) have the effect of denying service, aid or other benefit to persons on the basis of race and income; have the effect of restricting the enjoyment of advantage and privilege enjoyed by others on the basis of race and income and by the use of criteria or methods of administering its program has the effect of subjecting persons to discrimination because of their race or income. In addition the Respondent ADEM has approved the selection of a site or location for the proposed incinerator facility which has the purpose or effect of discrimination because of race or income. Finally, upon information and belief the State of Alabama has long practiced official racial discrimination and, therefore, has a duty to take affirmative action to remedy the racially disparate impact of the permitting of this facility.

7. According to the U.S. Army's "Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement," January 1988, Table 3.2.8, over 100,000 people live within 20 kilometers of the proposed Anniston incinerator. Within this distance of the facility lies the City of Anniston with a population of 26,623, 44% of whom are African-American most of whom are concentrated in the predominately African-American west side nearest the proposed facility. According to the 1990 census Anniston has a disproportionate concentration of people of African-American ancestry, as compared to Calhoun County which is 19% African-American, the State of Alabama which is 25% African- American and the national average of only 12% African-American. 24% of Anniston's population live below the poverty level, a rate which is almost twice the national average of 13.2%.

Closer to the proposed incinerator, to the southeast, is the community of Hobson City, incorporated by ex-slaves after the Civil War. 97% of Hobson City's population of 794 people are African-American. Fifteen miles to the south of the Anniston Army Depot is the city of Talledega with a 41% African-American population.

8. The Anniston Chemical weapons incinerator will routinely release low levels of unburned chemical warfare agents, heavy metals and other toxic substances which harm human health. Notable among these routine releases are the powerfully toxic family of dioxin-like substances which are known to cause harm to humans including cancers, reproductive damage, neurological damage and birth defects. The risk assessment for the Army's Utah chemical weapons incinerator disclosed that routine operations will expose particularly vulnerable breast-feeding infants living near the facility to risks of cancer exceeding the EPA's acceptable risk standard. Since the draft permit has no emission limits for 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin or its congeners, it cannot protect the health of (Anniston residents or) nursing infants. Since nursing infants in the African American and low income communities of Anniston and Calhoun County have already been subjected to high background levels of pollution, PCB and other chemicals, additional contaminants from the incinerator stacks will cause additional cumulative and synergistic health effects on such communities.

9. In addition to the risk posed by the proposed incinerator, African- Americans and poor people living near the Anniston Army Depot have been disproportionately and adversely impacted by pollution from other industries and the U.S. military. Respondent ADEM has failed to consider such cumulative and synergistic health effects of incinerator emissions on a community which has already had high levels of exposure. The African American and poor population residing near the ANAD incinerator site and down wind have been exposed to many other pollutants over their life times in the area. The Anniston Army Depot alone reported 548,073 pounds of toxic releases in its 1994 baseline data, which made ANAD number two in the nation for releases at Army facilities. Among the top chemicals released at Army installations were zinc compounds, Hexachloroethane, Methyl ethyl ketone, 1,1,1-Trichloroethane, Trichloroethylene, Dichloromethane, Ethylene glycol, Phosphoric acid, Chlorine, and Ethylbenzene.

The industrial west side of Anniston, where most African Americans reside due to historic segregation practices, includes other polluting companies such as various iron plants that operated from the 1880s to the 1960s and 1970s, chemical plants such as Swann Chemical established during World War I, Monsanto Company since 1939 (re-named Solucia in 1997) and Defense Research Corp. Methyl Bromide is sprayed at the Woerner Turf sod farm east of Anniston. Also, cotton farming, common in the area, is the most insecticide intensive crop. During the spring and summer months, open spraying by truck of mosquito insecticides occurs throughout Calhoun County. Synergestic and cumulative effects of these pollutants, chemicals, pesticides, insectides and herbicides combined with the agent and other pollutants emitted from the incinerator will deleteriously effect the health of the African American and poor population of the area.

ADEM fails to consider how additional exposures will impact low income people who may not have access to adequate health care or nutrition.

Unofficial health studies initiated by community residents in Cobbtown and Sweet Valley show the community is already experiencing high incidences of reproductive problems, skin rashes, cancers and respiratory problems.

Numerous accidents, fires, explosions, nerve agent leaks, and other mishaps at the Army's existing chemical weapons incinerators suggest that such an event at the Anniston facility may release toxic nerve or mustard agent causing death or severe injury to nearby populations. African-Americans and people of low income are threatened with disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects from the Respondent Department's action in authorizing the operation of the chemical weapons incinerator at the United States Army's Anniston Army Depot near Anniston Alabama.

10. Safer non-incineration alternatives are readily available to effectively destroy the chemical weapons arsenal stockpiled at the Army's Anniston Army Depot which would avoid exposing people of African-American ancestry and low income to the disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects posed by the incinerator, Recently the Army announced that seven non-incinerator alternative technologies for destroying chemical warfare agents have passed the initial evaluation process required by Congress as part of its directive to identify non-incineration alternative technologies.

Respondent ADEM's granting of this permit in effect denies surrounding communities the benefit of safer technologies which are being used in other communities. It also reinforces a pattern of discrimination by the U.S. Army in which lower income communities of color are being asked to accept chemical weapons incinerators, while other communities move forward with safer technologies. Chemical weapons sites, like other hazardous waste sites, are located predominantly in communities of color and low income. As the disposal program moves forward, a pattern of discrimination continues. The Army's first incinerator was built in the Pacific on Kalama Island in an area of the world which has suffered a history of severe abuse from hazardous government activities. The second incinerator was built in Tooele, Utah, in a Mormon community which has also suffered a long history of similar government abuse. The next three sites scheduled for incinerator construction are Anniston, Alabama, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Hermiston, Oregon. Anniston and Pine Bluff both have high populations of African American residents and low income people. In Oregon, the incinerator is to be built on land protected by treaty with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

Meanwhile, the Army has abandoned chemical weapons incineration plans in Maryland and Indiana in favor of safer technologies. Last year President Clinton vowed to make alternative technologies the "highest priority" in the disposal program, and Congress placed a moratorium on incinerator construction in Kentucky and Colorado until safer technologies can be demonstrated. Safer technologies should be made equally available to all communities regardless of race, income, or national origin.

In addition, the Army's recent request for Respondent ADEM's permission to transport out of state non-stockpile chemical weapons to ANAD adds further insult to injury, and reinforces local fears that once an incinerator is built it will be used for years to come for toxic and chemical waste from across the country.

RELIEF

11. FOR THE FOREGOING REASONS Complainants ask that this matter be referred for investigation to the EPA Office of Civil Rights and that compliance be achieved through the denial of the subject facility permits or that the discriminatory impact be avoided by requiring the use of an available alternative treatment technology which poses less risk of harm.

Respectfully submitted,

December , 1997
Robert Guild
314 Pall Mall
Columbia, South Carolina
(803) 252-1419
ATTORNEY FOR COMPLAINANTS

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