Charleston Post Courier
August 2, 2003

Weapons incinerator startup worries some: Neighboring schools open at same time

Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, ALA.--The Army plans to start destroying chemical weapons in east Alabama next week just as thousands of children who live in neighboring communities return to class.

The military contends the $1 billion incineration program at Anniston Army Depot is perfectly safe, and a spokesman said Friday the timing of the startup with the beginning of school was a coincidence.

But activists who have spent years fighting the incinerator said it was wrong to begin destroying munitions while schools are still scrambling to install safety equipment.

"It's a formula for disaster," said opponent Rufus Kinney. "It's like when the Titanic took off without enough lifeboats."

The facility is the military's first chemical weapons incinerator located in a populated area.

The Army said Thursday it plans to begin conducting test burns of M-55 rockets loaded with GB nerve gas, or sarin, on Wednesday. That's the day before some 9,500 children return to class in Calhoun County schools, and thousands more attend city schools in the county.

While 10 area schools have been equipped with special air filtration systems that would be used during an accident, Calhoun Superintendent Jacky Sparks said work at seven more campuses in the county is not scheduled to be finished until Oct. 1.

In all, officials said more than two dozen schools in the region have yet to be fully outfitted.

"It would be better if they did not burn until Oct. 1, but I don't think they're going to get full-blown with it right away," Sparks said.

Incinerator spokesman Mike Abrams said beginning test burns at the start of the school year does not pose an added risk.

"It is something we're not blind to, but we know the facility was designed with all the features to provide the maximum protection to the community," he said.

Some 2,254 tons of rockets, shells and mines loaded with chemical weapons are stored in dirt-covered concrete bunkers at the depot, located about 50 miles east of Birmingham. Munitions will be placed in special containers and trucked to the furnaces for destruction.

Sparks said school officials are more concerned about the transportation of the weapons than the incineration itself. Because of that, Abrams said the military agreed to initially transport weapons in the afternoon after classes dismiss.

Work will begin slowly Wednesday, with only one or two rockets being drained of nerve agent, chopped up by machines and incinerated. The nerve agent itself will be stored in the facility to be burned later.

"After the first rocket we will back down, take a look and make sure everything went OK," said Abrams.

The military is required to destroy the Cold War-era munitions under an international treaty. About 7 percent of the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons is housed in Anniston.