Defense Environment Alert
September 10, 2002

ARMY FACING DELAYS IN DISPOSAL OF ALABAMA CHEM WEAPONS STOCKPILE

The Army may have to delay starting destruction of a chemical weapons stockpile in Alabama after state regulators there found that laboratory analytical data were inconclusive for part of a trial bum conducted earlier this year.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) notified the Army Aug. 26 that it would have to repeat low-temperature test conditions to generate data of acceptable quality. But the Army Sept. 3 met with ADEM and submitted detailed reports justifying the data, Army and ADEM sources say.

"We are still waiting to see if we were persuasive enough" to convince ADEM to accept the original data, an Army spokesman says, explaining the Army still hopes to begin actual operations at the Anniston, AL, incinerator in mid-October. "I don't know what to expect" if the state does not accept the original data, the spokesman says. "That, right now, is an open-ended question."

A state source says it will take some time to comb through the Army's multi-volume response and had no timeline for when ADEM may make a final decision on the data question.

At issue are the analytical results of stack emissions tests conducted by the Army under three different test conditions from March 16 to March 23 during trial bums of surrogate material in the Anniston facility's liquid incinerator. "The results for the two high temperature test conditions are acceptable to ADEM and support the incinerator's ability to meet metals emissions standards," says ADEM's Aug. 26 cover letter to a notice of violation. The notice of violation is available on InsideEPA.com. Seepage 2 for details.

"However, laboratory analytical data were inconclusive for the low temperature test condition, conducted to demonstrate the destruction of organic compounds via the required destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) for difficult-to-burn volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds. Specifically, irregularities in laboratory analytical procedures followed during testing of the volatile organic compound tetrachloroethylene caused the results, in ADEM's opinion, to be inconclusive. Thus, test results are compromised and the associated DRE for this compound cannot be fully verified," the letter says.

The state says that the need to conduct another abbreviated surrogate trial bum does not necessarily reflect a performance concern with the incinerator. "Rather, the Department has identified a quality control deficiency in a laboratory test that compromised the reliability of the test result."