National Public Radio
All Things Considered,
September 2, 2003

Interview: Troy Turner discusses the burning of 530 gallons
of sarin nerve agent in Anniston, Alabama

Edition: 8:00-9:00 PM
Article Text:
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. 
I'm Robert Siegel.

 MELISSA BLOCK, host:

 And I'm Melissa Block.

 In Alabama, the Army has destroyed 530 gallons of deadly sarin
nerve agent at the Anniston weapons incinerator.  The burn began on
Sunday and took 15 1/2 hours.  The Army expected that to be enough
to destroy all 800 gallons of sarin that have been drained from
rockets at the facility, but even after the burn, some 270 gallons
of the nerve agent remain and will be destroyed later on.  The
incinerator opened in the beginning of August.  It's been
controversial in the community.  It's estimated that 35,000 people
live within nine miles of the facility.  Troy Turner is executive
editor of The Anniston Star, and he joins us now.

 Mr. Turner, explain first, if you could, how this burning process works.

 Mr. TROY TURNER (Executive Editor, The Anniston Star):  Well, they
have 2,300 tons of chemical weapons there, that's 661,000 chemical
weapons, so there's quite an array of weaponry there.  And what they
do with the rockets is they have a process--some people refer to it
as chop-and-drop--where they chop the rockets, and before they
actually chop them into pieces, they puncture it and drain the
chemical agent out of it and collect the chemical agent.  They
finally collected enough of the agent that they actually began to
burn Sunday.

 BLOCK:  And these are weapons, munitions, that have been stored
there in Anniston at the Army depot for decades.

 Mr. TURNER:  Right.  It's a leftover from the Cold War.  It's in
Anniston's back yard, and a lot of people are ready for it to be
gone. We have 10 percent, now, of the nation's chemical weapons
stockpile here.

 BLOCK:  There was concern raised about alarms that went off at the
incinerator last week before the burn.  I take it the Army spokesman
says those were false alarms, but that must have raised the level of
concern there.

 Mr. TURNER:  Well, their answer right now about that is that it's a
new piece of machinery and they're doing some fine-tuning and that
alarms will go off. On the other hand, they're very concerned, and
they want to make sure their work force doesn't slip into some
complacency and start thinking that every alarm is just a routine
alarm.

 BLOCK:  And I gather there are a number of precautionary steps that
have been taken.  The county's issued gas masks, air purifiers,
plastic sheeting and duct tape?

 Mr. TURNER:  Yeah, it's kind of interesting.  The 35,000 population
figure you mentioned, and then there's probably 120,000 in the
immediate area--in the metropolitan statistical area--around
Anniston.  And it's amazing how many of them, on layman terms, have
become experts of sorts on chemical weapons issue. What happened is
as we got closer to the date of actually beginning the fire-up and
destruction on August 9th, in the days preceding that, literally
thousands would show up to collect their shelter in place kits and
their training instructions and so forth from a local handout
center.  And it was just amazing to see the long lines when folks
finally believed it was--something really was about to happen.

 And so now the operation is under way, and they've actually got
designated schools that are pressurized so that if there is a
chemical release from the plant, then they can shelter in place and
actually have pressurized rooms for the kids to evacuate into.

 BLOCK:  I know the Army's position is that it's safer to burn the
sarin nerve agent than it is to store it, but I've also read
comments from some folks in the community who say, `This is too
much.  I'm selling my home. I'm moving away.  I don't want to be
anywhere near this burn, this incineration.'

 Mr. TURNER:  There have been a few who have a very alarmist-type
approach to it, and it probably could be with reason if they live
close by.  And there have been a few who have packed up and left,
there's no doubt about that. There are many opinions.  It's been a
very divisive issue.

 BLOCK:  Well, Mr. Turner, thanks for speaking with us today.

 Mr. TURNER:  You bet.

 BLOCK:  Troy Turner is executive editor of The Anniston Star in
Alabama, talking about the Army's burning of sarin nerve agent at
the Anniston weapons incinerator.