LOCAL SUPPORT STRONG FOR ARSENAL BURN

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

Last in a series.

Opposition to incineration at the Pine Bluff Arsenal has not been as vocal as it has been at other stockpile sites and the reason varies depending on who's giving it.

Some, including Army officials, say it's because people are confident in the Army's ability to safely destroy the chemical weapons. However, anti-incineration groups believe it's due to a lack of education and wealth, and an economic dependence on the Arsenal -- not to mention sheer apathy.

Those who believe it's the former include Randy Long, site project manager of the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, and Stephen DePew, project general manager for Washington Group International, the contractor hired by the Army to dispose of the weapons.

"The community has actually gone through this before with BZ demilitarization operations," which took place between 1988 and 1990, said Long, who served as a project engineer during that project.

He said he attributes the "confidence and comfort that the community has" to that project.

"The Army was ahead of international treaty requirements in beginning those activities here," he said. "The same technologies that we used at the BZ demilitarization facility, Johnston Island, Tooele, Anniston, Umatilla and (at the Arsenal disposal facility) actually are a product of research that the Army started in the 1970s."

Long said many of the people who worked on the BZ project here went to Johnston Island afterward. And, according to an unofficial count, he said at one time there were more people from Arkansas at that facility than from any other state.

DePew, who worked at the Johnston Island facility, said it was a "perfect transition."

"I have been amazed at how well-informed the folks really are here," he said.

DePew, who lives at White Hall, said none of his neighbors have approached him with any concerns.

"Most of the time, there's that vote of support, in terms of confidence in what we're doing but also support to proceed and eliminate the inventory," Long said.

White Hall Mayor James "Jitters" Morgan agreed.

"I think it's long overdue and I'm glad it's getting started," he said. "The longer they sit there, the more dangerous they are. That's basically the way most of the people in the city of White Hall feel."

Morgan said most know that the weapons have been stored at the Arsenal for decades, including a "high percentage who have worked out there."

"They understand the Arsenal," he said. "It's not something that just started yesterday."

But there are those who wanted to use an alternative method to dispose of the stockpile.

Evelyn Yates is director of Pine Bluff for Safe Disposal, an environmental group that formed in the 1990s. Yates said the organization was the first African-American anti-incineration group that joined with others from across the nation to fight what they characterize as "environmental injustice."

"Most of the incinerators are disproportionately located in low-income, minority neighborhoods," she said. "And most of the communities that are low-income and minority have a history of being passive."

The group challenged the Arsenal's permit application with the state Department of Environmental Quality, which approved the permit in 1999. Since the facility was completed in 2002, Yates said the group's mission has shifted to an educational focus.

"We're still opposed to incineration but ... you can't make people think what you think, so our mission became to educate and inform," she said. "Safety is our main concern because we can't stop the incinerator now."

Instead, the group, made up of about 20 area residents, wants to make sure people living around the Arsenal know what's going on -- and what to do in the event of an emergency during disposal.

"There are some who do, but there are many more people who don't know what to do," she said. "It's just going to be chaos if we don't do a better job of preparing the neighborhoods."

Yates thinks that the Army's Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program could do more to increase awareness.

Joe Steward lives a half-mile from the Arsenal, where he worked for 22 years before retiring in 1978. Steward was a vocal opponent of incineration during the 1990s.

"I'm not as vehemently opposed to it as a I was at one time," he said.

Steward said the weapons are aging and need to be destroyed, but lamented that the local anti-incineration effort was unsuccessful.

"I don't think there were enough people involved in it," he said.

Craig Williams, director of the Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, had some thoughts as to why.

"The organized opposition in Arkansas has not been too visible," Williams said. "Because of the economic impact of the Arsenal in general, in White Hall and Pine Bluff in particular, there's been less vocal opposition to incinerating these weapons than at some other sites."

Washington Group International has had several job fairs at the Pine Bluff Convention Center to support disposal operations, and Long said there have been "a couple hundred folks" come to each of those seeking employment.

"The safety performance of our facility as well as all of the chemical demilitarization facilities are actually some of the best in the nation," DePew said. "Our injury rates for occupational injuries rival a library. We have a good work force that understands how to be safe."

And some White Hall residents, such as Kay Lynn Johnston, who also lives near the Arsenal, are taking his word for it.

"We're not fearful," she said. "I'm sure it will be handled properly and they'll try to keep us as safe as they can."