for more information, contact
Richard Condit 202-829-2444

for immediate release, Tuesday, July 8, 2003

Citizen groups today praised a decision by a US District Court in Alabama that rejected Army arguments and upheld major portions of their suit against the Anniston chemical weapons incinerator. In the decision, US District Judge Karon Owen Bowdre ruled that three of the six counts in the citizens' complaint were valid to be prosecuted in a federal court setting.

The serious allegations in two of the three sustained counts directly challenge:

• the Army's ability to identify and quantify the emissions expected from the Anniston incinerator; and
  
• the Army's efforts to fully characterize the stored chemical warfare agents and their byproducts.

Of these counts Judge Bowdre stated, "[U]pon careful analysis of the allegations of the amended complaint, the court is of the opinion that the claims contained in Counts Two and Three support a claim...for violation of a permit or applicable law..."

Historically the Army has refused to identify the amounts of PCBs, dioxins, lead, mercury, and other toxic chemicals and metals that are actually emitted during the rigorous day to day operation of its incinerators. Instead the Army has relied upon optimally-controlled test burns of short duration to claim that its incineration facilities are safe. In addition, because the Army has not adequately characterized the contents of its stored munitions, many problematic issues have surfaced when arsenic, mercury and other toxic substances have been unexpectedly detected in incineration wastes.

Because of Judge Bowdre's decision, citizen plaintiffs-an unusually diverse coalition of farmers, environmentalists, civil rights proponents, veterans and safe weapons disposal advocates-will now have the opportunity to depose Army officials and subpoena Army documents leading up to a trial in Birmingham. "We are heartened that the Court recognized the legal significance of three of the counts in our complaint," said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, one of the 12 plaintiff groups. "The Army's proposed operation of the Anniston incinerator cannot survive the court's close scrutiny," Williams concluded.

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