for more information:
Elizabeth Crowe (859) 200-8207
Rufus Kinney (256) 435-4743
for immediate release: Thursday, July 17, 2003
Anniston, Alabama citizens gathered today at the Seventeenth Street Baptist Church to respond to news that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) gave formal notification to Governor Bob Riley, that it was poised to clear the way for the Army to begin burning lethal chemical weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot. Vowing to keep up the fight for the use of safe, non-incineration methods for destruction of the chemical weapons, the group demanded of Governor Riley, "Do not let our community suffer exposure to lethal nerve gas."
"I like to believe that our state regulators and elected officials have common sense and a commitment to the health of the children and families of Alabama," said Rufus Kinney of the group Families Concerned About Nerve Gas Incineration. "But today I see no evidence that anyone is stepping up to demand maximum protection of our community, and that is simply disgraceful."
Yesterday, citizens learned from a news source that ADEM's review of the incinerator permit was nearly complete. ADEM officials affirmed, in a subsequent phone conversation, that there is no legal obligation for the Army or the state to notify the community exactly when the incinerator would begin. Kinney said not only is incineration a danger to the community because of the high likelihood of chemical agent releases, but many emergency preparedness measures -- such as over-pressurization of schools and churches -- have not been completed. "We have a legal right to maximum protection," said Kinney, "and we intend to get it before any chemical weapons are removed from the igloos."
Elizabeth Crowe, organizer with the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), a national grassroots coalition of citizen groups working for safe alternatives to incineration of chemical weapons, said that the groups will continue legal and grassroots actions to replace the incinerator with safer technology that can prevent releases of chemical agent into the community, and better protect workers from exposure to chemicals within the plant.
Brenda Lindell, of Families Concerned About Nerve Gas Incineration, noted that the Army recently refused to consider non-incineration technologies -- such as neutralization technologies to be used at four other chemical weapons stockpile sites -- even as a "Plan B" in the event that the incinerator didn't work. A June 4 letter to the Calhoun County Commission from Col. Nancy Ray, Acting Assistant Deputy to the Secretary of the Army for Elimination of Chemical Weapons, denied the Commission's request for such a contingency plan.
"When the Army refuses to look at any alternative, we have to ask: who really stands to benefit from incineration?" said Lindell. "In this case the incinerator contractor wins with bonus awards, while the workers at the plant and the people of this community stand to lose everything."
Dr. N.Q. Reynolds, Pastor at the Seventeenth Street Baptist Church and President of the Calhoun County Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said, "This community has suffered enough from toxic contamination, we don't want any more, and we won't take any more. The Army is perfectly capable of destroying chemical weapons without also destroying our health, and we want Governor Riley and President Bush to use their power to make them do it."
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