Chemical Weapons Working Group
PO Box 467 Berea, KY 40403
(859) 986-7565 fax: (859) 986-2695
www.cwwg.org
for more information:
Craig Williams (859) 302-1103
Rev. N.Q. Reynolds (256) 282-7610
Brenda Lindell (256) 236-1496
IN ALABAMA “BURNING CHEMICAL
WEAPONS IS DEAD WRONG;”
FAMILIES, CHURCH AND CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS, VETERANS
DEMAND THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT STOP BURNING WMDs,
START PROTECTING ANNISTON, ALABAMA COMMUNITY
Hundreds of people gathered today in Anniston, Alabama,
protesting the U.S. Army’s burning of lethal chemical weapons in the highly
populated, highly contaminated area surrounding the Anniston Army Depot.
One week ago, the Army began burning the weapons, stored at the Depot since
the early 1960s. Residents living in the shadow of the incinerator
say that the incinerator is a dangerous way of destroying weapons because
it destroys their health.
After a 6-block march behind a banner reading “Burning
chemical weapons is dead wrong,” the crowd gathered at Anniston’s Zinn Park
for a rally where local residents and supporters from all over the region
demanded that the government replace the incinerator furnaces with safer
technology, like the neutralization technologies being used to destroy chemical
weapons at four other U.S. sites.
Civil rights icon Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Vice-President
of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) encouraged the Anniston
community to “plant the seeds of truth,” and to fight the injustice of the
incinerator. “We didn’t break the back of segregation only to die together
from toxic chemicals,” said Shuttlesworth. “We must fight for freedom
from this toxic oppression, from a government who cares more about filling
the pockets of contractors than it does protecting this community from harm.”
Sprinkled throughout inspirational speeches from other
civil rights and community church leaders and veterans, local “pink zone”
residents--those living closest to the Anniston incinerator--testified that
they feel twice betrayed by the government: by the Army’s flat refusal
to consider safer technologies to incineration that could prevent the release
of chemical agents into the environment, and by the state and federal government
that allowed the burn to begin even though basic safety measures are not
in place.
Rufus Kinney, with the group Families Concerned About
Nerve Gas Incineration, said the evidence of harm of incineration is already
clear. He shared the story of Anniston resident Arametta Porter, whose
exposure to tiny amounts of chemical agent several years ago resulted in
severe chemical sensitivity and continuous spasms in her face. On the
day that the Army began moving chemical weapons in Anniston, Ms. Porter’s
physical reaction was so strong she was immediately hospitalized; now her
neurologist has advised her never to go back to Anniston.
“Arametta knows the dangers of exposure to even tiny
amounts of chemical agents, she feels it every day. She wanted to be
with us here today in person, to let her voice be heard, but she cannot,”
said Kinney. “The state and federal courts say we can’t prove harm
from the incinerator, but the court of public opinion hereby convicts the
Army and the U.S. government of negligence and failure to protect the health
of this community.”
Jeanette Champion, a grandmother who lives in the PCB-contaminated
community of west Anniston, said that industry and the government have made
her neighborhood into a “sacrifice zone.” “To the U.S. government,
my family is like guinea pigs. By the time the Army admits they
have ruined our health, it will be too late to do anything about it.”
Others pointed out that work continues on numerous
schools and churches in the area, which will be overpressurized in the event
of a chemical agent incident at the incinerator, and that those projects
will not be completed by October. Many special-needs individuals in
the pink zone have been “ignored” by the government, and say they would be
virtually helpless to protect themselves from chemical agent exposure.
And ironically, first responder units will be neither fully trained nor fully
equipped for a chemical agent incident until January 2004.
Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) Director Craig
Williams said the Anniston community was never given an opportunity to consider
safer alternatives to incineration, but that it is not too late for those
safer methods to be used in Anniston. “You deserve the same level of
protection from these lethal chemicals as do people living in Kentucky, Colorado,
Maryland or Indiana. For the Army to continue to deny this community
maximum protection is unconscionable,” Williams said. “We will stand
with you in the fight for environmental justice until that incinerator is
shut down for good.”
John McCown, from the Sierra Club’s Environmental Justice
Program, called on the Bush Administration to pay attention to the threat
of “weapons of mass destruction in Anniston,” even as the hunt for elusive
WMDs continues in Iraq. “There’s something terribly wrong when people
are lining up for government-issued gas masks here in the U.S.,” said McCown.
“As a nation, we should be outraged that the citizens of Anniston and of
the southeast are falling victim to the threat of toxic incinerator emissions.”
Rev. N.Q. Reynolds, pastor of Anniston’s Seventeenth
Street Baptist Church and President of the Calhoun County SCLC said, “It’s
time for this community to let its voices be heard. Rich and poor,
black and white, this community has got to pull together and fight this horrible
injustice. It is not too late. We can still ensure that the government
destroy these weapons without destroying our health.”
The groups say they will continue to educate the community
and elected officials on the safer chemical weapons disposal methods, and
do “whatever it takes” to bring about justice through safe weapons disposal
in Anniston.
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