Reuters
August 3, 2003

Alabama Town Angry Over Army's Disposal of Weapons

Sun August 3, 2003 12:55 PM ET
By Verna Gates

ANNISTON, Ala. (Reuters) - A decision by the U.S. Army to begin incinerating chemical weapons at a plant in Anniston, Alabama, has provoked sharp criticism from frightened residents and vows by environmentalists to block the effort.

The U.S. Army, complying with an international treaty, is expected to begin burning the first of its M-55 rockets containing the deadly nerve agent sarin on Wednesday at its $1 billion chemical weapons disposal facility in Anniston, which has a population of about 110,000.

Thousands of residents in what is called the pink zone, the area designated as the most at risk in the event of a chemical release, have been offered protective hoods, air filters and shelter kits in preparation for the incineration process.

Opponents warn that the plan poses a clear danger because the incinerator is located in the middle of Anniston and less than 100 miles from Atlanta and Birmingham, the two most heavily populated cities in the area.

"We've got an incinerator sitting in the middle of a bunch of black people and poor whites. We have been the whipping boy for a long time," said Rev. Nimrod Reynolds, pastor of 17th Street Missionary Baptist Church.

"Most of them are scared to death," Nimrod said of the 600 members of his mostly black congregation.

Others have expressed fears about the long-range impact of burning the weapons. "I am concerned about long-term, low-dose exposure of toxins," said Brenda Lindell, who has been fighting the incineration project for more than a decade.

U.S. Army officials said they would begin by incinerating weapons with chemical agents that posed the greatest danger to the community, but added that they did not think the project posed an undue danger to locals.

PROVEN TECHNOLOGY

The United States has agreed, in an international treaty, to destroy more than 30,000 tons of chemical weapons by 2007. Part of the stockpile has already been eliminated at incinerators in Utah and on an atoll in the Pacific.

The Army's stockpile in Anniston contains more than 2,000 tons of Cold War-era rockets, artillery shells and land mines, which contain sarin, VX and other nerve agents. There have been hundreds of small leaks in the stockpile in the past 20 years.

"We know it is a proven technology and we can safely destroy weapons," said Michael Abrams, the Army's public affairs officer for the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

A coalition of environmentalists, however, are unconvinced and plan to ask a federal court in Washington on Monday to stop the incineration process from going ahead this week.

They argue that the Army could have upgraded the weapons disposal plant with low-heat, low-pressure "chemical neutralization" technology that they say offers a safer way to destroy dangerous chemical agents.

"It is immoral, unacceptable and unconscionable," said Craig Williams, the director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Berea, Kentucky, which is battling weapon incineration across the nation.

"It is the most blatant example of environmental injustice that I have ever witnessed in my 20 years at this work," Williams said.

But not all residents of Anniston, a pro-military working-class town hard hit by the recent national economic slump, are steadfastly opposed to the Army's plans.

Officials with the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce support using the disposal facility, which provides about 750 jobs. "We need to get started," said Sherri Sumners, president of the business lobby.