Rome News-Tribune (GA)
August 3, 2003

CRBI director: Army’s plans to burn chemical weapons ‘criminal’

The Anniston Army Depot is scheduled to begin incinerating chemical weapons on Wednesday.

08/03/03
By Lauren Gregory, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

A Rome environmental group has concerns about plans for an Anniston, Ala., incinerator to begin destroying chemical weapons on Wednesday, its executive director says.

Mitch Lawson of the Coosa River Basin Initiative called the U.S. Army’s plan to incinerate Cold War-era munitions in a populated area of eastern Alabama “criminal.”

Military spokesmen reject such concerns, saying the Army will conduct and evaluate a test run to ensure the system works properly before launching a full-fledged destruction operation.

The Army is trying to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons — about 7 percent of which are reportedly housed at the Anniston Army Depot — by 2007, to meet the terms of an international treaty.

Instead of neutralizing the weapons, the Army will burn them and activists like Lawson fear harmful chemicals will be released into the air that 60,000 Anniston residents within 10 miles of the incinerator would breathe.

Environmentalists favor neutralization, saying it’s safer because it involves mixing chemicals that will deactivate the weapons.

Eric Lindberg, Rome’s environmental planner, said neutralization has proven cheaper and safer than incineration.

Lawson said residents of Rome — 60 miles from Anniston — should be concerned.

“Sixty miles is really not that far to travel — and we’re talking about some nasty stuff here,” Lawson said. “By the time it gets here it will be much diluted, but it’s still not something you want to be exposed to.”

Lindberg does not share those fears, although he doesn’t like the process being used. “I don’t think we need to be terrified about it. But it’s a shame it’s happening here.”

While “engineers think that on paper it looks great,” Lindberg added, “in reality, the risk outweighs the benefit. People worry about it, and there’s good reason — they have had leaks and accidents (at other weapons destruction sites).”

Lawson said plans are to destroy 30 rockets per hour in Anniston’s complex of four incinerators, adding he fears that will put students in nearby Calhoun County schools — who begin classes Thursday — in danger.

Some Anniston-area schools, Lawson noted, do not yet have filtration systems installed in case of an accident. And he warns it takes only eight minutes in some areas for the incinerators’ exhaust to harm people living nearby.

The Army’s Project Manager for Chemical Weapons Destruction has handed out safety packets with materials and instructions detailing how to seal off windows with plastic in the event of an emergency, but Lawson said this system is not foolproof.

Lawson said he worries harmful materials could be carried through the air in dirt particles or could contaminate local water supplies.

Lindberg said he does not believe the potential risk of harmful chemicals traveling to Rome is high. “We’re probably OK. The greatest probability is that things will go right. But if it were happening in Rome, I would probably move.”

The incineration of chemical weapons is not a new issue facing the CRBI, Lawson said. The group held a large rally last year with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The CRBI is currently suing the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Army and plans a protest rally Aug. 16.

“I’ll be there with a gas mask,” Lawson said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.