Sarasota Herald-Tribune
August 1, 2003

Army sets Aug. 6 date for beginning chemical weapons burns

By KYLE WINGFIELD
Associated Press Writer

MONTGOMERY, Ala. --

The U.S. Army will begin destroying more than 2,200 tons of nerve agent at the Anniston Army Depot next week, acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee said Thursday.

The announcement came one day after the Alabama Department of Environmental Management issued a permit allowing the Army to start up its $1 billion incinerator.

Brownlee gave the order to begin destroying the deadly nerve agent and mustard gas Aug. 6 despite worries from many nearby residents and environmental groups that incineration is not safe enough for such a heavily populated area. About 35,000 people live within nine miles of the depot, and more than 250,000 live within a 30-mile circle.

Brownlee said the Army had been committed to ensuring the safety of east Alabama residents.

"Public safety remains our principal interest," he said in a statement issued late Thursday.

The Army said it plans to burn only a limited number of weapons at first, while it continues to over-pressurize schools and other community buildings. Nerve agent drained from M-55 rockets would be destroyed only during pre-announced periods - on weekends and between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The operation will ramp up to full speed later in the fall.

About 2,254 tons of Cold War-era chemical weapons have been stored at the Anniston Army Depot for decades. The Army contends it can no longer safely store the weapons there and that moving the munitions elsewhere would be too dangerous, leaving incineration as the safest option.

But opponents say the Army hasn't fully disclosed all the problems with the incinerators. Lawsuits have been filed ranging from a request that the Army scrap incineration and neutralize the agents chemically, to claims that minorities would be unfairly endangered by the incinerator, located in an area that is disproportionately black compared to Alabama's population.

Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, which has filed suit in Washington, D.C., and Birmingham in attempts to block the incinerator's startup, said his organization plans to ask for a restraining order Monday in federal court.

He said it was "arrogant and disrespectful" of the Army to say it had resolved all safety issues. "The track record of these facilities is nothing short of intimidating should you live in a community where it's being used," Williams said.

Gov. Bob Riley and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., have yet to sign off on a plan to let the facility begin operation without all planned community safety measures in place. Riley said last week that he wants the power to shut down the incinerator if the Army has not fulfilled all safety requirements.

Shelby issued a statement late Thursday calling on the Army to "move quickly to complete the remaining safety measures and to operate on a limited basis until the safety measures are fully implemented."

The United States has agreed under an international treaty to destroy 31,000 tons of chemical weapons by 2007. Roughly 25 percent of the stockpile has been destroyed at incinerators in Utah and on a tiny atoll in the Pacific.

The National Research Council concluded in December that chemical weapons could be safely incinerated despite chemical releases and violations at the two operational incinerators.