Weapons incinerator fires up in Alabama

This story was published Sun, Mar 17, 2002

By The Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- After destroying aging chemical weapons in incinerators at remote sites in the Pacific and the Utah desert, the Army began burning test materials Saturday in a well-populated part of Alabama.

Protesters have questioned whether the Army would be able to save lives if there were an accident at the Anniston Army depot's incinerator facility, about 60 miles east of Birmingham.

Saturday's burn was the first time the military had conducted a large-scale test of a chemical munitions incinerator in an area where thousands of people could be at risk if an accident occurred involving real nerve agents.

The other two places where the Army has destroyed old chemical weapons -- Johnston Atoll in Hawaii and Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in western Utah -- have been sparsely populated.

Testing should begin soon on another incinerator at the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston.

The Army estimates 72,600 people live within about nine miles of Anniston, where bunkers hold 2,254 tons of rockets, artillery shells, land mines and bulk containers of chemical weapons.

The obsolete but still deadly munitions, some dating to World War II, contain mustard, Sarin and VX gases which must be destroyed under terms of an international chemical weapons treaty.

The Army has said that once work begins it will take four years to dispose of all the munitions.

The Army acknowledges 14 accidental releases of tiny amounts of nerve agents at Johnston Island and Tooele, but said none of the mishaps endangered the public.

"We've already destroyed safely more than three times the amount of the chemicals we have stored here," said Mike Abrams, a spokesman for the Anniston facility.

Abrams said dummy rockets were being used in the nine-day exercise that started Saturday. The Army plans to begin incinerating actual nerve agents at Anniston in September.

Incineration has both critics and supporters in Anniston. Warning sirens have been installed around the facility, and thousands of radios were distributed to alert residents in case of an accident.

Gov. Don Siegelman has filed suit to block disposal of real nerve agents at Anniston unless the federal government provides $40.5 million for emergency response equipment and gear, including protective hoods.

 

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