LOCAL NEWS

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Officials, activists blast plan to bring more chemical weapons to Anniston

ByDan Whisenhunt
Staff Writer

07-03-08

Local leaders and activists on Wednesday blasted an idea floated by the Pentagon that could see chemical weapons trucked across state lines into Anniston and other incinerator sites for destruction.

Most elected officials contacted said they would oppose shipping chemical weapons from other states to Anniston.

"Not if I have anything to do with it they won't," Gov. Bob Riley said in an e-mail. "I know what (the Pentagon and Congress) promised the people of Calhoun County."

The idea of transporting the weapons is decades old and has always been unpopular, observers said. But, with the increased focus on terrorism since 2001, the idea of moving truckloads of dangerous chemicals around the country raises not only safety but also security concerns.

"While chemical demilitarization in Anniston, Alabama has been extremely successful, I believe the transportation risks of moving these weapons across state lines outweigh the benefits," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, said in a statement. "We cannot sacrifice safety and security for expediency."

The Pentagon raised the specter of transporting these weapons in a semi-annual report released to Congress in June on the progress of destroying the U.S. chemical stockpile.

In 1997, the U.S. signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty which called for the destruction of all stockpiles by 2007, a date that was moved to 2012.

The plans called for destroying these weapons at the sites where they were stored. In most places, that meant constructing incinerators like the one at the Anniston Army Depot.

Some communities fought that plan and insisted on neutralization, which does not require a furnace. Two of those sites — in Colorado and Kentucky — still haven't begun disposing of their weapons.

The Pentagon says those sites likely will not be able to destroy their stockpiles by the 2012 deadline or by an extended 2017 deadline.

Department of Defense spokesman Chris Isleib said 90 percent of the stockpile will be destroyed by 2012. But he said "unforeseen emergent costs" made it impossible to safely destroy all weapons by that deadline.

Congress moved the goal post back to 2017 for total destruction of the stockpile, but Isleib said "delays … may require more time than that."

The remaining 10 percent are at Bluegrass Army Depot in Kentucky and Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado. Those facilities, which are still under construction, will neutralize weapons instead of burning them. Kathy DeWeese, spokeswoman for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program overseeing the two sites, said those stockpiles won't be destroyed until 2020 in Colorado and 2023 in Kentucky.

Greg Mahall, spokesman for the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency which oversees Anniston's incinerator, stressed the decision on transporting weapons is for Congress to make.

Isleib said transporting these weapons would help the United States meet the 2017 goal but said the option has "significant challenges." Congress would have to change the law to allow transportation of these weapons. It would also require changing federal and state environmental requirements and modifying hazardous waste permits at incinerator sites.

Alabama Department of Environmental Management spokesman Scott Hughes said the incinerator would have to request changes to permits that allow for the destruction of weapons here. The public also would get a chance to comment on those changes.

Comments from public officials and activists Wednesday were almost unanimously against the idea.

"Back in 2005, (Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks) said it would happen only over his cold, dead body, and to this day, he remains adamantly opposed to this absurd, unrealistic idea," Rogers' office said in a statement.

Craig Williams, director of the nonprofit Chemical Weapons Working Group in Kentucky, called investigating the idea a waste of taxpayer money.

"I think there's a better chance that I'll wake up with a full head of hair in the morning," Williams said.

Anniston Mayor Chip Howell said "shock" was his first reaction to the report and said he would oppose any attempt to truck more weapons into the Model City. Calhoun County Commissioner Robert Downing said he wasn't surprised by the report because he always suspected the Army would try to important chemical weapons into Calhoun County after building the $2 billion incinerator.

He said he would do "everything within my power" to keep the weapons off the county's doorstep.

Calhoun County Commission Chairman Eli Henderson has supported sending waste from the neutralization process to Anniston for treatment, but wasn't completely on board with sending all weapons to Anniston. He said wouldn't be opposed to sending mustard agent to Anniston because, "There are things more dangerous than that going up and down the road."

Glen Browder, who held Rogers' seat in Congress from 1989 to 1997, said he thinks the Pentagon mentioned transportation in the report to cover its bases.

"They state options knowing full well that those options are not serious or realistic so they need to put them on record," Browder said. "So whenever they don't meet the timelines, they have it clearly laid out that they touched base, laid out the current time lines and were turned down."

David Christian and Rufus Kinney, two local activists who opposed the incinerator, were not shocked by the report. Christian said the Pentagon will continue to pressure states to accept weapons at their sites.

"Anniston will be the biggest toxic dumping ground in the eastern United States if this happens," Kinney said. "But I don't think it will happen."

The Anniston incinerator began destroying weapons in 2003. It has eliminated the local stockpile of weapons filled with sarin nerve agent, and is currently working on destruction of weapons armed with another nerve agent, VX. Weapons containing mustard blister agent remain to be processed.

Mike Abrams, spokesman for the incinerator, says the facility is on track to finish destroying all weapons by 2012.

Abrams declined to say what shipping more weapons would do to Anniston's timeline.