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LOCAL NEWS
Officials say bringing chemical weapons to Anniston unlikely
ByMegan Nichols
Staff Writer
07-04-08
Local leaders on Thursday said that while they would fight to keep more chemical weapons from coming to Anniston, they do not think it is a likely possibility.
"There are way too many hoops to jump through to spend a lot of energy thinking of the worst-case scenario," Anniston Mayor Chip Howell said.
A semi-annual report released to Congress in June listed transporting chemical weapons from other states to Anniston as a possible way to speed up the destruction process.
In 1997, the United States signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty that called for the destruction of all stockpiles by 2007, a date that was later moved to 2012.
The plan called for destroying the weapons at the sites where they were stored. In most places, that meant constructing incinerators like the $2 billion facility 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. The Anniston chemical weapons incinerator is on track to finish destroying weapons by 2012.
Bringing more weapons to Anniston faces several challenges. Congress would have to change the law to allow transportation of the weapons. Moving truckloads of chemical weapons around the nation always has been an unpopular option, and could be even more unpopular with the government's focus on terrorism since 2001.
Some in Congress, including Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, said on Wednesday that they would strenuously protest moving more weapons to Anniston. Gov. Bob Riley also said he would object.
Shea Snider, Rogers' spokeswoman, said on Thursday that the congressman does not believe weapons will be transported to Anniston.
"Congress would have to change current law to transport the weapons, which simply isn't likely," Snider said in an e-mail. "Nevertheless, Congressman Rogers remains fully committed to doing everything in his power to ever keep it from happening."
Glen Browder, who held Rogers' seat from 1989 to 1997, said he also believes bringing more weapons to the city is unlikely.
Browder was in Congress when the issue initially was discussed.
"A commitment was made, and it would be absolutely horrendous to abrogate that decision to the people of Calhoun County," Browder said. "The U.S. government does not abrogate its commitments. The public officials will not allow this to happen."
Governments in states the trucks would have to travel through also may have problems with dangerous weapons traveling on their roadways. For instance, weapons from the Bluegrass Army Depot in Richmond, Ky., would likely mean crossing several state lines in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.
Bringing more chemical weapons to Anniston also would require changing federal and state environmental requirements and modifying hazardous-waste permits at incinerator sites.
The Anniston incinerator began destroying weapons in 2003. It has eliminated the local stockpile of weapons filled with sarin nerve agent and is working on destruction of weapons armed with another nerve agent, VX. Weapons containing mustard blister agent remain to be processed.