[CPEO-MEF] ALABAMA CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATOR GETS GREEN LIGHT

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To read the full summary environmental news for 6/23/00 go to:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/2000L-06-23-09.html

Environment News Service
AmeriScan: June 23, 2000

ALABAMA CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATOR GETS GREEN LIGHT

ANNISTON, Alabama, June 23, 2000 (ENS) - Work to construct a chemical
weapons incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot will continue now that the
Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) Commission has
endorsed independent findings that the facility should be permitted. In
1997, ADEM granted permits to the U.S. Army to build the Anniston Chemical
Agent Disposal Facility (ANCDF). Two groups challenged the ADEM permits,
launching a three year review of the permits. "That process came to a
successful conclusion today," said Timothy Garrett, ANCDF site project
manager. "The acceptance of the hearing officer's findings and
recommendations to the ADEM Commission is great news for everyone in
northeast Alabama, for the people working on the project, and for the U.S.
Army." 

In a 663 page report delivered on April 20, 2000, James Wilson, the
proceeding's hearing officer, recommended to ADEM that the original permits
be upheld. He reported he could find no evidence that ADEM erred in issuing
the permits, or that the U.S. Army and its contractors had acted outside
any regulatory or statutory bounds. "By upholding the hearing officer's
findings and recommendations, the ADEM Commission validates what we have
stipulated all along," said Garrett. "Our commitment to our community, to
the State, and to the Nation is the safe and timely disposal of the
chemical weapons now stored at Anniston Army Depot. Once we begin chemical
operations at the Anniston disposal facility in early 2002, we will employ
a technology that is already tried and proven. And we will safely eliminate
a real risk that exists from the continued storage of chemical weapons."
The planned incinerator was challenged because many environmental groups
charge that burning chemical weapons releases toxins into the air. 

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