Anniston Incinerator Set to Restart Operations Today After Shutdown

The chemical weapons incinerator at the U.S. Army’s Anniston chemical weapons depot in Alabama is expected to resume operations today after being shut down for 10 days, according to the Birmingham News (see GSN, Nov. 26, 2003).

Army officials are investigating whether crystallized sarin agent found in M-55 rockets caused the 10-day shutdown of the incinerator. “So far what we’re seeing is this crystal that looks like rock salt you can buy when you make ice cream,” said Army project manager Tim Garrett.

Garrett said that he did not believe that the crystallized sarin was responsible for the barrels of fly ash that mixed with decontaminating fluids to cement the incinerator works shut. He said that there are plans to request state permission to conduct tests to determine if the crystallized sarin was responsible or whether the fly ash had backed up in the course of destroying thousands of rockets (Katherine Bouma, Birmingham News, Jan. 16).

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