U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Alabama officials and community activists have all called for improved monitoring of the air surrounding a chemical weapons incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot, the Birmingham News reported today (see GSN, Sept. 11).

Shelby has cosponsored a Senate resolution asking the secretary of the army to develop and initiate a program to upgrade air monitoring systems at all U.S. chemical weapons disposal sites.  In a statement, Shelby said the Army “should established a new standard for agent monitoring” by examining the use of more modern, real-time systems.

Members of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission have said they also plan to request a demonstration of new air monitoring technology.

“This community deserves the best technology, and with the best technology, whatever that is, comes a higher level of trust and comfort,” said Pete Conroy, director of Jacksonville State University’s Environment Policy and Information Center.

The depot currently lacks alarms installed around its perimeter, and air monitors inside the incinerator complex experience false alarms and long verification delays, according to the News.  The Army has installed within the incinerator stack a single monitor that continuously tests for sarin.  There are also monitors that test for basic air pollutants, but do not test for hazardous materials that are produced through chemical weapons incineration, such as PCBs and dioxins, the News reported. 

The incinerator will only test once for hazardous air during operations, and then the monitors will be disconnected, according to the News.  Alabama will assume, based on models and a successful test, that the incinerator is not releasing harmful chemicals because there is no reliable method to continuously monitor air, said Stephen Cobb, overseer of the program for the Alabama Environmental Management Department.

“That is a very small amount of material that you’re looking for,” Cobb said.  “In some cases you’re almost looking at the molecular level,” he said.

The equipment proposed by supporters of increased monitoring could continuously test for chemicals such as PCBs and dioxins, though not with the same sensitivity as the current system, according to the News.

“That’s one reason Westinghouse Anniston is fighting this so hard,” said Chemical Weapons Working Group Executive Director Craig Williams, referring to the contractor that operates the incinerator.  “They don’t want a multispectrum, real-time monitoring capability that can give you a reliable and consistent emissions reading capacity over the life of the plant,” Williams said (Katherine Bouma, Birmingham News, Sept. 11).

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