About one half of Calhoun County residents support the incineration of the Anniston Army Depot’s chemical weapons stockpile, according to a recent poll conducted by students at Texas A&M University.Almost 70 percent of the roughly 700 respondents who participated in a telephone survey did not know the emergency response zone in which they live. A majority said they felt the incinerator would lead to a decrease in the amount of businesses opening in their community.
The poll, conducted in March by a public policy graduate class, touches on a comprehensive range of issues — from economic impact to safety and health concerns — related to the storage and disposal of weapons. It also probes the level of trust residents have in various governmental agencies involved in the issue.
Rather than simple conclusions, the polling data depicts a complex knot of feelings that have been laid bare as the community waits for the first of the weapons to be destroyed in September, the beginning of the end of more than four decades of living near some of the most lethal chemicals on the planet.
The recent history of chemical weapons in Anniston has been marked by mistrust as incinerator opponents spar with the Army and county and state officials wage budget battles with the federal purseholders, all of which yields a discordant tone reflected in the poll results.
Take the respondents’ polarized view of the Army’s local role.
Twenty-one percent said the Army was very likely to act in the community’s best interest while 11 percent said this was not at all likely — at once the largest and smallest votes of confidence among any of the four governmental groups that were asked about.
The survey also indicated shortcomings in the federally-funded emergency preparedness program that has accompanied the incinerator. Twenty-two percent said the plan offers no protection while only 7 percent said it offers complete protection.
Eighty-eight percent are aware of the program, but a relative few were aware of their zones — a key part of the notification process during a chemical weapons emergency.
Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency spokesman Brian Lazenby pointed out that zonal maps are available on the Internet and in telephone books and handouts and have been published in county newspapers. And, he said, the county EMA plans to distribute brochures in September.
“If people want to know their zones, that information is out there,” he said. “We will be participating in a public information campaign that will include that information.”
There is no consensus among policymakers as to what impact the data should and will have.
For Lazenby, the results bear out a number of arguments the agency has made in its attempts to procure additional funding for the local preparedness program.
Only about 60 percent of respondents said they could make a room in their house airtight during an emergency, which is part of the plan for sheltering-in-place. Moreover, 51 percent said they would feel better about incineration if protective suits were issued to emergency responders and 44 percent said they would feel better if protective respiratory hoods were distributed to residents near the depot.
The county has said that hoods are necessary to supplement Federal Emergency Management Agency’s plan of using duct tape and plastic to seal up the homes.
“That’s why we’re asking for a higher level of protection than duct tape and plastic,” Lazenby said.
A FEMA spokeswoman declined to comment on the survey, saying she hadn’t seen the results.
For Mike Abrams, spokesman for the incinerator, the 49 percent who support incineration indicates to him that he has more work to do, though, he said, “it’s a higher figure than we elect a president on.”
“As a public affairs officer, it tells me I haven’t done enough work,” he said. “I have not been a good enough ambassador in sharing information with people about our mission.”
For Rep. Bob Riley’s office, which acted a sponsor for the project, the survey will apparently have little impact.
“We aren’t going to use the survey as the basis for any policy decisions because it is a school project,” said spokesman Pepper Bryars.
