The federal government said Tuesday it will provide $7 million for protective hoods for thousands of residents living near the chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston.The decision will make those residents the first general population in the United States to receive government-issued hoods that are akin to gas masks.
The funding also will pay for protective suits for emergency responders who would react to an accident involving the nerve and blister agent stockpiled at the Anniston Army Depot.
In a decision announced Tuesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has reversed a long-standing position against providing this equipment, which it once described as unsafe for civilian use.
The move signals a thaw in the legal standoff between Gov. Don Siegelman's administration and the federal government and will lead the governor to drop a key part of his lawsuit against the incinerator, according to an aide.
"We will withdraw our request for preliminary injunctive relief," said Rip Andrews, a spokesman for the governor. "It's our understanding that the money has been released and is on its way to the state."
In reality, the funds will reach the state and then the local level only after officials establish training and accreditation regimens for what is essentially an unprecedented program in this nation.
Family members of American military in South Korea have been trained and issued gas masks, as have Israeli civilians. On these shores, however, the only comparable accreditation process is one in place for workers who deal with hazardous materials.
FEMA officials said the agency's Atlanta office soon will open discussions with local officials on the nature of the equipment to be purchased as well as on the training of its users. These include 35,000 civilians living in the shadow of the depot.
"It's FEMA's intention to go ahead and move forward with this," a spokesman said. "But we haven't signed on the bottom line."
The protective hoods and suits have been at the center of a long-running dispute between the county and federal government over what is needed to protect residents near the depot. The county insists on the hoods while the federal government had maintained that taping plastic over windows and doors would be sufficient protection against a chemical plume.
In addition to Siegelman's involvement, the county's congressional delegation in past months has been lobbying the Army to foot the bill for the measures the county deems necessary. Last year, a Pentagon official agreed to do that as part of a $40.5 million funding package.
While the delegation tried to negotiate with the federal authorities, Siegelman sought to prevent the Army from even testing its incinerator until all of the agreed-to precautions are in place. Despite the lawsuit, however, the facility wrapped up its first series of tests last weekend after a federal judge postponed a hearing in the lawsuit.
In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control recommended against distributing protective respiratory hoods on the basis that the use of such complicated equipment by civilians could do more harm than good.
In its resistance to funding the controversial equipment, FEMA leaned on that recommendation. Federal officials also pointed to cardio-respiratory problems encountered by Israelis who used gas masks during Iraqi rocket attacks during the Gulf War.
But Tuesday, FEMA spokesmen offered no substantive explanation for what led to the recent change of heart. They cited no new studies, recommendations or policy papers. In fact, a federal official speaking on the condition of anonymity said the CDC, in papers yet to be made public, recently reiterated its stance against issuing personal respiratory protection.
FEMA officials tried to explain away the apparent policy change by insisting that the agency had never precluded the possibility of providing the items. They described the past months, during which time the agency faced down the lawsuit as well as political pressure from the county's congressional delegation, as a period of "information gathering."
"We weren't going to rubber stamp this," a spokesman said. "We wanted to have more information."
But this explanation contradicts utterances by FEMA officials printed in these pages as well as the agency's own internal communications.
A Jan. 14 internal memo cites the CDC recommendation and then concludes, "In lieu of awarding funds for protective hoods, therefore, we recommend shelter-in-place kits and, where appropriate, re-circulation air filters." The memo goes on to raise questions regarding the safety of the protective suits; there is no indication of a desire to further research the matter.
The Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency, which has been at odds with its federal counterpart, declined to comment until it receives official word of FEMA's decision. However, its director, Mike Burney, has in the past said that his agency all along has been preparing for how the protective equipment will be distributed and how the public will be educated on its proper use.
The purchase of the hoods and the suits, both complicated pieces of equipment, raises many questions. Regarding the hoods: Will medical evaluations of users be necessary? Who will perform maintenance on the devices? What certification process will be used for the particular models the county decides to purchase?
For the first responders' suits: Which emergency responders will receive them? Where will they be trained? How will the suits be maintained?
According to the FEMA spokesmen, these questions will be answered in a collaborative process involving all players before funding is provided to the state and the county. A meeting where many of the details will be hashed out is tentatively planned for early April.
Even as these issues appear to near resolution, more uncertainties remain. In particular, the Army and FEMA have yet to decide which schools in Calhoun County will be fitted with equipment that would make them airtight during a chemical emergency. All local emergency officials await the integration of new toxicity standards for the chemical agents into planning and response.
Though no longer a threat to the incinerator program, the governor's lawsuit, too, will remain, his spokesman said, "until the money is in the hands of the state and the emergency precautions are in the hands of the people of Calhoun County."
