Calhoun County and Alabama officials soon will start to shape a proposal for the U.S. government to buy out property owners near the chemical weapons incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot.In the next few weeks, they will begin an effort to identify neighborhoods near the fence line that would be difficult to protect in the event of a release of the depot's nerve or blister agent. However, they were unable to say exactly what criteria would be used to determine which property owners should be bought out or whether the federal government would go along with the proposal.
"It's going to be difficult to single out what people would be offered the buyout," said Lee Helms, director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. "It would provide maximum protection, though."
He said they would apply for the voluntary buyouts under a federally managed program that removes families from homes that are at risk from natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes.
Under this program, the Federal Emergency Management Agency pays three-quarters of fair market value for the property, Helms said. The remaining 25 percent is either paid by the local government or assumed by the owner, he said, adding that a relocation program could accompany the buyouts.
County officials are charged with determining the areas to be included in the proposal. They say they will focus their efforts on the vicinity of Morrisville Road, a stretch of small houses and mobile homes that runs into the depot gate and the adjacent county landfill. Some of these residents live within two miles of the incinerator. County emergency managers say they would be hard to alert in the event of a release there or at the stockpile of weapons.
Even if the complex of outdoor sirens and tone-alert radios were successful in notifying them, sealing the often-drafty dwellings against a cloud of toxic vapor would be difficult, county officials say.
"There are a lot of mobile homes that are not in really good shape and might be trouble to seal," said Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency spokesman Brian Lazenby.
Eli Henderson, the county commissioner who represents the areas outside the depot, agreed that deciding who would be eligible for the buyouts will be difficult.
"We've looked at this thing many, many times," he said. "It's a tough call, and you're never going to please everyone."
If such buyouts were to occur in Calhoun County, they would be the first to be approved on the basis of risk from the storage and destruction of chemical weapons.
"To my knowledge, it has not been done before," said John Yaquiant, the Army spokesman for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. "There is no provision for that within CSEPP guidance."
Lara Shane, a FEMA spokeswoman, was unwilling to comment during the early stages of planning.
"We have not received a request," Shane said. "We couldn't comment until we've received a request."
FEMA and the Army jointly administer the CSEPP program, which has been at the center of a long-running dispute with local officials. The focus has been the pink zones - the areas closest to the depot - which the county insists are unprepared for an accident. This week the county received $7 million to equip these residents with protective respiratory hoods and suits for emergency responders, but only after intervention from Gov. Don Siegelman and the county's congressional delegation.
With this money finally in hand, county officials have begun to emphasize issues such as the protection of county schools, the application of updated toxicity data and the notification of the pink zones.
Claiming that the current protocol wouldn't allow for the timely warning of those closest to the depot, the county EMA has asked the Army to assume the responsibility of notifying those zones of an emergency. The Army, however, has refused.
A few residents who live near the depot say they favor a buyout, citing both safety and economic reasons.
"If something was to happen, we can't get out of here," said Sharon Waites, who lives in a singlewide trailer on Boling Avenue, a dirt road off Morrisville Road. "There's one way in, one way out. And when all these people start trying to get out and they're panicking, somebody's going to get hurt bad."
Jeff Crosby, who now lives in Wellborn, estimates he lost about $50,000 when, four months ago, he relinquished a plot of land off Morrisville he had intended to use as a trailer park to the company that was financing it. Crosby couldn't find any renters, and he's disappointed he didn't get the opportunity to be bought out.
"I think the government ought to have been liable for it," he said. "But, you know, why stay there and be afraid to die? I ain't going to do it. I'd rather start over than end up in a Ziploc bag."
The county envisions the buyout as a safety measure rather than an economic boon. Calhoun County Commission Chairman Lea Fite said the buyout initiative doesn't represent a return to the issue of impact fees, the tens of millions the county sought to make up for economic damage that could result from the incinerator.
"After we get the protection level we need, we can sit back and see if any impact fees are available," Fite said.
