U.S. Rep. Bob Riley asked an independent body of scientists Friday to evaluate the Army's recently announced plans to accelerate the schedule at the chemical weapons incinerator.The Ashland Republican, who is a candidate for governor, asked the National Academy of Sciences to perform a risk assessment of plans to alternate between nerve agent-filled rockets and artillery shells. The Army has said this change will shave eight or nine months off the overall schedule while posing a "slight increase" in risk to the community.
"In the long run, the safest and most environmentally sound action is to destroy the chemical weapons stockpiled in Calhoun County," Riley said in a press release. "But I will not accept any change in schedule if it even slightly increases the risk to the surrounding community."
The release said that Riley also wants the academy to review the rate at which the Army plans to destroy weapons in the incinerator.
"The Army and the operator of the Anniston facility have told me that safety will not be sacrificed if more than one weapon is destroyed per hour," he said. "But we need an independent guarantee. That's why I contacted the NAS."
The congressman's statement comes on the heels of a similar request from the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency, which this week asked that state environmental regulators perform a risk evaluation before any permit modifications are granted.
A spokesman for the incinerator declined to comment on Riley's request.
On the basis of modeling it has not made public, the Army has said the small increase in risk is a result of a six-month delay of the start of the disposal of VX-filled rockets that's written into the new schedule. These rockets pose the largest risk to the community of any of the weapon types stored at the Anniston Army Depot.
In its previous schedule, the Army planned to go into the VX rocket campaign immediately after destroying the stockpile of sarin-, or GB-filled rockets. Now it plans to destroy sarin artillery shells alongside the sarin rockets.
The new plans were reported in Sunday's Anniston Star.
There is no indication of when the academy will make a decision on Riley's request. Jennifer Burris, a spokeswoman for the academy, said that first a governing board will determine whether the study is possible and then whether funding is available.
The Army plans to begin burning GB rockets in October.
The National Academy of Sciences advises the federal government on scientific and technological matters. Its working arm is the National Research Council.
