So Gov. Don Siegelman has made good on a long-held threat. Late last week, he filed a lawsuit in federal court in Birmingham that aims to stop the incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot in its tracks.Of course, what it also does is to keep the 2,000 plus tons of lethal nerve agent in our midst and in a state of decay for no telling how much longer.
We have to say to the governor, then, thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for extending the time of maximum danger to this community. Thanks a lot for delaying the one thing that will clear this community of some of the most dangerous materials known to man. Thanks a lot for running off potential investors and new residents. Thanks for keeping us gridlocked in this ridiculous mess.
This tactic is perplexing really. The governor said himself as he was having the papers filed that he sees the stockpile as a danger to the community. He said he sees it as an impediment to economic growth. But he went ahead with the lawsuit anyway.
Strange that.
Stranger still is the fact that he says he is doing this for our good, that he is trying to protect us.
He says that because the central issue here is the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s addle-brained decision not to fund gas masks and protective suits to the county, that despite the fact that the federal government had promised to provide the items late last year.
So we are with you there governor. Most folks in this county are pretty upset at FEMA for not carrying through on that promise. But stalling the incinerator isn’t going to do anyone any good. The thought is that threatening to halt the start-up of the incinerator is the only leverage we have left. But that is an awfully dangerous tactic to take. While we are dithering around with the lawsuit, while the local emergency management agency is stalling on implementing any kind of workable emergency preparedness plan, the stockpile continues to present a danger.
If he has our best interest in mind, the governor ought to get out of the way and encourage all the other politicians to do the same and let the incineration process go forward.
Yes, there is a certain amount of politics afoot here. This is an election year. The governor is playing with this issue now. Congressman Bob Riley has played with it in the past. So has Sen. Jeff Sessions and Sen. Richard Shelby. So have our local politicians. The incinerator, in short, has become political, but the politicians aren’t kicking around the incinerator, they are kicking around the safety of the people.
And it is time for all of that to stop and stop now. Our delegation in Washington is plugging away to try to get the decision-makers at FEMA to reverse their position on the gas mask/protective suits issue. That, not a lawsuit that extends the danger to the community, is the way to solve this problem.
