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The Army's initial response to rising TCE levels in the Anniston area's primary drinking water supply was to draft an emergency plan and hope it never had to be used.

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The unofficial decree from the Army's environmental headquarters in Aberdeen, Md., was, "We can't react unless there is a violation," said Pat Smith, the Anniston Army Depot's environmental engineer.

"The problem with the disaster plan is that it works for the Army because they don't live here," said Jim Miller, general manager of Anniston Water Works. "For us, it would have been the end of the world."

The amount of TCE in Anniston's drinking water has been below detectable levels since equipment called air strippers were installed at the Army's expense in April 2005. The strippers, the result of a rare philosophical about-face by the Army, have a capacity to completely clean water with a TCE concentration of up to 100 parts per billion, far higher than it's ever been seen in Coldwater Spring.

But the first plan, as drafted nearly a decade ago, called for distributing debit cards to the 17,500 homes served by Anniston Water Works so customers could buy bottled water until the emergency passed. The card system would have cost the Army nearly $50,000 a month.

The Army used liberal risk calculations that essentially guaranteed the plan would never have to be implemented. TCE concentrations in Coldwater Spring would have had to reach 80 parts per billion — 16 times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for drinking — before debit cards hit mailboxes.

Army reports concede that the Anniston Army Depot's Superfund site is a "likely contributor" to the TCE problem at the spring, which lies about 1 1/2 miles south of the depot. According to one Army contractor's estimate, for every five molecules of TCE found in the spring, four originated at the depot.

TCE doesn't appear naturally because it's a manmade chemical. The "other" molecule must be coming from somewhere else in Coldwater's recharge area, maybe from a similar TCE plume beneath the former Fort McClellan, experts say.

The source is difficult to track because there are 75 TCE users within a 10-mile radius of the depot, according to an estimate from 2001. TCE amounts in untreated water at Coldwater Spring have been increasing slightly in monthly samples for two decades, and no one knows why.

In 1988, the first year of sampling, testing where the spring bubbles up showed TCE levels as high as 2 parts per billion. Between 1988 and March 2003, the contaminant's concentration never exceeded the federal limit of 5 parts per billion during monthly sampling.

But then things changed. From that point to May 2008, the TCE level in the untreated water at that location has been above the federal standard 13 times, according to Army figures.

The idea of dispensing debit cards to thousands of thirsty Annistonians didn't sit well with Miller. He was certain the community wouldn't accept the plan, especially not at a time when PCB revelations and a proposed chemical weapons incinerator were giving the town a bad name.

"We had enough problems," he said recently.

Brandishing charts depicting the growing TCE levels, Miller talked the Army into attacking the problem at the source. The Army agreed to spend $1.6 million on air strippers for Anniston Water Works' treatment plant to remove TCE.

The strippers are simple in design. The six silo-like columns next to the edge of the spring are filled with tiny balls. A burst of air shoots up the inside of the column, hitting the water streaming over the balls and driving off TCE molecules into the surrounding air.

And the air strippers performed as expected.

But if the unthinkable happens, the debit card plan is still sitting on the shelf, ready for action.

Jeremy Cox was a 2008 Knight Fellow in Community Journalism at The Anniston Star and the University of Alabama.