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News :: Miscellaneous |
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U.S. Will Buy Gas Masks for Residents Near Ala. Nerve Gas Incinerator |
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by Jay Reeves
(No verified email address) |
29 Mar 2002
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There's no word in this article about whether gas masks will be provided for residents near the Newport Depot in Indiana, just across the state line from Danville, IL. |
BIRMINGHAM -- The federal government will pay for gas mask-like safety gear for as many as 35,000 people who live near an incinerator where the Army intends to burn deadly nerve gas, officials said.
Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman's office said Wednesday that the protective hoods, which function like gas masks but are simpler to use, will be distributed under an agreement reached in a lawsuit over the chemical weapons incinerator.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, however, denied the agreement was linked to the lawsuit.
Siegelman filed the suit last month to halt operation of the $1 billion incinerator.
Siegelman spokesman Rip Andrews said the state will withdraw its request that a judge block the opening of the incinerator in return for the government's pledge to provide $7 million for the gear and training.
The Army plans to begin test burns of nerve gas in September.
Under the agreement, gear for as many as 500 police officers, firefighters and emergency management workers who would respond to any accident at the incinerator will also be purchased, said Mike Burney, emergency management director for Calhoun County.
FEMA said no money will be released until the state provides a plan for buying and maintaining the hoods and for training people to use them. State and federal emergency management officials said they were unaware of any such previous effort.
An estimated 75,000 people live within about nine miles of the incinerator at Anniston Army Depot, 60 miles east of Birmingham.
"Even a small accident could be catastrophic," Burney said.
While the military has destroyed aging nerve agents at incinerators in the Pacific and the Utah desert, the Anniston installation is the first located in a populated area.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
http://www.ap.org
Here's a link to earlier reporting on U-C IMC about the nerve gas stored at Newport and plans to dispose of it:
http://www.ucimc.org/front.php3?article_id=3711 |
