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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (24352)	8/5/2003 10:45:55 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Group: Army will delay burning chemical weapons Tuesday, August 5, 2003 Posted: 3:34 PM EDT (1934 GMT) ANNISTON, Alabama (Reuters) -- The U.S. Army has agreed to delay for two days the burning of hundreds of Cold War-era chemical weapons in northern Alabama, a spokesman for an environmental group opposed to the effort said Tuesday. The Army, complying with an international treaty, had been expected to begin burning the first of its M-55 rockets containing the deadly nerve agent sarin Wednesday at its $1 billion chemical weapons disposal facility in Anniston. The effort, which comes as the United States is searching Iraq for evidence of weapons of mass destruction, has triggered fears among residents in Anniston and prompted environmentalists to ask a federal judge for an injunction barring the incineration. In a hearing in Washington Tuesday, an attorney representing the U.S. military told U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson the Army would wait until Friday to give the court enough time to consider the issue, said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, one of the groups requesting a restraining order. Jackson promptly set a hearing for Friday, Williams said. Military officials were not immediately available for comment. Opponents of the weapons disposal plan have argued that large amounts of dangerous chemicals would be released into the environment if the Army and Department of Defense were allowed to burn the weapons stockpiled in Anniston. The Army's weapons disposal facility is in the middle of this northeastern Alabama town and less than 100 miles from the heavily populated cities of Atlanta and Birmingham. About 110,000 people live within 30 miles of the depot. Military officials have said the project does not pose an undue danger to local residents, but have admitted they will begin the incineration process by destroying chemical weapons with the greatest danger to the community. Thousands of residents in what is called the pink zone, the area designated as most at risk in the event of a chemical release, have been offered protective hoods, air filters and shelter kits in preparation for the event. The Army's weapons depot in Anniston contains more than 2,000 tons of rockets, artillery shells and land mines, which contain sarin, VX and other nerve agents. The stockpile accounts for about 6 percent of the U.S. chemical weapons that must be destroyed by 2007 under an international treaty.