WASHINGTON—A federal judge cleared the way today for the Army to begin burning thousands of shells and rockets loaded with deadly chemical weapons as he rejected the pleas of environmental and civil rights groups for an injunction to stop the incineration.
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Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to show that the incineration of the Cold War-era ordnance at a base in northeastern Alabama represented an imminent danger. Such assertions were "purely speculative," he said after a hearing in United States District Court here.
Shortly after the ruling, the Army said it would begin on Saturday to destroy the shells and rockets full of nerve gas, mustard gas and other deadly agents in furnaces at the Anniston Army Depot, an 18,000-acre base some 50 miles east of Birmingham. The process is expected to take seven years, the Army has said.
"Public safety remains our principal interest," Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee said in a statement. "The Army has demonstrated since 1990 that it can safely destroy these chemical munitions, having already destroyed over 8,000 tons of chemical agent and over 1.3 million munitions without harming human health or the environment."
Despite such assurances, the Army's plans have aroused alarm among the 24,000 people in the nearby city of Anniston, as well as others in the region. Many say that they are not convinced that the burning is safe and that no deadly fumes will be released. The residents were also upset when the Army acknowledged recently that hundreds of mortar shells and rockets were leaking tiny amounts of nerve gas.
Judge Jackson's ruling stirred dismay among the 21 environmental and rights groups that wanted to block the burning. "It's a sad day," Craig Williams, the executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, said in a telephone interview from the group's headquarters in Berea, Ky.
Mr. Williams's organization asserts that incineration is far more dangerous than the Army maintains it is, and that there are safer ways to get rid of the old munitions.
Mr. Williams, whose organization was one of the plaintiffs and calls itself an international coalition of citizens living near chemical weapons storage sites in the United States, the Pacific and Russia, said the plaintiffs would confer over the weekend on what to do next.
Mr. Williams said they may appeal Judge Jackson's denial of an injunction. Or they may concentrate on their suit, filed last year in federal court in Birmingham, which asserts among other things that the incineration poses an unfair burden on minorities. About half the population of Anniston is black.
Some people who object to the Army operation also argue that the Anniston area has already had more than its share of air and water pollution from industry.
About 9 percent of the United States' chemical weapons stockpile is stored at the Anniston base, which was established in 1942 and is a major tank-maintenance installation. The deadly weapons are destroyed in robot-controlled furnaces where they are chopped and shredded and burned at 2,700 degrees, Marilyn Daughdrill, an Army spokeswoman, said today.
"We have never injured anybody," she said.
Michael B. Abrams, a spokesman for the chemical-disposal unit at the Anniston base, said operations similar to those at Anniston are going on at bases in Tooele, Utah, and Aberdeen, Md., and have already been carried out successfully on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
Ms. Daughdrill said she was confident that the fears of the people in the Anniston area would be assuaged, once the incineration begins without incident.
Timothy K. Garrett, the Army's manager at the Anniston chemical-disposal unit, said he was sure the burning would be carried out safely.
"My colleagues and I live in Anniston and neighboring communities," Mr. Garrett said. "I grew up nearby and look forward to my daughter growing up and staying in the area. All of us will operate this facility knowing the safety of our families and all Anniston area residents, as well as the protection of our environment, depend on everything we do."
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