for immediate release, Wednesday, March 5, 1997

STATE INSPECTORS ADMIT NERVE AGENT FOUND IN CHEMICAL
WEAPONS INCINERATOR STACK GASSES,
MUSTARD AGENT SPILL UNDETECTED BY MONITORS;
UTAH DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY PREPARING
"NOTICE OF VIOLATION" TO ARMY

Salt Lake City--The State agency responsible for regulating the Army's controversial
Tooele, Utah chemical weapons incinerator today confirmed that nerve agent was recently
detected in the facility's smokestack, an area which is supposed to be agent-free.
Testifying at a Federal Court hearing on a motion by environmental and veterans groups to
shut the Tooele incinerator because of "imminent and substantial dangers to health and the
environment," Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) chemical engineer
Deborah Ng acknowledged that nerve agent has been found in particles being emitted from
the smokestack.

Ng's supervisor Martin Gray described an incident in which mustard gas from a "ton
container" spilled onto the ground. Although as much as 100 gallons leaked, warning
alarms, required by the State of Utah's operating permit, apparently did not go off. He
also admitted that a leak of nerve agent less than one quart was not subject to State
regulations.

Gray and Ng admitted that the State DEQ is processing a "Notice of Violation" to the
Army, listing areas where the Tooele incinerator is not in compliance with its permit.
Federal Judge Tena Campbell ordered Utah officials to turn over documents, supporting
the violation notice, to attorneys for the groups challenging the incinerator.

In other trial developments, a former Tooele employee reported that cracks in the facility's
concrete were detected as early as September, 1994. The whistleblower, John Hall,
testified that he was able to identify 20 to 30 separate concrete cracks in the fall of 1995 and
reported them to plant supervisors. Nerve agent decontamination fluid leaking through a
concrete floor crack into an electrical control room led to a plant shutdown in September,
1996. Hall says he was dismissed in early 1996 for pursuing safety concerns.

Ng also testified that the DEQ changed the assumptions in its health risk assessment for the
Tooele plant because initial calculations found unacceptably high risk from chemical
weapons incineration. The most recent draft of that document excludes breast-feeding
infants and farmers who drink milk from their own cows or goats.

The Federal Court case will continue on Thursday and Friday with additional witnesses
testifying about the Tooele facility's environmental and safety flaws which plaintiffs
contend present a threat to human health and the environment.

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