For Immediate Release: December 27, 1996 :
SUBPOENAED DOCUMENTS CONFIRM SAFETY VIOLATIONS,
ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS AND PERMIT PROBLEMS AT ARMY'S
UTAH CHEM-WEAPONS INCINERATOR
Subpoenaed documents, turned over to attorneys representing citizens
groups trying to stop the Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Tooele
Utah, have provided new evidence of serious problems at the facility.
A memorandum from the Army's Plant Manager, Tim Thomas to the
former General Manager, Gary Millar, recently fired for raising safety and
environmental problems, corroborates Millar's safety concerns as well as
those of Steve Jones, former Chief Safety Officer, who was fired for
similar reasons.
The documents, dated between September 18 and October 1, 1996, show
that numerous incidents and problems that the Army and its contractor,
EG&G Defense Materials, Inc. told a Federal Court were already
corrected in June, continued to occur at the facility.
Information contained in these previously secret documents include :
* agent releases into the environment on August 23rd and September
17th;
* deficiencies classified as"Imminent and Catastrophic" existed
during operations with nerve agent;
* worker exposure to agent on September 17th (protective gear did
prevent direct exposure);
* cracks in the floor of the $650 million facility allowing
decontamination solution to migrate out of engineering controls;
* decontamination solution migrating under airlock doorways, out of
engineering controls;
* Fire Suppression System malfunction;
* power loss to the facility and filter system failure on September
9th;
* continued agent breakthrough problems in the air filtration system
filter banks;
* inability to account for all nerve agent because of
Agent
Quantification System failures;
* numerous security problems including: no guards
in
areas where agent is present, lack of security clearance
for
personal entering restricted areas, unaccompanied
entrance
to exclusion areas and other problems;
* owner of multi-million dollar waste processing components at the
plant "remain incognito";
* non-government individuals signing official documents requiring
Government signature;
* problems with interim and long term hazardous waste storage;
* continuing shutdown problems similar to those which led to the
largest confirmed agent release at the Pacific incinerator in 1994.
EPA fined the Army for this agent release;
* air system ventilation problems in Laboratory, resulting in flawed
analysis of agent samples;
* approximately half of the lessons learned at the Pacific incinerator
have not been incorporated into the Utah plant, contradicting Army
testimony in Federal Court;
* violating emergency response permit requirements and inadequate
coordination between responders at the facility and in the
community;
* lack of adequate number of, and training of, personal for
emergency response teams;
* lack of procedure for filing "unusual occurrence and near-miss
reports";
* an overwhelming emphasis placed on schedule compliance and
production rates by the Army at the expense of safety and
environmental compliance.
According to the memo dated September 26, 1996, Tim Thomas, Army
Plant Manager told the contractors' General Manager that, "Your
planners must continue to force commitment to the schedule. You need
someone that can force schedule compliance." Throughout these memos,
schedule is priority. So much so that by October 1st, Thomas wrote,
"Inability to meet the mini-burn and agent trial burn schedules will have
severe award fee consequences and will cause a serious problem with our
reputation."
Cindy King, of the Utah Sierra Club said, "This confirms our conclusion
that the Army and EG&G place more importance on schedule and profit
than on safety and environmental concerns. This management attitude
has placed the surrounding communities at great risk."
An October 1996 survey report by the Employee Safety Committee said, "
It is relevant that many members of the Employee Safety Committee were
told repeatedly by personnel that they would not submit the survey for
fear of being 'sent to the Gulag.' There is a clear impression that any
criticism of program, polices, or implementation plans, leads not to
improvement, but to disciplinary action. There is a clear feeling of
mistrust."
Efforts to maintain schedule and keep up the image of the incinerator's
capability to operate have led to very serious concerns by citizens groups
as to what lengths the Army will go to keep burning.
Craig Williams, spokesperson for the Chemical Weapons Working Group,
an international coalition of citizens working for safe disposal
technologies said, "According to the Pentagon's plan, there will be six of
these incinerators operating at the same time in communities across
America. Based on the evidence concerning the existing facilities, this is
a recipe for disaster."
Mick Harrison, Director of Greenlaw, Inc. and lead attorney for the
citizen groups said, "In addition to new evidence of unresolved
environmental and safety hazards, these new documents show a
disturbing trend of breaches of security that place into question the
Army's ability to prevent theft of agent. Recently fired Manager, Gary
Millar testified in his deposition that the Agent Quantification System is
so unreliable that the Army would not know if agent was missing."
Greenlaw, Inc. will soon file another motion to the Federal District
Court in Utah on behalf of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, the
Sierra Club and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, to stop
the Tooele facility from operating.
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