WHITE HALL — The operator of the incinerator at the Pine Bluff Arsenal said some workers won’t return to the facility after they were caught exchanging security badges to speed up work at the facility.

David Reber, the project general manager for Washington Group International, told the arsenal’s Citizens Advisory Commission on Tuesday that it discovered July 5 that five employees swapped security badges in May.

Apparently, the swaps were made to speed up the process by allowing the workers to get into areas of the facility where they no longer had access. He said the badges were exchanged "to accomplish some work at the facility," and that there was never any danger to the public as a result.

"However, it’s clearly in violation of the process," Reber said.

In response to a question from Commissioner Betsy Francis, Reber declined to give specifics on what action was taken involving those employees, but said, "This is serious enough that we don’t tolerate that behavior... so not all of the employees will be returning with us."

Two employees also told the commission there would not be a repeat of the incident.

"For the majority of the people out there who are left this is a wake-up call," said Roger Rheaume, a munitions handler. "We follow our rules."

Incineration resumed Tuesday after a two-week lull.

Randy Long, site project manager for the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, told the advisory commission that much of the lull was attributed to routine maintenance and additional personnel training.

So far, the facility has disposed of 13,330 rockets and nearly 120,000 pounds of the nerve agent sarin that was drained from them. The arsenal incinerator, which began operations in March, experienced delays after a number of unexpected fires here and at a similar incinerator in Oregon this spring.

This story was published Thursday, July 28, 2005.