Utah Groups Worried Delayed Mustard Gas Disposal

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY  Utah environmentalists are concerned that a decision giving the Desert Chemical Depot more time to incinerate mustard gas is a license to put more toxins into the air.

In August, the timeline for destruction of the depot's deadly chemical weapons was extended six years to 2016. Army officials say they hope to complete the task by 2012.

But documents filed last month with Utah's Department of Environmental Quality show the Tooele County facility isn't staying on schedule. In the paperwork, Army official ask the state to push back the date for a monitored burn to prove the incinerator's furnace runs clean and safe for prolonged periods of time.

The test was originally scheduled for fall 2005. Deseret officials now say they hope to conduct it this winter.

The state was happy to approve the request, said Martin Gray, who monitors chemical demilitarization for the state Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste.

Vanessa Pierce, director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah, said giving the plant more time to prepare for the test is a bad idea.

"It allows them to tweak the system until they can get the results they need to achieve a clean trial burn," said Pierce, who believes the "toxic crap" released during this so-called "shakedown period" isn't being monitored by Deseret or state regulators.

Gray disagrees and said the depot is monitoring its stack for mustard gas emissions, although he concedes that other chemical releases are not being tracked.

"We don’Äôt know exactly what is being emitted during the shakedown burn," he said. "But we have good idea because we have data from other incinerators."

In a report released Wednesday, depot operators said more 185 tons of mustard gas has been safely destroyed during the shakedown period.

The request for more time shouldn't be seen as an indication the depot won't meet the 2012 goal, Deseret spokeswoman Alaine Southworth said.

"What it does is it gets us more on target so we can be more efficient," she said. "We're still looking at meeting all our objectives."

The International Chemical Weapons Convention requires the destruction of all stockpiled usable weapons by 2012. An April report by the U.S. State Department said it was unlikely the deadline would be met. The report named Deseret as one of six facilities that would operate past the deadline.