Officials at incinerator try to learn source of agent alarm

By Nathan Solheim
Assistant Metro Editor
02-06-2004

Officials at the Army’s chemical weapons incinerator spent Thursday trying to figure out why small amounts of deadly GB nerve agent were detected in an observation room where the presence of agent was thought unlikely. Operations at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility shut down Wednesday afternoon after a monitor detected deadly GB nerve agent in the air and on two workers. The Army resumed operations at around noon Thursday, about 20 hours after the initial alarm. No one was injured in the incident, which happened at 4:39 p.m. Wednesday, but trace amounts of GB, or sarin, escaped the facility’s most protected area when the two workers were transported from the main furnace building to the incinerator’s medical center. “The workers didn’t have enough agent to harm the community or them,” said Tim Garrett, the Army’s project manager at the incinerator. A source at the incinerator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said an alarm sounded at the medical center when the workers were brought in. Garrett confirmed the agent reading there late Thursday. The source said workers were “hot” when they were brought to the medical center, meaning monitors detected the presence of agent. Garrett added that both the furnace building and the medical center are under engineering controls, which means they have measures to curb the spread of contamination. Any agent on the workers was not enough to escape the incinerator grounds, and the amount was so small it would not have affected people standing next to them with no protective gear, Garrett said. Officials said the two workers were changing filters that had become choked with crystalline agent and somehow got chemical agent on their protective clothing. For the past few months, incinerator workers have been fine-tuning a process to destroy rockets in which agent has crystallized. The workers were changing filters in a room, called the toxic cubicle, where large amounts of agent is present. After leaving that area they moved to a decontamination room, where their suits were to be cleaned of any agent. From there, they went to another room, where the suits were removed. Agent vapor from this room probably passed through a duct into the observation room, where monitors detected agent, said Westinghouse plant manager Bob Love. According to incinerator room classifications, observation corridors may have agent present, though it’s unlikely. Love said one door closing could have changed airflow just enough to send agent vapor through a duct and into the corridor, setting the alarm off. Agent levels on the two workers and were small enough for the average person to stand next to them for eight hours per day, 40 hours per week without fear of health effects, Love said. “We measure that low in an effort to protect the workers,” Love said. At no time did agent leave areas where measures are in place to control agent, Love said. Nonetheless, he said, other workers near the area put on protective masks when the alarm sounded, and left for another part of the facility. The two contaminated workers were taken to the medical center, and, under doctor’s orders, were given a blood test that came back negative, officials said. Garrett said both returned to work later that evening, and the Army’s investigation is continuing. Incinerator critic Craig Williams, of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, said the incident was not the first of its kind and that the Army has failed to mitigate these kinds of incidents, which he said have occurred at other chemical weapons incinerators on Johnston Island and in Utah. “This is another example of the facility not functioning as advertised,” Williams said. “And I don’t think it will be the last one.” Incinerator officials didn’t officially notify the Army’s emergency operations center, or EOC, until three hours after the alarms sounded. Army spokesman Mike Abrams said a heads-up call was made to the EOC about 20 minutes before the official call. The emergency operations center in turn notifies the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency in case of an accident or incident. The EMA was notified within minutes of the official call, said EMA director Dan Long. Phone calls seeking comment from the EOC were not returned. Garrett said the incident did not meet guidelines for immediate notification because no agent left the facility and no one was injured. Incinerator officials are to confirm the presence of agent before notifying the emergency operations center in these instances. Had a worker been injured or had there been an agent release that left the depot grounds, the EOC would have been notified within five minutes according to those guidelines, officials said. Love said incidents that stay under the facility’s engineering controls do not require public notification. The Calhoun County EMA was notified at about 7:42 p.m., but no action was needed because the event didn’t involve a large amount of chemical agent dangerous to the public, Long said. Army officials notified The Star of the incident by fax and email sent after midnight, when no staff was present to receive the notification. Garrett said he was working with Abrams, the Army’s public affairs officer, to gather information, and could not issue a release until that time. “We have an obligation to make sure the information is reviewed for accuracy and that took some time,” Abrams said. “If there was imminent danger we would have done something much more timely.” The Army has been destroying tons of Cold War-era chemical weapons stored in igloos at the Anniston Army Depot since Aug. 9. To date, workers have destroyed 17,919 M-55 rockets filled with deadly GB nerve agent, or sarin, in its deactivation furnace. They have also destroyed 19,437 gallons of sarin in its liquid incinerator.

About Nathan Solheim

Assistant Metro Editor Nathan Solheim is Minnesota native and a University of Georgia graduate.