Anniston Star
August 12, 2003

Army, EPA reach settlement over Johnston: Fines will be paid for incident at incinerator in Pacific

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
08-12-2003

The Army and the Environmental Protection Agency have reached a settlement over violations that took place at the Army’s chemical weapons incinerator in the Pacific nearly three years ago.

The Army will pay a fine of $91,125, and spend $182,500 on the restoration of native plants on the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to compensate for the incident, an EPA official said last week.

In December 2000, a bin of ash unexpectedly tested positive for VX nerve agent at the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, said Dean Higuchi, press officer for the EPA in Hawaii.

An Army spokesman said the nerve agent was on a "spill pillow" that had been used to catch drips of agent from a pipe. The pillow was a new type that did not burn when it was put through a furnace, said Barry Napp, spokesman for the Chemical Materials Agency.

When the bin of waste was tested as required, it showed levels of nerve agent, he said.

There was no known release to the environment, no workers had agent exposure symptoms, and air sampling around the perimeter turned up negative for nerve agent, Napp said.

"As a precaution, nine personnel were sent to the medical clinic for screening and the medical evaluation…indicated that there were no exposures," Napp said via email.

Higuchi said the Army had corrected the problem.

"They sent the ash back through the incinerator system to make sure there were no traces of the agent," Higuchi said. "That was that."

Higuchi said that once the nerve agent was discovered, the Army was automatically in violation of several different aspects of its environmental permit. Workers didn’t have the right protective wear, the stuff was stored improperly and the EPA had not been notified that nerve agent was outside the facility’s containment system, he said.

It took more than two years to resolve the issue, Higuchi said, because it involved negotiations between EPA and Army attorneys.

"That can drag on and on and on," he said.

Napp said, "We’re certainly glad it’s settled. We’d like to put that behind us."

The plant-life restoration project will mostly take place outside the chemical destruction area. It will be done through an Air Force contract and overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Napp said.

Johnston Atoll is about 800 miles southwest of Hawaii. The incident took place a month after the incinerator there finished destroying four million pounds of chemical weapons. The military is in the process of dismantling the facility and leaving the atoll.