Anniston Star
December 14, 2002

Activists fault Army over spilled nerve agent

From Staff, Wire Reports

PORTLAND, Ore.
A lab accident involving the deadly nerve agent GB sarin at the Umatilla Chemical Depot shows the U.S. Army has a "cavalier attitude" when dealing with the chemicals, activists said Friday.

The incident also illustrates that opponents of incineration are quick to point out any mishap, no matter how small, at incinerators. But those same opponents failed to mention a potentially more dangerous situation. It occurred Wednesday at an Army facility in Utah that experiments with neutralization, a form of weapons disposal the activists favor.

A lab technician at the incinerator in Oregon dropped 18 small vials of highly diluted sarin on the floor on Dec. 2 . Thirteen of them shattered, spilling their contents, said Jim Hackett, Army spokesman.

Lab workers quickly put on gas masks and then took showers after leaving the laboratory as a precaution, he said. No one was injured.

"It's diluted enough that you would not normally have an exposure from it," he said. "We would say that's a minor lab incident."

But a coalition of groups opposed to the Army's plans to incinerate nearly 4,000 tons of chemical weapons at the depot in northeastern Oregon said the accident was proof of deep-rooted problems at the depot.

"I think this is just another example of the cavalier attitude that the Army and its subcontractors share in dealing with deadly chemical weapons," said Dr. Bob Palzer, chairman of the national Chemical Weapons Task Force and a member of The Sierra Club.

"The whole system needs to be changed - the management structure, the permitting process."

No mention was made of an alarm that sounded Wednesday at the Oquirrh Mountain Facility Plant (formerly CAMDS) in Stockton, Utah, where the Army is testing neutralization technologies. Air monitors at that facility detected mustard vapor in the metal parts treatment room. That room's filtered ventilation system prevented any agent from exiting the building, an Army press release said.

Work at the neutralization facility was being conducted in support of the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program. The program will oversee chemical weapons destruction using neutralization in Colorado and will likely oversee destruction of a stockpile in Kentucky.

According to the press release, the alarm signaling the presence of mustard occurred after workers had exited the room, and the incident presented no danger to employees or the surrounding community.

An ongoing internal safety investigation conducted by depot safety managers has determined that the presence of low levels of mustard vapor in an adjoining room at the facility cannot be ruled out, the press release said of the incident at the neutralization facility. Four workers in the room masked and evacuated the area after the alarm sounded. Army officials say the workers were checked by medical personnel and then released to return to work.

Hackett said the incident at the Oregon incineration facility had been exaggerated and posed no threat to depot workers, nearby communities or the environment.

"Whatever happens here has a tendency to be blown out of proportion," he said. "If water runs downhill at the depot, it becomes a major event. We pride ourselves on our safety and security."

The Army followed proper procedures during the Dec. 2 accident at the incinerator and regulators will not be issuing a notice of noncompliance, said Sue Oliver, interim project director for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

The sarin was diluted about 500 to one in rubbing alcohol, and remained in a liquid form after the spill.

Three employees in the lab put on gas masks and began dousing the floor with water and bleach to further dilute the nerve agent, which was being used in a laboratory sample, Hackett said.

Medics took blood samples from the three laboratory workers, Hackett said, and no agent was detected in their blood, he said. Chemical weapons sensors in the one-story, prefabricated metal lab building detected no agent, Hackett said.

The U.S. Army stores Cold War-era chemical weapons at Umatilla Depot in earth-covered bunkers. Under an international treaty, the U.S. must destroy all its chemical stockpile by 2012. The Army is testing incinerators now and hopes to begin burning the chemical agents next year.

The Sierra Club, the Oregon Wildlife Federation and a Hermiston-based grassroots group called GASP have sued the state Department of Environmental Quality, saying it was wrong to issue a chemical weapons incineration permit to the Army.

It is the third legal action filed by the coalition over the incineration permit. The Army also faces a lawsuit filed by 36 construction workers who claim they were sickened in 1999 by sarin gas leaking from nearby depot bunkers.

A Multnomah County judge has heard six weeks of testimony in the permitting case; the trial is scheduled to resume March 10.