Star Staff Writer
The Army is investigating why nerve agent has been detected several times in the past few weeks outside chemical weapons storage buildings at Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon.
Low levels of deadly GB nerve agent, also known as sarin, were picked up on Dec. 8, 17 and 20, outside the concrete bunkers at Umatilla, said Jim Hackett, a spokesman for the Umatilla Chemical Depot.
Two 750-pound bombs were found to be leaking agent. One bomb left a puddle of sarin on the igloo floor, Hackett said.
No workers were exposed, he said. Surrounding communities were altered, but no agent drifted outside the depot, he said.
The puddle was discovered Saturday, a day after workers testing the air inside an igloo detected sarin, he said.
“That’s our problem igloo,” Hackett said.
The workers went into the bunker in protective suits, and found a “coffee can-size” pool of liquid, Hackett said.
The situation was “very unusual,” he said. “Normally we detect the vapor before that stage.”
The first leaking bomb already had been placed in a container and moved to another bunker, which is monitored daily.
“But when we moved it over we had outside detection of chemical agent,” he said.
The second bomb was overpacked Saturday. Meanwhile, air monitors detected sarin nearby, in the decontamination area, and also about a hundred feet away from the igloo.
The bomb will be moved sometime after the New Year, Hackett said.
“We’ll take a hard look at everything that transpired,” he said. “It’s a concern to us when we have outside detection.”
The earth-covered concrete bunkers at Umatilla store a range of obsolete chemical weapons, including nerve and blister agent in land mines, projectiles, spray tanks and rockets. They are similar to the igloos at the Anniston Army Depot.
Like Anniston, Umatilla plans to incinerate its Cold War-era weapons. Operations may start by the middle of 2004, Hackett said.