Birmingham News
September 4, 2003

Army: 10 sarin leaks within incinerator

KATHERINE BOUMA
News staff writer

ANNISTON--The Army on Wednesday demonstrated nerve gas monitoring technology from its chemical weapons incinerator and for the first time estimated that 10 sarin leaks  have been found within the incinerator complex.
 
Thousands of false alarms have sounded within the incinerator since it began operating Aug. 9, and some even before, Army chemists and technicians said. Because the equipment is so sensitive, even diesel trucks in the parking lot or roofing materials can set the monitors
off.
 
About 10 of the alarms, including at least one since weapons processing began again Tuesday, have been positive, said Robert Kelly, the chemist who heads the incinerator laboratory.
 
All the leaks were within pressurized areas where air should not be able to escape to harm
the employees or the public, officials said. The Army is in the first phase of its $2.3 billion project to destroy more than 661,000 Cold War-era chemical weapons that have been stockpiled at the Anniston Army Depot for 40 years or more.
 
So far, they have destroyed 1,164 M55 rockets after draining them of the lethal nerve gas sarin.
 
On Sunday, workers began burning the sarin. At that time, two leaks occurred within a
pressurized room that contains the furnace for liquids. Workers were not present, and a leak is not unexpected in a room such as the one containing the sarin furnace, said Tim Garrett, project manager for the Army at the incinerator.
 
“It is the truth that we will have open containers of agent, and we will have agent readings
in the facility,” Garrett said.
 
He said he plans to begin burning sarin again today at 7 p.m. The Army had intended to
burn all the 800 gallons of sarin on hand this weekend, but work progressed more slowly than expected.
 
Before this weekend, the Army spent nearly two weeks denying that it had any positive
readings for sarin within the incinerator. After conceding that it had at least three positive
alarms, officials called Wednesday’s demonstration for journalists to show how sensitive its
monitors are.
 
They showed the monitor could be triggered not only by a small amount of sarin but by
horseradish and the solvent toluene.
 
An Army chemist showed records of Sunday’s two leaks, indicating agent was present at
about 30 times the level federal standards say is safe for workers. The report also showed that the leaks occurred in the liquid incinerator room.
 
That is not one of the facility’s most highly pressurized rooms, but it also isn’t one where workers would be expected to be present.
 
However, Garrett said, it would be difficult to weed through the many false alarms to produce records of all the positive tests.
 
The most recent alarm, after burning began Tuesday, occurred in the room for the deactivation furnace, which burns rocket bodies, said Army chemist Bobby Phillips. He said workers fixed the leak by tightening a bolt.
 
He said the Army’s agreement with the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency does not require notifying local officials about leaks that are contained within the incinerator.
 
However, Garrett promised that the community does not have to fear an incident as oc–
curred at the Army’s incinerator in the desert of Utah, where the community was not warned for hours after sarin leaked out of the stack.

“That will not happen here,” he said. “That will not happen here.”
 
Anniston is the third of the Army’s chemical weapons incinerators, including a test project
on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. However, it is the first facility to operate in a residential area under the glare of daily public scrutiny.
 
Craig Williams, executive director of the anti-burn group Chemical Weapons Working
Group, said the leaks so far did not appear to have threatened anyone, although they may indicate some problems. But he said he is most concerned about the lapse in time before Army officials conceded they had leaks.
 
“It’s not as serious when it’s under engineering controls (in a pressurized room),” he said. “As long as they’re telling the truth, that’s a legitimate line of demarcation. The problem I have is when they start jerking people like you and me around.”