DEPOT CITATIONS   OSHA issued seven safety violations against the Blue Grass Army Depot: Making "no appreciable effort" to conduct required emergency training or practice drills. Failing to make the depot's emergency plan available to employees. Failing to develop or implement parts of the plan designating evacuation routes. Having no procedure to account for employees after a drill or evacuation. Failing to review the emergency plan with employees as it was developed and not reviewing it with new employees. Failing to review the emergency plan with employees whose responsibilities under the plan changed. Failing to review the plan with employees after changing it. WHAT'S NEXT The Army has until April 11 to correct the violations.

By James R. Carroll
jcarroll@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

WASHINGTON -- Federal inspectors have cited the Blue Grass Army Depot for seven safety violations, charging that failures in emergency planning "exposed employees to possible injury, illness and death."

The depot failed to conduct emergency drills, share emergency plans with employees and create a plan to keep track of them in an evacuation, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which issued the citations Wednesday.

Workers and supervisors also didn't know an emergency plan existed, OSHA said in documents obtained yesterday by The Courier-Journal.

The OSHA citations do not involve the depot's storage operations for 523 tons of aging chemical weapons, but rather the functions on the rest of the site, OSHA area director Ron McGill said.

Still, "the workers feel that it's scary to be here without an appropriate emergency action plan," said William Scrivner, a depot safety specialist who is among those who raised concerns about emergency procedures.

Mayor Connie Lawson of Richmond, where the depot is located, said the citations were shocking.

"Somebody really is not paying attention," she said.

The Army has until April 11 to fix the violations, which OSHA cited in inspections conducted Dec. 1-2. There was no fine because OSHA has no authority to fine another federal agency.

Depot spokesman Dave Easter said the Army does not dispute OSHA's findings. The depot has conducted quarterly emergency drills but not for all workers, he said.

"Our planning has been for those who are most likely to be impacted by an event based on (wind) conditions on a day-to-day basis," Easter said. "Being able to move all of those people out of 15,000 acres and doing a head count was not exactly a priority. We'll fix that."

The depot, with as many as 1,200 employees, is a major supplier of ammunition to the Army and Air Force for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is the prime supplier of chemical and biological defensive gear for the troops.

It also stores and modifies various types of ammunition, and military helicopter modifications are carried out there by a private company.

McGill said OSHA's concern was that employees weren't being trained or given adequate information about emergency procedures. He declined to discuss specific violations because the case still is open.

Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a citizens' watchdog organization based in Berea, Ky., said OSHA's findings were ironic considering that tens of millions of dollars have been spent outside the depot on training and public education about how to handle an emergency.

"And here you've got people in the closest proximity (to the chemical weapons) not even being told the basics of what to do in an emergency situation," he said. "That's irrational, and it's quite astonishing."

Williams said that if, in an emergency, 1,200 people came out of the depot not knowing what to do, it would add to the chaos already outside the depot.

Craig Pyles of Berea, formerly a sergeant in security and a training technician at the depot who retired in September, said few employees know what to do in an accident, and many are temporary workers.

"The only thing they knew was, if the sirens went off, get out," he said.

Years ago, Pyles said, whenever there was a drill "they used to close down entire depot. That is no longer done." He said that when the chemical weapons side of the depot conducts an emergency exercise, the rest of the facility continues with its usual business.

Easter said most of the depot's employees "are not anywhere close to the chemical weapons," adding that prevailing winds would push a possible chemical leak away from where most people work.

BLUE GRASS ARMY DEPOT

Location: Richmond, Ky.


Size: 14,600 acres


Employees: about 1,200


Missions: supplies conventional ammo to the Army and Air Force; supplies chemical and biological defensive gear for soldiers; upgrades older ammunition with new technology; stores 523 tons of aging chemical weapons, including nerve agents sarin and VX; a private contractor on the depot makes military helicopter modifications.