Sarin contained, Army officials say
By
Elisabeth J. Beardsley
ebeardsley@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
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Military officials said the deadly nerve agent did not escape a sealed storage container called an "igloo" where chemical weapons are kept. Officials were working yesterday to filter the air inside the igloo before attempting to enter the structure to secure the leaky rocket.
The last sarin leak at the depot in Richmond was in 2000, officials said. The last chemical weapon leak there was in 2003.
The depot also stores weapons containing the nerve agent VX, which officials said is more stable and has never leaked.
The Pentagon agreed last month to release funding to build a special facility to destroy the 523 tons of chemical agents stored in 45 igloos at the depot, and to build a similar facility at a depot in Pueblo, Colo.
Military, state and local officials called yesterday's leak at the Kentucky depot "routine," but activists and neighbors said it was one more reason to quickly destroy the stockpile.
"The unanswered question is, when will an event of some description occur that is not routine?" asked Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, which tracks chemical weapons destruction.
"I just think it's ludicrous to call that routine," said Sara Thilman, who lives within sight of the depot.
Workers discovered the leak when they tested the air inside the igloo, said Richard Sloan, public affairs officer for Blue Grass Chemical Activity, the Army unit charged with monitoring and securing chemical weapons.
The igloo, which contains about 2,500 rockets, is monitored daily because rockets there have leaked in the past, Sloan said. A routine daily test on Monday showed no evidence of a sarin leak, he said.
But the test yesterday detected a "small" amount of sarin, so a filtering machine was connected to the igloo to remove the contaminated air, Sloan said. The Army is developing a plan to clean up the leak, he said.
Workers wearing gas masks and full-body protective suits will then enter the igloo and make a visual inspection, Sloan said. That will probably happen today, he said.
If no obvious reason for the leak is found, workers will try to find it by covering the stacked pallets of rockets with plastic sheeting, letting them sit overnight and then testing under the piles the next day, Sloan said.
Army officials also have a type of paper that can be rubbed on the weapons and that changes colors in the presence of chemical agents, Sloan said.
Once the source of the leak is identified, it will be placed in a leak-proof steel container and sealed before being moved to a special igloo with other leaking weapons, Sloan said.
Thilman's husband, Tom, said he was home all day yesterday and never heard sirens or any other public alert, including over the radio.
Williams said sirens are triggered only if there is danger of a chemical escaping the depot.
Sloan said that did not happen yesterday.
Local emergency officials got a "heads-up" alert from the military shortly after the leak was detected, said Carl Richards, director of the Madison County Emergency Management Agency.
In Washington yesterday, the Senate passed a spending package that includes provisions blocking the Pentagon from redirecting money earmarked for chemical weapons disposal at the depot.
The provision would ensure that $813.4 million appropriated to the Kentucky and Colorado depots in previous budgets will not be transferred elsewhere.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.