By Tom Loftus
tloftus@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
RICHMOND, Ky. -- Army officials were taken to task yesterday by citizens' group leaders for not releasing more details about an August leak of deadly nerve agent from a canister stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot.
The leak was the largest ever detected there.
"I have concern about the press release" issued after the leak was discovered in late August, said Doug Hindman, chairman of a citizens' advisory commission on the Army's plans to destroy weapons at the depot by 2017. "There was nothing to indicate that this was anything other than the very miniscule leaks that we've had in the past."
Craig Williams, director of a citizens group based in Berea that has long monitored activities at the depot, said "the leak occurred in late August and here it is in December and this is the first time we're having this discussion."
Lt. Col. Tom Closs, commander of the Blue Grass Chemical Activity at the depot in Madison County, noted that the press release was sent to news media outlets the day the spill was detected, Aug. 27.
The release said that vaporized nerve agent GB, also called sarin, was detected in a storage building, known as an igloo, containing the canister. It also said that the igloo was "under strict engineering controls" and that the leak presented "no danger to the community."
Closs stressed that he immediately notified state and local emergency management and environmental officials about the fact that the vapor had been detected. It wasn't until two days later that workers were prepared to enter the igloo, and they discovered that about a gallon of liquid had leaked from its container into a pan.
"Our focus was dealing with the immediate challenge" of assuring that the vapors were contained and repairing the leak, he said.
Closs and other Army officials spoke yesterday to the Chemical Destruction Community Advisory Board at a hearing on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University.
The Courier-Journal reported Thursday that the August leak may have been the largest ever at the depot, and officials confirmed yesterday that it was.
The story also said that in a Sept. 19 letter, Col. Richard Mason Jr., commanding officer of the depot, told state environmental officials that an air reading taken in the igloo the day of the leak showed a reading of nearly 85 times the military's safe exposure limit.
But Closs said, as serious as the leak was, it never presented any health risk.
"Even as we incurred this leak, it didn't represent a risk to the public," he said. "I think that's important to know, and that we responded effectively to this leak and were able to put it under immediate engineering controls."
Closs also had a different perspective on the reading of sarin content in the igloo taken the day of the spill.
"Our highest reading was .008 milligrams per cubic meter," he said. "That's 800 times lower than what the CDC, the (federal) Centers for Disease Control, considers to be immediately dangerous to life and health."
Closs was asked later to reconcile his description of the risk with Mason's. He said his description pertained to the level that would present immediate danger to life and health through a brief exposure, while Mason was referring to a concentration that could pose a risk to the general population over a long period of time.
Closs said officials found no indication that any dangerous level of sarin escaped the igloo. However, vents on the igloo were open between Aug. 20, when it was monitored and no problems were found, and Aug. 27, when the vapor was first discovered, he said.
Closs said officials came to this conclusion because no one has reported any symptoms of exposure to sarin. He also said that atmospheric modeling showed no release that would have posed a public health risk.
"I have over 150 employees that are trained constantly to observe symptoms of nerve agent exposure at the lowest levels," he said at a press conference before the afternoon public meeting.
Closs said he was pleased by the process that led to the decision to destroy the leaking container of sarin, plus two similar containers that contain the agent.
"I don't want it to happen again. And that is why we're here today to talk about what we're going to do about it," he said. "I don't want to put my workers at risk."
Williams said he was not as confident as Closs that potentially dangerous levels of sarin vapor had not escaped, but he agreed that the leak posed no threat to the general public.
"A vapor leak in any concentration that could have harmed the general public is very unlikely," he said. "But I can't say that with as much confidence for some workers there who work in close proximity to that igloo."
At yesterday's meeting, officials also explained the plans to destroy the three sarin containers within the igloo. The $1.7 million plan, which they hoped to complete next May, was unveiled Thursday.
Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136.