Casper Star-Tribune
August 9, 2003

Tooele facility reviewing test results that show levels of potentially dangerous chemical
    
By ROBERT GEHRKE
Associated Press Writer
    
Officials at the Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Tooele were reassessing data from test nerve agent bums Friday after preliminary tests showed levels of a potentially dangerous chemical that were higher than allowed.

"In talking with the folks out there we    just learned today the PCB portion of the tests appeared to not meet" the standards, said Dennis Downs', director of the Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste.

Downs said that the incinerator is required to destroy 99.9999 percent of the chemical PCB - Polychlorinated Biphenyls - but came up just short of that, based on preliminary data.

Ted Ryba, deputy project manager for the Army, would not discuss test results.

"Right now all that we have is preliminary reviews, preliminary results and the reviews of the analytical data from the trial bums," Ryba said. "I have nothing final, nothing that's gone through the final quality control process ... I don't want to discuss preliminary information."

Ryba said they are continuing to check the data and ensuring no other factors are affecting the results. The final results should be available next week.

In the meantime, the plant is continuing to process warheads containing the nerve agent VX at half the level it demonstrated it could do safely in earlier trial bums. 'Me firing tubes from the M-55 rockets, which contain the PCBs, are not being burned.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency regulates PCBs, but the state does not, Downs said.

According to information on the EPA Web site, "the data strongly suggest that PCBs are probable human carrinogens." They also have been associated with effects on the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system, endocrine system and other health effects.

But Downs said the test results are "not a big deal."

'There are several alternatives they could do if they didn't pass," he said. "They could go back and do new trial bums and make adjustments until they met the criteria or they could work out a scenario with EPA that would allow them to operate at a reduced throughput."

Craig Williams of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Berea, Ky., said the weapons can be destroyed using chemical neutralization methods that don't emit any PCBs, but the Army remains devoted to incineration.

"What the Army and these regulators keep focusing on is what amount is allowable. If there's a way to do this where no amount comes out, then that's what you should be doing. That's what protects the public," Williams said.

The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility is located roughly 40 miles west of Salt Lake City. It was created to destroy 13,616 tons of the chemical weapons stockpile. As of July 20, the facility had destroyed 44 percent of the chemical agents and 82 percent of the munitions stored there.