Defense Environment Alert
an exclusive biweekly report on defense
policies for cleanup, compliance and pollution prevention
Vol. 12, No. 5--March 9, 2004
CITIZENS RENEWING CALL FOR ARMY TO UPDATE AGENT MONITORING SYSTEM
A coalition of citizen groups that support non-incineration destruction methods
for the Army's chemical weapons stockpile is citing last week's mysterious
detection of VX nerve agent at an Alabama facility as proof the military
needs to upgrade its air monitoring system.
"The call for upgraded monitoring becomes more poignant" in light of the
detection of low levels of VX at a monitoring station on the perimeter of
the Anniston Army Depot where the military is destroying chemical weapons,
says a source with the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) coalition.
CWWG is calling on legislators to force the Army to immediately deploy new
monitoring systems at its chemical
weapons disposal sites, noting that federal lawmakers last fall in a "sense
of the Congress statement" called for improving the airborne chemical agent
monitoring systems in order to improve protection of the public, personnel
and the environment. The congressional statement was included in the Fiscal
Year 2004 Defense Authorization Act
"The current technology is outdated and the Army should undertake a study
as quickly as possible to implement
new technology," Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) said last year (Defense Environment
Alert, Nov. 18, 2003, p 11). The National Research Council has also repeatedly
urged the Army to upgrade its monitoring systems.
"The military wants to show its stuff when it comes to finding chemical agents
overseas, but it refuses to deploy advanced monitoring systems to provide
reliable information to U.S. citizens. It's shameful," Craig Williams, CWWG
director, said in a March 4 statement.
Last week, the Army announced that it had confirmed a reading from a perimeter
monitor at the Anniston Army Depot that showed a low level of VX nerve agent.
The agent was recorded some time between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. March 1 in a monitor
that serves as a historical data recorder and not an early warning system.
But the Army says it remains a mystery as to the origin of the VX. The Anniston
facility has not yet begun destroying its stockpile of VX-containing munitions,
and no VX agent has been detected outside the depot's munition storage igloos,
which are located about four m
"Because VX is the consistency of motor oil and does not rapidly evaporate,
[the Army's] hazard analysts have calculated that a major release of VX would
have to escape from the storage area to reach the monitoring station, and
no such release has occurred," a March 3 Army press release says. At the
time of the agent readings, the wind was not moving from the storage area
toward the monitoring station, and adjacent stations did not record any VX
readings, the Army says.
"At no time has there been any danger to members of the public, to people
working on Anniston Army Depot or to Alabama National Guard soldiers training
on Pelham Range," the Army says.
But citizens question that assertion, noting that the Army did not reserve
any of the three samples from the perimeter monitor for detailed analytical
testing. Instead, the Army used up all the samples during basic confirmation
tests, according to Anniston-area residents following the situation.
"They've gone and used up all the evidence from the monitors that detected
the VX agent, and now there is no way to know for sure what happened," Rev.
N.Q. Reynolds, president of the Calhoun County chapter of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, said in a March 4 statement. "This raises very serious
questions about whether the
Army really wanted to get to the bottom of this."
The Army cannot say no one was in harm's way, the CWWG source says, because
the Army does not know the source of the agent.
Adding to Anniston-area residents' concern is the Army's announcement last
week that it had failed a trial bum aimed at demonstrating that the Anniston
incinerator is completely destroying polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contained
in M55 rocket shipping and firing tubes.
According to the Army, test data collected at the deactivation furnace system
(DFS) exhaust duct met the demonstration standard of 99.9999 percent destruction
in all four of the tests run. But when samples were collected from the facility's
common stack, which included the DFS emissions as well as emissions from
the liquid incinerator burning natural gas, the test results did not meet
the standard by a very small margin for three of the four test runs, the
Army said March 4. "The test results, however, were lower than those used
to predict health impacts in the most recent health risk assessment, which
indicated that facility operations are protective of human health and the
environment," the Army said.
EPA has requested that the Anniston facility perform six additional tests
to ensure the facility is destroying PCBs as outlined under its Toxic Substances
Control Act (TSCA) permit. Additionally, the agency has requested that the
Army initiate a study to determine the source of the low level of PCBs detected
in the common stack during the November 2003 DFS trial burns, the Army says.
"The trial bum results from the DFS duct demonstrated compliance with the
TSCA requirements," Anniston Project Manager Timothy K. Garrett said in a
March 4 statement. "However, at EPA!s request, we will perform these additional
tests. Protecting human health and the environment is our top priority."
Garrett said the additional tests and investigation should clear up any questions
related to the Anniston facility's ability to safely and effectively destroy
PCBs. "The Army welcomes the EPA oversight in confirming the safety of its
activities and operations," he said.
The Army encountered similar problems during the PCB trial burns for sarin
and VX rockets at its Tooele, UT, incinerator. In those cases, the Army said
laboratory errors were the cause of PCB emissions that appeared to be above
the permit limits (Defense Environment Alert, Sept. 23, 2003, p 13).