Defense Environment Alert
an exclusive biweekly report on defense
policies for cleanup, compliance and pollution prevention
Vol. 12, No. 6--March 23, 2004
KENTUCKY SENATOR SEEKING ARMY UPDATE ON AIR MONITORING PROGRESS
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) has asked the Army to explain the steps it
has taken to update its air monitoring systems at chemical weapons stockpile
facilities, noting that Congress last year pressed for such updates.
Bunning's March 4 letter to Les Brownlee, acting Army secretary, follows
the unexplained detection of VX nerve agent last month in a perimeter monitor
at the Anniston Army Depot, where the military is incinerating chemical weapons.
The VX detection is baffling because 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 miles from the monitor that recorded the VX, the Army says (Defense
Environment Alert, March 9, p7).
The Fiscal Year 2004 Defense Authorization Act included a "sense of Congress"
provision saying the Army should work with DOD research and development agencies
to invigorate and coordinate efforts to develop chemical agent monitors with
improved sensitivity, specificity and response time. The provision also says
the Army "should deploy improved chemical agent monitors in order to ensure
the maximum protection of the general public, personnel involved in the chemical
demilitarization program, and the environment."
In "respectfully request[ing] an update from the Army on the steps" it has
taken to meet Congress' desire, Bunning says "[t]here are thousands of Americans
that live near these storage sites across the country that deserve the best
monitoring technology available."
Army spokeswomen say the military is preparing a response to Bunning.