Defense Environment Alert
an exclusive biweekly report on defense policies
for cleanup, compliance and pollution prevention
Vol. 12, No. 9--May 4, 2004
CITIZENS PUSHING FOR NEW AIR MONITORING AT CHEMICAL WEAPONS SITES
Citizens living near eight chemical weapons storage and disposal
sites are urging lawmakers to support funding for new air monitoring technology
that could provide "real-time" analysis of airborne chemical agents.
The push comes as Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) has asked the Senate Appropriations
Committee to include $2 million in the fiscal year 2005 defense spending
bill for updated air monitors at the Blue Grass chemical weapons stockpile
site in his state. To date, no other lawmakers have called for money to be
earmarked for air monitors, although several senators last year called on
the Army to investigate updated systems.
The citizens say they are not asking the Army to eliminate the current monitoring
system, but instead want the service to add additional monitors.
Currently, the Army relies on two systems at its stockpile sites: agent continuous
air monitoring systems (ACAMS) and depot area air monitoring systems (DAAMS).
ACAMS, which are connected to an alarm system, are very sensitive and can
detect trace levels of agent. DAAMS are not connected to alarm systems and
are present both inside chemical weapons disposal facilities and around the
perimeter of depot property. DAAMS are used to confirm readings from the
ACAMS.
The Army's air monitoring process has long been overshadowed by other aspects
of chemical demilitarization, such as what disposal technology to use, treaty
schedules and cost, Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working
Group (CWWG), said at an April 20 press conference. Although CWWG believes
the need for additional monitoring is greatest at the sites where incineration
will destroy the weapons, it is also calling for better monitoring during
storage and transportation of the weapons to the treatment facility.
Specifically, CWWG is calling on the Army to use the Open-path Fourier Transform
Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer, which has been used by the United Nations in
Iraq and by the U.S. military during the cleanup of non-stockpile weapons.
FRIR could provide accurate analysis of airborne chemicals in as little as
20 seconds, CWWG says.
Williams said the National Research Council (NRC) has urged the Army for
more than a decade to upgrade its monitors, and the NRC in 1996 said FTIR
should be capable of real-time detection of high agent release levels.
"These monitors can help save our community in an emergency. And we are not
asking that chemical weapons disposal be halted or that any existing monitors
be removed, in order to make this happen," Rufus Kinney, of the Anniston,
AL, group Families Concerned About Nerve Gas Incineration, said during the
press conference.
Williams acknowledged that FTIR is not as sensitive as ACAMS, but explained
the systems would be applied differently. FTIR should be used at the perimeter
of storage and demilitarization facilities, he said
CWWG estimates deploying FTIR at all eight stockpile sites would cost $25
million, or less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the current $25 billion cost
of the chemical demilitarization program.
A spokeswoman for the Army's Chemical Materials Agency says, however, that
the Army has long searched for better detection technologies, but none has
surfaced. Other technologies, including FTIR, do not detect at a greater
sensitivity level than the chemical demilitarization program's current technologies,
she says, adding they are not as good as what the program already has. The
current monitoring systems, which can detect at parts per billion and trillion,
exceed the standards for monitoring, she notes.