Defense Environment Alert
September 24, 2002

OREGON ISSUES NOTICE OF NON-COMPLIANCE AT ARMY INCINERATOR

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued a notice of non-compliance against the Army for an incident last month where a worker accidentally took a vial of dilute nerve agent home, and DEQ officials are recommending stronger action by the department's enforcement office that could lead to civil penalties.

The Sept. 13 notice says the Army's hazardous waste permit for the Umatilla chemical weapons disposal facility includes standard operating procedures (SOPs) that require laboratory workers to return dilute nerve agent samples to supervisors before each shift ends. And it says that this dilute agent, which is used to test monitoring equipment for possible leaks, is to be transported in secondary containers. But in the Aug. 23 incident, the worker got all the way home before he realized he had the vial of dilute sarin agent in his pants pocket and returned to the Umatilla facility. The vial was not in a secondary container. The Army notified DEQ of the violation the next morning (Defense Environment Alert, Sept. 10, p4). The notice is available on InsideEPA.com. Seepage 2 for details.

Within 15 days, the Army is to provide DEQ "with a detailed corrective action plan to assure all applicable SON are strictly adhered to in the future," and additionally provide DEQ "with a list of corrective actions to prevent the improper handling, management and off-site transport of chemical agents," the notice says.

The Aug. 23 incident "is a Class I violation and is considered to be a serious violation of Oregon environmental law," the notice says. "Therefore, we are referring this violation to the Department's Office of Compliance and Enforcement with a recommendation to initiate a formal enforcement action. A formal enforcement action may include a civil penalty assessment for each day of violation." A state source says it will probably be 30 to 45 days before the enforcement office decides how to handle the incident.