Daily Herald (Provo, UT)
May 7, 2003

Chemical depot closures part of the 'ramping-up' process

The Associated Press on Wednesday, May 07

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Deseret Chemical Depot shut down its operations Saturday for the third time since it resumed destroying chemical weapons on March 28.

Depot officials say such closures are expected while the incinerator is adjusted to burn weapons containing the nerve agent VX.

However, regulators and watchdogs say even the smallest release of chemical agents -- the main reason the operations are stopped -- should not be considered routine.

On Saturday, alarms sounded at the depot inside an observation corridor, officials said. There were no workers in the corridor at the time of the alarms, appropriate safety measures were taken and destruction of the chemicals was suspended, a news release said.

It was the third time alarms have been activated since the depot resumed operations after a maintenance worker was exposed last July to residual amounts of sarin nerve agent.

Two of those three recent shutdowns involved what is called a "chemical event," or a detectable release of chemical agent, said depot spokesman Chuck Sprague.

"There was no threat to anyone's health or to the environment in these instances. (But) any time any agent gets out of where it's supposed to be is a concern to us," said Dennis Downs, spokesman for the Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste.

Downs said the leak was so minor that if someone had been in the corridor it would be unlikely they would have any reaction to the chemicals.

Any kind of leak is unacceptable, Downs said. However, to have these kinds of shutdowns during the "ramping-up" process "is not totally unexpected," he said.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A3.