More safeguards at plant sought

Activists, Army are at odds over new technology

By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News

Activists are calling for the Army to install a new $25 million monitoring system at chemical weapons destruction plants around the country. But an Army spokesman in Utah says the technology cited is for battlefield levels of chemical agents.

Chemical Weapons Working Group and other anti-incinerator activists held a telephone press conference Tuesday to call for a new type of chemical weapon monitor to be installed at disposal plants around the country.

That variety is called FTIR, for Fourier-Transform Infrared. It should be capable of detecting "high agent release levels" in the range of one second after exposure, they asserted.

"Chemical agent monitors currently used in the areas surrounding chemical weapons storage and disposal facilities can take eight to 12 hours to confirm the presence of chemical agent," wrote activist Craig Williams in an e-mail. "And that, say local residents, is far too long."

But Chuck Sprague, spokesman for the Army's Deseret Chemical Depot in western Utah, said the present technology has been approved by numerous scientific agencies. Perimeter sampling tubes that are changed every 12 hours are a sort of backup to more sensitive devices at the plant.

Sprague said FTIR was "designed for battlefield conditions," monitoring higher levels of chemical vapors.

The federal government's Chemical Materials Agency "requires much higher standards for monitoring 

Jason Groenewold, director of the group Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL), said the organizations are not asking for a retrofit of the Utah incinerator. It might be "more of an upgrade," he said in a telephone interview.

"There have been tremendous advances in monitoring technology that would provide much greater safety for the surrounding communities," he said. "And there's just simply no reason why we shouldn't take advantage if it could mean quicker response times in case of accident."

Williams, with the Chemical Weapons Working Group, based in Berea, Ky., said FTIR spectrometers would add another level of protection.

Weapons destruction plants employ sensitive monitors inside the facilities and in their smokestacks, have sampling tubes at the base perimeters and use other monitoring devices called minicams.

Activists say the cost of adding FTIR at chemical weapons destruction facilities throughout the country would be less than $25 million.

Utah's incinerator has finished destroying GB (sarin) nerve agent, a volatile material. Remaining stockpiles contain VX and mustard agent. Mustard agent and the oily nerve agent VX are more persistent.

The sample tubes at the perimeter monitoring stations are a kind of backup, Sprague said.

"VX and mustard aren't going to travel off this depot," he said. Storage igloos with a history of agent leaking are checked either on a daily or weekly basis.

All current systems and procedures have been reviewed and verified by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Academies of Sciences National Research Council, he added.

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com