Chemical depot probing error      

A monitoring mistake by an employee at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele has spurred an investigation into the error that could have released deadly VX nerve agent into the environment, officials at the depot announced Thursday.
     
The employee had adjusted monitoring levels so they would not set off an alarm if the nerve agent was released, said Ted Ryba, project site manager. The investigation, now in its third week, is looking into why the employee changed monitoring levels at his post at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, which oversees the destruction of the chemicals.
     
An investigation confirmed the mistake did not release the nerve agent from the plant, Ryba said. Ryba added that he was concerned about the incident, even though he said a backup alarm system would have prevented any serious chemical leaks.
     
"It concerns me whenever I hear that there's irregularities with one of my critical systems," Ryba said.
     
In the investigation thus far, Ryba said officials have found three similar monitoring errors they did not know about previously. The incidents have not been traced to a specific employee.
     
The monitoring error was detected July 16 following a personnel review. Alaine Southworth, spokeswoman for the Deseret Chemical Depot, said the plant did not release news of the investigation earlier because officials had to comb through 30 million lines of monitoring data before pinpointing the error.
     
The employee in question has been suspended until the investigation is over. Since the incident, Southworth said the depot has beefed up training efforts for monitoring personnel, as well as implemented more stringent monitor inspection policies.