Deliveries halted to chemical depot      

TOOELE — EG&E Defense Materials Inc., which operates the chemical arms incinerator at the Army's Deseret Chemical Depot, halted deliveries Monday morning of munitions to the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility pending an environmental review of safety and compliance programs within the plant.
     
Such "stand downs" are routine, said Ted Ryba, the Army's site project manager for the facility. Monday's stand down was prompted by concerns about how the aging and deadly chemical arms were transported to the furnaces.
     
"The question arose about some pressure test requirements for the overpack containers during transport from the storage yard to the destruction facility," Ryba said.
     
As the compliance standards are reviewed, VX spray tanks currently inside the destruction facility will be incinerated. Other chemical operations also will continue, an Army news release stated.
     
The target date for taking new deliveries of chemicals is by the end of this week, Ryba said.