STOCKTON, Tooele County — Back in service after an environmental compliance review, the Army's chemical weapons incinerator has passed the halfway point in its work.

The incinerator began destroying the Tooele stockpile of aging nerve and blister agent weapons in August 1996. Recently, operations at the incinerator, the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, were halted for an environmental compliance review.

"An exhaustive review of TOCDF's hazardous waste management, clean air, and facility safety requirements was conducted," says a release by Deseret Chemical Depot, where the plant is located.

It quoted Gary McCloskey, general manager for contractor EG&G Defense Materials Inc., as saying administrators took "a good, hard look at how we were doing things and made significant improvements."

The plant went back into operation on Friday.

On Sunday, incinerator officials reported it had passed the halfway mark in getting rid of the toxic stockpile. Before the plant began operating, 13,616 tons of chemical agents were stored at the depot, contained within more than 1 million munitions. It was the country's largest stockpile of chemical arms.

With the processing of a spray tank filled with VX nerve agent on Sunday, adds the press release, the plant had destroyed 6,817 tons of agent, "marking the elimination of more than half of the depot's chemical agent stockpile."

The release quotes depot commander Col. Raymond T. Van Pelt as saying he was proud of all workers at the depot, "the government civilians who have transported more than 20,000 separate shipments of munitions to the plant and those working for the TOCDF systems contractor, EG&G."