Wednesday, October 13, 2004

By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News

      A mobile disposal system has blown up the last of 22 old chemical warfare items that had been stored at Dugway Proving Ground in the western Utah desert.
     
    The Explosive Destruction System, based at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., arrived at the Utah base in June and finished the project Sept. 23. The EDS employs a cylindrical "fragment suppression system" that contains detonations when dangerous material is blown up.
     
    The 22 shells, containers and other items showed up in the 1980s. According to a press release by the Army's Chemical Materials Agency, Dugway had stored them safely ever since then. They had been fired at Dugway ranges during chemical warfare testing in World Wars I and II.
     
    The mobile EDS is used to destroy old chemical munitions as well as more benign items like chemical testing kits.
     
    In this case, the EDS treated 13 mortar shells filled with GB nerve agent, also known as sarin; two sarin bomblets; and seven containers of a distilled sulfur mustard chemical.
     
    The items it tackles are termed non-stockpile chemical agents, as they are not part of the formal stockpile of material. By comparison, the Army's chemical weapons incinerator is busy destroying a huge stockpile of chemical arms at the nearby Deseret Chemical Depot. Both Dugway and the depot are located in Tooele County.
     
    Workers dedicated the last bomblet to Monte Caldwell, a safety engineer who worked at the incinerator, technically called the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. He had been the plant's deputy manager, said spokesman Chuck Sprague. Caldwell, 44, died of cancer on Sept. 11.
     
    "I am sure Monte would celebrate this accomplishment," said Dave Hoffman, leader of the Non-Stockpile Chemical Material Program's Operations Group. "This is a classic example of how the Army and the state of Utah have worked together to treat and destroy these recovered chemical items," he added, according to the release.
     
    State officials complimented the EDS teams, who came from Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Md. The press statement said they worked "in late-night summer heat."
     
    This was the first time the EDS system has been used to destroy both 105-mm artillery nerve gas projectiles and M-125 bomblets. In addition, according to the release, a number of the munitions were leaking.
     
    A 4.2-inch mortar was so dangerous that crews could not remove it from its protective overpack. Sandia National Laboratories and a special review by the Chemical Materials Agency determined that both the mortar and the overpack should be placed in the EDS.
     
    The mortar and the overpack were destroyed at the same time, according to the release.