LOCAL
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Depot safety
issue kindles
By AMYJO BROWN of the East Oregonian
<mailto:ajbrown@eastoregonian.com>ajbrown@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON---If a technology exists that could make residents living near
the Umatilla Chemical Depot safer, should it be installed?
This week, local and national groups worried about the military's incineration
of chemical weapons stockpiled in Oregon and other states stated their case
for the installation of advanced air-monitoring systems at the depot.
The technology, Open Path Fourier-Transform Infrared (OP-FTIR) is a measuring
device that would work by shooting a beam of light around the Umatilla chemical
weapons storage area and the weapons disposal facility. It would monitor
for high levels of air pollutants.
"It's a backup system, perimeter air monitors that would add an extra layer
of protection at the demilitarization sites," said Craig Williams, director
of the national Chemical Weapons Working Group, based in Berea, Ky.
In a teleconference Tuesday, a number of residents, including local GASP
members, said the monitors are necessary to ensure public protection. They
also said they have strong support from political leaders and independent
agency reviews for installation of the monitors at the depot.
However, officials at the depot and the Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality responded to the statements by saying they are satisfied with the
monitoring systems in place, and they aren't convinced OP-FTIR would add
additional security for depot workers or residents.
"It (OP-FTIR) is an issue that has been surfaced for about a year now," said
Mary Binder, spokeswoman for the Army. "This technology has some good uses,
but it will not enhance or give us more protection than what we've got in
place right now."
The depot has two main detection and alarm systems: the Automatic Continuous
Air Monitoring System (ACAMS), near-real-time monitors that sample air for
four minutes, then analyze the sample and display the results; and the Depot
Area Air Monitoring System (DAAMS) for historical records only, sampled once
every eight to 12 hours.
Both types of monitoring systems are placed at interior and exterior locations
at the depot, Binder said. She also said monitoring significantly increases
when igloos storing chemical weapons are entered and when the weapons are
moved.
The monitoring systems are able to pick up very low levels of chemical vapor
close to the source of potential chemical leaks, unlike the OP-FTIR monitoring
systems, which would be miles away and can only measure vapor in high concentrations,
she said.
"How would a monitor at high levels add to what we're doing?" Binder said.
"If something happened at the depot where we would have levels OP-FTIR would
measure, we would know from inside the plant that there was some kind of
event (before it reached OP-FTIR monitors)."
And if there was an event--even a small one contained on the premises--officials
would immediately notify local emergency responders, Binder said.
Williams said he lacks confidence in the Army's response, largely because
of incidents at incineration facilities in Toole, Utah and Anniston, Ala.
In Utah, ACAMS and DAAMS were overwhelmed by unidentified compounds in March
1998. "The Army has insisted that the release was not chemical agent, however
they cannot say what it was, or what the environmental or health impacts
of the release may have been," he said.
In Alabama, about three months ago, a routine pull of DAAMs tubes revealed
a reading for VX nerve agent. The source and concentrations are still unknown.
"This program has a history," Williams said. "The question becomes one of,
'Are you talking the talk or walking the walk?' History reflects that they
talk a good game but when the situation comes down to reality, they don't
act."
Dennis Murphey, administrator of the chemical demilitarization program for
the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, said the monitoring systems
at the depot meet the permit requirements that the federal and state government
have set. He said the DEQ relies on the advice of independent agencies, such
as the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
"Does OP-FTIR have a role to play?" he said. "I don't see an immediate role."
Williams disagrees.
OP-FTIR would be a way to verify that incidents such as those in Utah and
Alabama were not a serious threat to the community, he said.
In addition to identifying pollutants, if there was a release of chemical
agent, or if high levels of PCBs, dioxins or heavy metals escaped during
burning, OP-FTIR would be able to provide the community with unprecedented
details as to the pollution, he said.
The technology can instantly detect more than 50 types of gaseous air pollutants,
including air-borne nerve and blister agents stockpiled at the depot, he
said. In addition, the instrument can immediately tell the community how
much of the pollutant is going where.
That capability to get real-time, detailed information on a chemical release
does not exist now, said Casey Beard, emergency preparedness manager for
Morrow County.
Instead, if chemical agent got off-post of the depot, "assumptions would
be made based on how much was released and how it was released," he said,
explaining that those details are provided by officials at the depot.
Community responders would enter the information into a computer in order
to simulate potential hazards and make a decision about what action they
should take, he said.
In that respect, Umatilla and Morrow Counties are unique as far as sites
located around chemical stockpiles and demilitarization facilities: They
are the only areas with a prepared, local and volunteer-coordinated response
to potential accidents, Beard said.
Because of the increased certainty FTIR could provide for local response,
it is an area that could benefit from additional exploration, Beard said.
He said it would be ideal to have finite data to work with rather than a
computer model, in order to know exactly when the tip and tail of a chemical
plume left depot bounds. Constant monitoring of the agent's status on the
depot would also be useful.
"We have a lot of monitors that can become saturated," he said. "Once they
are exposed to agent, they can't be reset quickly."
He also said he believes the technology would help verify "false positives,"
times when depot alarms ring for a reason other than an agent release.
But he said the communities can't install OP-FTIR monitors on their own.
They would have to be placed on Army property, so the decision to install
them rests with officials there.
Like Beard, Meg Capps, emergency manager for Umatilla County, said she feels
extremely confident with the Army's notification process of a chemical release.
But, she said, "if there is a magic wand out there that tells me what is
out there and how much and where, I'd want to learn more, absolutely."
There likely will be opportunities.
Binder said she expects the OP-FTIR issue to be raised often over the next
few months, as the depot nears its July start-up date for incineration of
the more than 3,700 tons of chemical agent it has on site.
It is also likely to be featured at the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission
meeting set to be held May 20 in Hermiston, she said.
OP-FTIR technology has long been a campaign of the CWWG, which the group
has resurrected at the construction and start-up of other demilitarization
projects across the country. Recently, however, support for the sophisticated
air-monitoring device has increased.
The CWWG has publicized findings compiled by members of the National Research
Council, a private, nonprofit institution that provides science, technology
and health policy advice as part of the National Academies of Science.
In its many reports, the last of which was published in 2002, the NRC concluded
that the installation of airborne-agent monitors with shorter response time
and lower false alarm rates would enhance safety. It urged the Army to install
technologies along the lines of OP-FTIR.
Williams said if funding was secured, the monitoring systems could be on
the chemical weapons sites within months. He estimated the total cost for
the system, at all chemical demilitarization sites, at about $25 million--"one
tenth of one percent of the current $25 billion price tag for the chemical
weapons disposal program."
Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning said this week that he has made funding the
installation of the advanced monitors a priority, at least for the Bluegrass
Army Depot in Lexington, Ky.
Last June, a dozen congressional members--including Oregon Rep. Greg Walden
and Sen. Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden--signed a letter to Congress urging the
Army to replace "inefficient and outdated" chemical agent monitoring and
alarm systems with "newer and advanced" technologies in order to better protect
citizens.
Oregon's leaders could not be reached for comment