LOCAL NEWS
Friday, August 19, 2005
Chemical agent
vapor detected
By the East Oregonian
eonews@eastoregonian.com
HERMISTON -- Monitoring
crews detected trace amounts of chemical agent vapors in two storage igloos
at the Umatilla Chemical Depot on Thursday morning.
The readings were so low the vapors represented no danger to the
public or environment even if they were not trapped in the igloos, depot
officials said.
The crews were conducting routine "headwall monitoring" operations
with standard mobile air-monitoring equipment when they discovered the vapors
in an igloo storing rockets with sarin nerve agent and an igloo storing
ton containers with mustard blistering agent.
Headwall monitoring allows crews to connect external monitoring
lines to pre-positioned lines inside an igloo through a port connection without
having to open the structure's door.
The igloos have a passive filter system that prevents chemical
agent vapor from escaping to the outside atmosphere. However, as a further
protective measure, powered filter systems were installed at the two igloos.
Depot crews will continue to monitor the structures.
Depot officials notify the public anytime leaks occur, as well
as off-post emergency operations centers Oregon and Washington, Umatilla
and Morrow counties, Benton County, Wash., the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.