Deseret Begins New Mustard Agent Disposal Campaign
Thursday, April 2, 2009

Destruction of mortars filled with HT mustard agent began yesterday at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah, the U.S. Army announced (see GSN, March 19).

The depot stores two types of the blister agent -- distilled mustard, also known as HD, and HT mustard, which freezes at lower temperatures and is found in the majority of the 4.2-inch mortars at Deseret.

Workers at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility are scheduled to complete the HT campaign near the end of 2009. Disposal of the HD mortars, which contain significant levels of mercury, would not begin until mercury filtration and capture technology is activated at the plant.

The incineration facility has destroyed more than half of the mustard agent stored at Deseret. Smaller amounts of tabun nerve agent and lewisite blister agent also remain to be burned. Disposal operations are scheduled for completion by fall 2011 (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, April 1).

Meanwhile, vapor has been detected leaking from a mustard agent artillery shell at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado, the Associated Press reported. No material escaped the storage igloo, which was fitted with an additional filter.

Workers today intend to enter the storage space to find the leaking weapon, said depot spokesman Chuck Sprague.

Pueblo stores roughly 2,600 tons of mustard agent (Associated Press/KRDO.com, April 1).