Hermiston Herald
Oct. 25, 2002:

Depot monitoring a complex process

By Frank Lockwood
Staff writer

HERMISTON - Darrel Johnston, laboratory manager for Southwest Research
Laboratories, addressed the Citizens Advisory Commission earlier this month,
concerning air monitoring at Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

The depot's chemical agent monitoring system includes three types of
instruments: the Automated Chemical Agent Monitoring System (ACAMS), the
Depot Area Air Monitoring System (DAAMS) with its historical sample tubes,
and the Real Time Analytical Platforms (RTAPs).

Monitoring is performed to protect people and the environment, to control
the processes involved with demilitarization, and for record keeping (to
provide a historical record that agents have not been released into the
environment).

As explained to the Hermiston Herald by depot spokesman Jim Hackett, the
above equipment is used in the following three types of monitoring systems
which are in place at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. Each system uses one or
more of the above methods to detect any unwanted presence of chemical agent.

• The "Perimeter Monitoring System" is a term which causes confusion because
  that name, to some people, may imply that it is a safety net or protective
  barrier that evokes an emergency response when it detects chemical agent.
  It is neither. According to Johnston, perimeter monitoring is not a safety net nor a
  protective barrier, instead, it is a system for producing a historical
  record. There is, however, a planned response to any confirmed detections
  discovered from the perimeter monitoring network. But the Perimeter
  Monitoring System is used primarily for environmental monitoring and is
  checked once every 12-48 hours.
• The Mobile Monitoring System uses Real Time Analytical Platforms or RTAPs.
  The RTAP is a van equipped with very sensitive monitoring equipment, and it
  can go wherever it is needed. RTAPs are used for daily checking for small
  traces of chemical vapor or "leakers" among igloos that store munitions
  which have previously leaked, and for weekly monitoring of all other
  chemical munitions stored at the depot.
• The Industrial Plant Monitoring System is the system used for the UMCDF
  incineration project, which is located at the depot. It uses both ACAMS and
  the historic sampling tubes of the DAAMS.

Monitors used to protect UMCDF workers, and monitors used for process
control, are automated with alarm capability and set for high sensitivity to
the chemical agents VX, GB, and HD. The automated monitoring is backed up by
the historical DAAMS samples that are quickly collected in the event of an
alarm and analyzed to verify or refute the alarm.

The Perimeter Monitoring network is a DAAMS-only system, that is, it relies
upon neither the RTAPs nor the ACAMS, but upon the historical sample tubes
of the Depot Area Air Monitoring System, to collect a sample over a 12-hour
period for analysis in the UMCDF Laboratory.The perimeter monitoring network
uses DAAMS to document that the agent has not been released into the
environment. It is a sampling system with a required sensitivity of
0.0000005 parts-per-million and takes two 12-hour samples per day. Sample
tubes are analyzed during the day shift even though samples are collected 24
hours per day for the three agents GB, VX, and HD. The perimeter monitoring
system has been in place since May 9, 2000.

The UMCDF plant monitoring system used to protect workers requires much more
extensive equipment and personnel than the perimeter and laboratory systems.
During the next six months, workers will systematically bring this system on
line.

Monitoring work within the UMCDF Laboratory at present is done with
depot-supplied "dilute" agent standards in septum-sealed vails. The next
part of the monitoring system coming on on line will involve work with small
quantities, in open containers, of dilute agent standards within fume hoods.

Only after the monitoring system, with alarm capability, is fully functional
in the UMCDF Laboratory, will chemical agents be brought to the plant.
The igloos or storage areas themselves are not equipped with monitors.
Instead, the RTAPs are used to monitor the igloos or storage units. Igloos
containing the chemical weapons are checked weekly. To monitor weapons
inside an igloo, an RTAP pulls up to the unit and a hose is connected, to
draw air from the igloo. The air drawn is tested for the presence of any
vapors of agent.

The RTAPs are vans and they have within them neither an ACAMS nor a DAAMS,
but rather two other instruments. One is a Hewlett-Packard (HP) Gas
Chromatograph equipped with a Dynatherm sampling system (HP-Dynatherm). The
other is a MINICAMS, Miniature Chemical Agent Monitoring System. Both of
these devices work on the same principal as an ACAMS.

Weapons that the RTAPs reveal to have leaked are then are overpacked in
special containers, and moved to a separate storage area, where, from then
on, crews check daily using an RTAP mobile monitor to make sure the leaks
are fully contained. The R-TAPs detect agent at the level of parts per
trillion.

False Readings Not Really False

The term false readings can also create confusion. Sometimes in reports we
read about so called false readings in the monitoring equipment. As commonly
used regarding monitoring of chemical agent, a false reading is not really
false as some would interpret falseness. Some chemical is actually causing
the false reading. The reading is only false in the sense that the reading
is not being caused by chemical agent, but by some other chemical which is
interfering with the test.

A recent report noted that depot monitors fail to detect deadly VX.

Hackett said, however, that does not mean that the monitors "failed." It is
more difficult to detect VX chemical agent than GB Sarin, because Sarin
give off minute amounts of vapor as it evaporates approximately at the same
rate as water, while the VX agent gives off very little vapor, making it
more difficult to detect.

The monitors have limitations, and one of those limitations is that the
monitors do not detect the liquid presence of VX immediately because VX
vaporizes more slowly than GB-Sarin.

Hackett said that the depot does continuously monitor for chemical agent in
order to ensure that the public, the depot workers, and the environment are
protected.

Frank Lockwood may be reached at 567-6457 or by e-mail at
flockwood@hermistonherald.com.