Activists: Blue Grass Depot needs faster system

Activists from around the nation called yesterday for the Army to install faster, more accurate monitoring systems at chemical weapons storage and disposal sites such as Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County.

In a telephone news conference, members of the Chemical Weapons Working Group urged the Army to install infrared technology at the eight sites where chemical weapons are stored.

One system uses an infrared light beam, shot horizontally from an instrument that looks like a telescope. It can simultaneously monitor more than 50 chemicals and pollutants.

The devices can detect chemical agent in seconds, the group said. Current monitoring devices can take up to 12 hours to detect a leak at the perimeter of a weapons storage site.

"Today, the U.S. is spending billions in Iraq, based on the perceived threat to Americans posed by weapons of mass destruction we now know don't exist," Craig Williams, director of the group, said in statement.

"But right here at home millions of Americans are at risk from our own WMDs --while the government drags its feet on deploying adequate monitors to protect its citizens and the Army says it can't afford such capabilities."

The cost to equip the eight sites would be $25 million -- one-tenth of 1 percent of the $25 billion chemical demilitarization budget.

U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R- Southgate, recently asked for $2 million in next year's defense budget to install new monitors at the depot in Madison County.

The National Research Council has been recommending that the Army upgrade its monitors for a decade. The current technology has been in use since 1986.

Jeff Lindblad, a spokesman for the Army's Chemical Materials Agency, told the Associated Press that the existing monitoring system is working well and that the technology sought by Williams' group does not always detect small releases.

Richard Sloan, public affairs officer for Blue Grass Chemical Activity, the agency charged with safely storing weapons at the depot, said the gas chromatographs currently in use are "extremely efficient," capable of measuring chemical agent in parts per billion.

He said he would welcome any advance in technology that enables the Army to better protect workers and the community.