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SAYS NERVE GAS MIGHT LEAK UNDETECTED

By Peter Mathews
CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU

RICHMOND - Monitoring equipment used to detect the most lethal chemical at Blue Grass Army Depot is being used incorrectly, making it unlikely or impossible to detect a leak, an employee charged yesterday.

The allegations came from Donald Van Winkle of Berea, an air systems monitor for the depot since 2002. Van Winkle asked for an investigation by the Department of Defense. Depot officials said the Pentagon had agreed to the inquiry.

The state Division of Waste Management began a similar investigation in April, a spokes-man said.

The dispute between Van Winkle and the depot centers on a small piece of equipment that helps the air monitoring system detect VX. Van Winkle thinks it's in the wrong place.

Lt. Col. George Shuplinkov, commander of the Chemical Activity section of the depot, disagrees, but the depot is making the change Van Winkle advocates on a trial basis. No decision has been made on a permanent change, he said.

The conversion is about three-quarters complete, said Bonnie McCoy, supervisory chemist for the Chemical Activity.

VX is one of three chemical weapons stored at the depot. A speck of the nerve agent can kill a person within minutes. But while it is lethal, it also is relatively stable. The Army says the depot has never had a VX leak.

Nearly 18,000 rockets and 13,000 projectiles containing VX are stored in seven storage buildings, called "igloos," at the depot.

Early this year, Van Winkle learned during a training session with the manufacturer of a chemical monitoring device, called a MINICAM, that the depot was not using the monitor properly, he said in an affidavit. The problem involved a piece of equipment called a conversion pad, which makes it easier for VX to travel through the sampling tube.

Depot officials had moved the conversion pad to a different part of the monitor to make it easier to work with. The change meant workers no longer needed to enter the storage buildings to monitor VX. But Van Winkle said it "severely compromised" the ability to detect the chemical agent.

Shuplinkov says tests show both methods are valid. "The workers are safe; the community's safe," he said.

After Van Winkle made his concerns known at a meeting in late February, Shuplinkov says, he applauded the idea and instituted the changes Van Winkle suggested on a trial basis.

Since then, however, Van Winkle says he has been relieved of his normal duties and denied training, hazard pay, overtime and advancement opportunities. He said he has been accused of arrogant behavior toward a depot official.

Shuplinkov said he did not want to discuss specifics of the case, but he acknowledged that Van Winkle was no longer monitoring the igloos and was "being investigated for other things."

Van Winkle reported his concerns about the way the equipment is operated and maintained to a Washington-based group called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility that helps protect employees who are protecting the environment.

The group asked the Pentagon to investigate whether the depot has properly monitored the igloos and accurately reported the results.

Shuplinkov said the air inside each igloo is sampled daily, and state regulatory officials make unannounced visits to the depot every two or three months.

The state began investigating in April after receiving an anonymous complaint that contained allegations similar to Van Winkle's, said Mark York, a spokesman for the Division of Waste Management. No findings have been announced yet.

In addition to VX, the depot's 523-ton stockpile of chemical weapons includes GB, a nerve agent, and mustard, a blister agent.

Although most attention has been focused on the fight to obtain funding for a neutralization plant to destroy the chemicals, monitoring also has been controversial at times. In 2003, the U.S. Senate said efforts to develop better monitoring systems had had disappointing results. Last year, U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning helped obtain $2 million to improve the depot's monitoring system.

Shuplinkov said about $200,000 has been spent on new equipment and mobile monitoring stations.

He said he was "100 percent confident" that the depot is operating safely.