ARSENAL MARKS INCINERATION ANNIVERSARY

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, March 28, 2006 9:48 AM CST

WHITE HALL -- Thursday will mark the one-year anniversary of the Pine Bluff Arsenal's program to incinerate 12 percent of the country's chemical weapons stockpile.

During a meeting of the arsenal Citizen's Advisory Commission Monday, Randy Long, site project manager of the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, characterized the first year of the program as a success. "It's been a year that I hope we're all very proud of -- I know that I am," he said.

David Reber, project manager for contractor Washington Demilitarization Co., indicated that Pine Bluff's team had taken advantage of the lessons learned at other facilities.

"We've had the safest, most compliant, most productive startup," he said. Specifically, he said Pine Bluff had fewer injuries, fewer environmental non-compliances and had destroyed more rockets and agent at this stage in the game than other incineration facilities, which started earlier. Incineration is ongoing at facilities in Utah, Oregon and Alabama.

Chemical weapons operations at the facility have been on hold since January, when the arsenal announced the beginning of a project to replace piping in the pollution abatement systems in the three furnaces there. Reber said operations are expected to resume in mid-May.

He told commissioners that the facility's metal parts furnace is expected to begin incinerating secondary waste, such as protective suits, later this week.

Also Monday, Long told commissioners that the Army had recently conducted a biannual surety inspection of the facility. The inspection rates the facility's safety and security, he said, and is "probably the most significant inspection" that is conducted among several others done by various agencies. "This inspection was a tremendous success for the Pine Bluff team," Long said.

Reber noted that the facility had operated for 7.2 million hours without a serious injury, making Washington Demilitarization Co. one of only nine in the state to attain that level of safety. He added that the facility has 98 positions to fill, 39 of which will be filled soon, and is currently staffed at 90 percent. "Right now our goal for the summer is to get to 95 percent," Reber said.

The arsenal originally declared 3,850 tons of agent, the country's second largest stockpile. Its inventory includes M55 rockets filled with sarin and VX nerve agents, VX land mines and ton containers filled with mustard agent. Disposal of the sarin rockets will be followed by the VX rockets, VX land mines and mustard agent. Reber said the switch from sarin, or GB, rockets to VX rockets is expected to take place in about a year.

The weapons are being destroyed under an international treaty with a deadline of 2012.