THE BURN BEGINS: PINE BLUFF ARSENAL OVERCOMES DELAYS TO START DISPOSAL

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

Despite a few delays, the Pine Bluff Arsenal incinerated two rockets filled with sarin nerve agent Tuesday.

During a press conference held Tuesday afternoon at Creasy Auditorium outside the Arsenal gates, Col. Tom Woloszyn, Arsenal commander, said it was "a very historic day in the life of the Pine Bluff Arsenal" and that the startup was "just the beginning of a very successful operation."

The process was the first step toward eliminating 12 percent of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile stored at the Arsenal.

Three transport containers, each carrying 30 M55 rockets, arrived at the incineration facility Monday afternoon.

Incineration of two of the rockets was supposed to begin at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to Robert Love, acting project manager for Washington Group International. However, equipment malfunctions delayed disposal of the first rocket until 11:20 a.m. The second rocket was destroyed at 4:15 p.m.

"Earlier today the men and women of the Pine Bluff chemical demilitarization team made history by safely destroying the first chemical stockpile munition stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal," said Randy Long, site project manager for the facility.

Love said personnel discovered a pinhole leak in a rubber hose connected to the caustic injection system, which is part of the pollution abatement system. A solution of sodium hydroxide mixed with water that is used to cool gases produced from the incinerator was leaking from the hose. Operations were shut down until the hose could be repaired.

Then another problem arose.

"One of the agent readings we got was different from what we expected," he said. "We just wanted to investigate why that wasn't (reading correctly) before we continued on with the second rocket."

Love said the agent monitor functioned properly after it was recalibrated.

In response to questions about the delays, Col. Joseph Pecoraro said, "I don't typify anything that happened today as being a failure."

Pecoraro is project manager for chemical stockpile disposal in the office of the program manager for the elimination of chemical weapons.

He lauded Love and other personnel for following procedures to take care of the problem.

Officials showed video footage of the first rocket processed, from its arrival at the facility until it entered the deactivation furnace. Each rocket is put onto conveyers that pulls it into the system. They go into an explosive containment room constructed with concrete and reinforced with steel that has two-foot thick walls.

"This is the last time human hands touch the rocket," Long said as he explained the process of the first rocket being "safely and irreversibly destroyed."

After the chemical agent goes to the liquid incinerator to be destroyed, the rocket is cut into eight pieces and is incinerated in a deactivation furnace that destroys the explosive parts.

Long said more than 11 million hours had been invested in constructing, testing and training to operate the $500 million facility.

Love said crews plan to incinerate 14 more rockets today. Thursday, a new crew will come in, which means they'll start with two rockets and eventually increase their rate of production along with the other crew.

Eventually, disposal of the Arsenal's 90,000 sarin-filled rockets will increase to 33 or 34 rockets per hour, according to Love, and the facility will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Some had questions about why Stephen DePew, former project manager for Washington Group, had resigned one week before operations began. No one on the panel had an answer to that question.

"He decided to take a job somewhere else and as far as I know he resigned and left right away," Love said, adding that the search for a replacement has begun. "I'll stay as long as it takes to get that done."

Love is project manager at Anniston, Ala., where he has worked four years. He also spent eight years at the Johnston Island facility.

DePew took a pay raise to work for one of Washington Group's competitors on some U.S. Army contracts in Russia, said Leo O'Shea, director of operations at Washington Demilitarization Co. He said the transition has been smooth.

Pecoraro said no final determination has been made as to what will happen to the facility when its mission is complete, which is expected to be in 2010.

Also on the panel was Wayne Ruthven, director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, who said the population has been "educated properly" about what to do in the event of an emergency through the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program.

The Arsenal stores 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.

The nerve agents were brought here from other sites in the 1960s, while the mustard agent was shipped in during the 1940s. The weapons are being destroyed under an international treaty that set a deadline of 2012.

"Clearly this is a major milestone in our progress to dispose of the United States chemical munitions stockpile," said Dale Ormond, deputy assistant secretary of the Army (Elimination of Chemical Weapons). "Today Pine Bluff starts down the road of making chemical weapons history."