DISPOSAL RESUMES AT ARSENAL

By Larry Ault/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Wednesday,  May 25, 2005  10:02 AM CDT

Officials of the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility resumed disposal operations of GB nerve agent-filled rockets early Tuesday morning after shutting down Sunday.

Operations were suspended Sunday morning after debris from a rocket ignited, causing a small flame that lasted about 20 seconds, Raini K. Wright, a spokeswoman for the facility, said Tuesday.

Officials disposed of the remaining 35 GB rockets at the facility Sunday evening without incident before shutting down.

Disposal operations resumed again at 2 a.m. Tuesday.

Wright said none of the rockets were processed on Monday because more weapons had to be transported.

"We had weather issues that delayed us getting the munitions up to the facility," she said.

Other issues that delayed resumption of disposal operations include "maintenance that had to be addressed that delayed us processing yesterday," Wright said.

"We do have a day crew and a night crew," she said, explaining that crews work 12-hour shifts from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. and 6 p.m. until 6 a.m.

She said the facility has not had any additional fires or problems since it resumed operations early Tuesday.

Wright said facility officials still do not know the direct cause of two separate fires or flare ups that have caused delays in recent weeks.

By midafternoon Tuesday, Wright said the facility processed "a little under 300" rockets since resuming operations earlier in the day. However, she said "that will change" and a new number for the day won't be available until today.

Officials of the facility released a weekly update Tuesday that said that it had processed 1,449 nerve agent GB rockets between May 17 and Monday. The project total is 6,324 nerve agent GB rockets.

The facility disposed of 15,326 pounds of nerve agent in a liquid incinerator during that week for a project total of 53,365 pounds, Wright said.

The Pine Bluff Arsenal's Arkansas Citizens Advisory Commission, which has kept an eye on operations at the facility, will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Creasy Auditorium at the White Hall Plainview entrance to the Arsenal.

A press release issued by the facility restated that it had paused GB rocket processing operations Sunday morning after "sheared rocket debris ignited, creating a small fire that lasted approximately 20 seconds. Minor adjustments were made to the rocket processing equipment and operations resumed on Sunday evening."

A similar fire May 11 followed the destruction of thousands of rockets, and the Arsenal shut down operations for two days to investigate, the facility reported.

Last week, processing stopped again because of concerns over a fire at Umatilla, Ore., where the same contractor, Washington Group International, is running a nearly identical project. Sunday's fire posed no danger to Arsenal workers or the public and caused no damage to equipment, the facility reported.