CANISTERS FOCUS OF FIRE PROBE

By Wilson Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday,  June 16, 2005 

The Pine Bluff Arsenal has finished water and air tests following a fire June 6 that destroyed a warehouse containing white phosphorus.

Officials gave an update Wednesday on investigations into the cause of the fire that reignited June 9.

Test results will soon be sent to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for review and the findings will be released to the public, said Mark Lumpkin, director of risk management for the Arsenal.

The water tests came back positive for phosphoric acid, and that is one reason why the Arsenal is collecting all the runoff water and reprocessing it, Lumpkin said.

"I believe the phosphorus levels and the zinc levels were only slightly higher than that that could've been released," Lumpkin said. "It wasn't outrageous, but it was high enough for the state to ask us to contain it."

The Arsenal is still conducting soil tests as it cleans all the water used to put out the June 6 and June 9 fires.

"The ADEQ has asked us to continue sampling," said Charlie Neel, chief of environmental components at the Arsenal. "We've been tanking (water) for two or three days."

Col. Tom Woloszyn, the Arsenal's commander, said the Arsenal will clear off the slab of the burned-out building once the investigation wraps up and then start the remediation and cleanup processes.

Becky Keogh, deputy director of the ADEQ, applauded the working relationship between Arsenal and ADEQ inspectors.

"In a short period of time, we were able to mobilize ... our hazardous waste, air and water inspectors," she said of when the state was notified of the fire. "The state was involved with the response and will continue to work with the Arsenal on this."

Keogh said the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Coast Guard were also involved in making sure the waterways were safe from contaminated water.

Meanwhile, the focus of the investigation into the fire is shifting to canisters of white phosphorus, Arsenal officials said.

The warehouse fire burned for approximately 17 hours June 6, destroying it and about 7,500 canisters of white phosphorus in it.

"I think the confidence still remains high," Larry Wright, the Arsenal's senior civilian executive, said.

"The fire has been extinguished," said Woloszyn. "We have 24-hour surveillance on the site currently."

Woloszyn has said fire investigation teams suspect a canister of white phosphorus leaked, causing the fire that destroyed the World War II-era warehouse on post.

Woloszyn and Wright spoke while displaying one of the canisters for the public.

The tall, slender, aqua-green and chrome canisters resemble air humidifiers but contain white phosphorus, a chemical the Arsenal produces for smoke screening and signals and in incendiary devices.

Arsenal officials have said the canisters were not placed in explosive rounds when the warehouse caught fire at 12:17 a.m.

"We began producing (the canisters) in 1984," Wright said. "To date we've produced about 390,000 of this particular item."

The Arsenal has been producing white phosphorus for 60 years.

White phosphorus catches fire at 90 degrees Fahrenheit or when it comes in contact with air, Arsenal officials have said.

Officials also said Wednesday they feel the public's confidence in the Arsenal "remains high," after the warehouse blaze and two far-removed, unrelated fires during chemical weapons incineration.