Chemical Weapons Working Group
P.O. Box 467
Berea, Kentucky 40403
(606) 986-7565 (606) 986-2695 (fax)
kefwilli@acs.eku.edu www.cwwg.org
for more information contact:
Jason Groenewold: 801-364-5110
Cindy King: 801-486-9848
Chip Ward: 435-884-6291
Craig Williams: 606-986-7565
for immediate release: Tuesday June 8, 1999
SENIOR MANAGER ADMITS NERVE AGENT LEAKS, SYSTEM FAILURES, ENVIRONMENTAL PERMIT VIOLATIONS AT ARMY'S TOOELE, UTAH, CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATOR
A top official at the U.S. Army's controversial Tooele, Utah, chemical weapons incinerator has testified that the facility has failed to properly confine deadly toxins and cannot guarantee that nerve agent has not escaped from its smokestacks. The plant is currently in a "safety stand down" after agent leaked into observation corridors when an emergency generator failed to turn on after a power failure last Friday night. This follows a series of recent agent related incidents over the past few weeks.
During more than a day of questioning by attorneys representing groups trying to replace incineration with safer disposal technologies, Site Project Manager Tim Thomas admitted a wide range of dangerous incidents and lapses in oversight during operations to burn a portion of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile. He acknowledged, for example, that plant workers were exposed to agent at levels 50 times higher than allowed for by the clothing they were wearing on May 21, 1999. Thomas said he didn't know if the workers clothing tested positive for agent or not. "This was not an issue I expressed interest in," he said.
Thomas also acknowledged that there was no way to be certain agent had not escaped into the environment during an incident on March 30,1998 when stack monitors recorded levels more than 500 times the allowable concentration. At that time, the incinerator operators improperly fed a bomb containing an illegally large quantity of nerve agent into the furnace, resulting in overheating. Thomas said there was no "chain of custody" in place for determining whether the proper gas collection tubes were analyzed to assess the accuracy of the stack monitoring devices.
Other witnesses including Marty Gray of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Richard Sutherland, the Control Room Operator at the time of the incident also admitted they had no idea if the tubes were ever analyzed. Grey, whose agency is responsible for overseeing plant operations testified he had never even seen the "Unusual Occurrence Report" until today.
Chip Ward, a resident of the downwind town of Grantsville, who opposes the incinerator said, " If Mr. Thomas is the measure of the plant's competence and Mr. Gray is the measure of the independent oversight then clearly this facility has neither."
Thomas also admitted that key components of the plant as permitted, including a furnace to burn agent contaminated packaging material called "Dunnage,", and the Brine Reduction Area to evaporate contaminated solutions, are not operational.
In the future, Thomas announced, the facility intends to burn rockets and other munitions fully loaded with toxic agent without draining them first as required by current permits. He added that the Army has no studies to support this approach and does not intend to conduct a "trial burn" to assess its safety.
Gray said the DEQ would approve this change without requiring any study or trial burn once the Army submits a "reasonable plan" to the state.
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