CHEMICAL WEAPONS WORKING GROUP
P.O. BOX 467 BEREA KY 40403
859-986-7565 859-986-2695 (F)
www.cwwg.org
for more information: Jason Groenewold
801-364-5110
Craig Williams 859-986-7565
Mick Harrison 859-321-1586
for immediate release Thursday, July
22, 2004
UTAH REGULATORS DENY PUBLIC ACCESS TO RECORDS ON NERVE AGENT ALARM AT
WEAPONS BURNER
Groups say operations should not have resumed until critical questions
were answered
Citizen groups are demanding the
release of information related to a nerve agent alarm that occurred at the
Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility on Saturday, July 17. In an
Army press release issued 2 1/2 days after the event, Army officials stated
the incinerator "suspended destruction operations" when nerve agent monitors
in the main smokestack "detected a substance or interferant which exhibited
characteristics similar to that of VX (nerve) agent."
Members of citizen groups don't buy the Army's claim that the release was
not dangerous and that it came from mortar used to rebrick the liner of a
furnace three weeks ago.
"Either VX nerve agent or its 'evil twin' came out of that smokestack for
three days, and the Army is trying to claim it's no big deal," said Jason
Groenewold, Director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah. The
Army claimed that only one alarm occurred at 6:34 a.m. on the 17th, but Groenewold
learned in conversations with Utah regulators and Army officials that monitors
were detecting VX as recently as Monday afternoon at levels 14 times above
allowable concentrations.
While Army officials claimed that there was no VX being processed at the
time of the event, a state environmental regulator told Groenewold that VX
contaminated materials were in fact being processed at the time of the alarm.
"The probable cause of this alarm was quickly dismissed and the Army now
wants us to believe that brick mortar exhibits characteristics similar to
nerve agent," said Groenewold. He noted that the Army has not yet produced
any data to support their claim and that previous tests of the mortar taken
before it was used did not reveal contaminants that would have caused a nerve
agent alarm. "The only way an alarm could go off in the smokestack,
but not in any of the furnace ducts that lead to the smokestack is if the
monitoring system does not work reliably."
HEAL Utah submitted a request for the computer generated information that
would reveal what really happened during this three day event, but Utah regulators
have denied HEAL Utah's Government Records and Access Management Act request.
Mick Harrison, an attorney who has represented the CWWG and numerous whistleblowers
from the Utah incinerator said, "This is a cover-up."
According to Craig Williams, Director of the Kentucky based Chemical Weapons
Working Group, "The Army has the perfect shell game going. Army officials
interpret monitoring data to get the results they desire, then, once they
convince people that the emitted substance isn't agent, they feel free to
claim the substance isn't dangerous although its identity and toxicity remain
unknown."
"A truly protective system would include monitors that accurately identify
and record agent releases and similar toxic emissions and would not let the
results be manipulated in this manner. Such systems do exist," he said.
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