Chemical Weapons Working Group
PO Box 467 Berea, KY 40403
(606) 986-0868 fax: (606) 986-2695
www.cwwg.org
for more information:
Craig Williams (606) 986-7565
for immediate release: Tuesday, December 15, 1998
UTAH CHEMICAL WEAPONS LIQUID INCINERATOR STOPPED
AFTER 140-GALLON SPILL
Former Safety and Waste Managers Say It Raises Serious Questions
At least a portion of the Army's Tooele, Utah chemical weapons incineration facility was forced to shut down again after approximately 140 gallons of nerve agent GB (sarin) was spilled while being fed to one of the two Liquid Incinerators. The spill occurred this past Sunday. The Army stated that the cause of the spill will be "investigated."
Chief Safety Officer, Steve Jones, who was illegally fired for raising safety problems at the plant, repeated his position that these kinds of incidents show the inability of the facility to maintain safe operations. According to Jones, it raises a number of serious questions surrounding the adequacy of the engineering and what he considers to be the continued emphasis on production over safety. "This incident reflects the approach to operations that I tried to put a stop to," said Jones, "that is, 'run it until it breaks'."
Since being fired, Jones has won two decisions from the Department of Labor. Both decisions found his termination to have violated Federal whistleblower protection statutes. Jones said, "I've been on the record for a long time trying to get the point across that these incinerators are not well engineered and are poorly designed. There is too much heat and too much pressure for them to operate safely." Jones continued, "These kinds of mechanical failures will continue to occur until there is a catastrophic incident. The incineration technology to dispose of these weapons cannot get the job done safely."
This shutdown is the latest in a series of incidents at the Army's incinerators in the Pacific and Utah. According to testimony and reports from the Army, there have also been a number of agent releases into the environment since incinerations operations began at these facilities. Although information is sketchy on the details of this latest incident, another former worker from the plant, also fired for raising safety issues, echoed Jones' comments. John Hall, former engineer technician said, "A 140-gallon spill is a serious matter and should never happen. It indicates a major problem with the waste or the intentional by-passing of the automatic waste feed cut off, or both." According to Hall, there should have been indications of the problem well before this amount of agent leaked.
Craig Williams, spokesperson for the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG), questions the Army's reassuring claims that there was no impact to workers or the environment. "This type of premature statement is standard procedure for this program," said Williams. "The Army will 'investigate' itself again and predictably agree with its advance conclusions. It happens every time there's a malfunction."
But, according to Jones this incident raises a lot of questions that have been asked for years and have gone unanswered. "Given the history of these facilities, I can't believe they're building more of them in Alabama and Oregon, and planning for another in Arkansas," said Jones.
According to former Hazardous Waste Manager, Trina Allen, recently found by the Dept. of Labor to have been illegally fired for raising safety concerns, "This incident reflects the flaws in the design of the incineration facility and it's only a matter of time before a more serious incident occurs." Ms. Allen, a resident of Tooele and a mother of three, also expressed concern that the community was not informed in a timely manner nor given adequate detail concerning this latest event.
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