Chemical weapons group wants monitoring

The Chemical Weapons Working Group wants the U.S. Army to install advanced chemical agent monitoring systems at all eight U.S. chemical weapons storage and disposal sites, including the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, CWWG executive director Craig Williams said during a telephone press conference Tuesday.

The conference followed a request last week by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., for $2 million in funding for improved agent monitors at the depot.

"I think everybody agrees that anything we can do to make the community safer, we should," said Dick Sloan, public affairs officer for Blue Grass Chemical Activity - the agency in charge of monitoring chemical weapons at the depot - in an interview after the conference. "I will tell you this - right now we have the best monitoring equipment available within the government."

Williams said weapons storage and disposal sites could detect high-agent release levels in less than 20 seconds through the installation of the Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) multipass absorption monitoring technique.

Depot Area Air Monitoring Systems, or DAAMS, currently are scattered about every 1.5 miles around the perimeter of the depot and are sampled every 12 hours before being analyzed, Williams said.

"Our primary concern is to ensure safety of the workers, the citizens surrounding the chemical weapons stockpiles and protecting the environment during this disposal effort," he said.

The chemical demilitarization program is expected to cost more than $25 billion, Williams said.

"Advanced monitors such as FTIRs are estimated to cost approximately $25 million over the course of the disposal - approximately one-tenth of 1 percent of the program cost," he said. "Citizens living in close proximity to these weapons believe that is a small price to pay for safety."

The monitors would be paid for by the Department of Defense, Williams said. Because FTIRs scan distances of up to 400 meters, they can survey the entire perimeter of the depot, he said. Unlike DAAMS - which are sensitive to only a single predetermined agent and not connected to alarms - FTIRs can identify and quantify up to 50 types of agents and would be connected to computerized alarm systems to alert workers and the public to high-release levels.

"It creates a perimeter around the entire facility," Williams said.

The National Research Council recognized the capabilities of infrared spectroscopy monitoring techniques a decade ago, Williams said. Since then, the council has stated that advanced monitoring technology could reduce false alarm rates and current monitoring systems may not be sufficient during accidents.

"We're not the ones that made these findings all the way back in 1994," Williams said.

The CWWG and other groups that took part in the conference said they do not want to remove the DAAMS or Agent Continuous Air Monitoring Systems, the system used to monitor agent levels within chemical storage igloos. Rather, the FTIRs would supplement the current monitoring systems, Williams said.

"If a chemical agent was released this minute at any of the sites, it could take up to 12 hours before the community knew about it," Williams said. "That is simply not reasonable."

Ryan Garrett can be reached at rgarrett@richmondregister.com