A Blue Grass Army Depot employee filed a federal whistleblower complaint Friday alleging improper air monitoring inside the weapons storage igloos.

Donald Van Winkle of Berea is claiming that he was reassigned from his job for asking questions about plant safety, according to a file released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

"Last we checked, asking questions about the safety of one's workplace is not only allowed, it is supposed to be encouraged, especially at a chemical weapons plant," said PEER General Counsel Richard Condit, whose organization is representing VanWinkle. "As we have all been tragically reminded this week in New Orleans, it is better to plan for the worst than merely just hope for the best."

Van Winkle released an affidavit on Aug. 25 summarizing his concerns.

"In February or March of this year, I, along with other BGAD employees, attended training sessions with the manufacturer of the air monitoring equipment we use," VanWinkle wrote in his affidavit. "During our training, we learned that the (air) sampling (methods) being used at BGAD to monitor the seven igloos that store munitions containing agent VX was incorrect."

Shortly after the affidavit was released, depot officials met with members of the media to counteract his claims.

The current method is correct and has been verified by many external agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army's Chemical Material Agency, said Lt. Col. George Shuplinkov, commander of Blue Grass Chemical Activity.

VanWinkle contacted Shuplinkov with the information after the conference and a staff meeting was conducted after the employees returned from the conference in Anniston, Ala.

Shuplinkov took employees' advice and is now implementing changes to the air monitoring system that is about 70 percent complete.

Based on VanWinkle's affidavit, the problem was that a decision bad been made at the depot to remove the conversion pads from the inside of the igloos to the outside. Conversion pads are needed in sampling for VX because it is such a heavy molecule and it needs to be converted to another molecule in order for an air sample to travel through the Teflon sampling tube.

"You could do it either way," Shuplinkov said. "Both ways, the workers know what's in the air of the igloo."

VanWinkle filed a whistleblower complaint under the Clean Sir Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The complaint triggers an immediate federal investigation and, if the matter is not resolved in 30 days, a full evidentiary hearing before a federal administrative law judge will be scheduled, according to a statement released Friday by PEER.

Ronica Brandenburg can be reached at rbrandenburg@ richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.