Published: December 07 , 2007

August nerve agent spill revealed

Ronica Shannon
Register News Writer

A one-gallon spill of deadly liquid nerve agent at the Blue Grass Army Depot in August went unreported to the public and now is the area of concern for several in Congress. It is the largest leak ever detected at the depot and one that has Army officials moving to destroy some of the weapons far ahead of schedule.

U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning, both R-Ky., and U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District, drafted a letter Wednesday, addressed to the Army's Chemical Materials Agency about the GB nerve agent, or 'sarin' spill that now has been confirmed to have occurred Aug. 27.

"We haven't had any indications whatever that there was a release into the atmosphere," said Lt. Col. Tom Closs, commander of Blue Grass Chemical Activity (BGCA), which is a separate entity located at the depot that is in charge of the safe and proper storage and monitoring of the chemical weapons. However, "There's no way to tell," he said.

A citizens advisory board will meet Friday to hear a proposal the Army is considering that would dramaticaly accelerate the destruction of the leaky container and two similar ones at the depot, said Craig Williams, director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group.

Information about a nerve-agent vapor leak was released Tuesday, Aug. 28, and reported in the Aug. 29 edition of the Richmond Register.

Chandler agreed that the statement released from the depot did not express the potential severity of the leak discovered Aug. 27.

"As I expressed in my meeting yesterday with the acting director of the Chemical Materials Agency, Dale Ormond, I am deeply concerned about the distrust the citizens of Madison County have toward the Army because of incidents like this, and we need to demand absolute transparency in these critical matters," Chandler said Thursday.

"There is nothing more important," Chandler said. "I will continue to work with Senator McConnell and Senator Bunning until we find sufficient answers to this and other matters relating to the depot."

Records from the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (KDEP) Division of Waste Management Hazardous Waste Branch were obtained Thursday by the Richmond Register.

"The igloo contains the one-ton container of the chemical agent GB. ... Contents were observed to have leaked out from a deteriorated plug," according to a letter sent from the Blue Grass Army Depot to the KDEP.

There were problems with the same container, which happens to be the oldest, in 2004.

"You're going to keep having this problem over and over," said Dave Easter, public affairs officer for the Blue Grass Army Depot. "The materials inside this ton conatiner are highly corrosive, and the corrosion is working its way along the screws, eating away at the threads. Something needs to be done."

According to the letter writen by McConnell, Bunning and Chandler, the agent vapors leaked into the atmosphere.

"We are particularly concerned about the BGAD leak that was discovered in August 2007, in which some agent apparently escaped the storage igloo intot he atmosphere," reads the letter signed by McConnell, Bunning and Chandler.

The source as to how they the leak "apparently escaped" was not known by any of the sources contacted for this story.

"This is deeply disturbing and demands prompt action and accountability, ..." the letter stated. "We expect you and your staff to provide such informaiton to us about the August leak as more data become available.

"We also expect in the future that our offices, the Citizens Advisory Commission and local press will be provided a full accounting in writing within 48 hours of any chemical event that takes place at the Blue Grass Army Depot," the letter continued.

News of a leak was reported in the Aug. 29 edition of the Richmond Register, however, the information did not indicate a liquid spill, but that an igloo "tested positive for GB nerve agent vapors."

According tot he KDEP documents, the level of nerve agent detected in the igloo was 85 times the military's safe exposure limit for the public.

The first reading on the nerve agent was 74 times higher than the safe exposure limit.

"That could be true, but I don't know," Sloan said. "Typically, when I do a press release on a leaker, I don't give the strength. At no time was the community ever at risk due to this. During the period of time while we were [m]itigating this leak in the ton container, we had KDEP at BGCA sitting in our Emergency Operations Center watching and giving oversight to everything we did. When this was over, we were commended by KDEP for doing such a good job."

The Kentucky Division of Waste Management (KDWM) is spending most of their efforts on working with the Army to make sure the release was not harmful to people off post, said Anthony Hatton, assistant director of the KDWM.

Hatton was not able to say if disciplinary measures were going to be taken, but said, "It's an option that is currently being considered, and that's where we stand at this point."

Closs stands firmly in saying the BGCA was taking all the precautionary measures to secure the safety of the workers and the community.

"We still have a filter (on the igloo) and it's still on right now," Closs said. "That's how seriously we take it."

Craig Williaons, director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, said he could not verify the severity of the event.

"But, the thing that bothers me was that the general public has been kept in the dark," Williams said. "When you don't come forward in a timely manner, people want to know why. My confidence in what they're telling the community is diminished when they don't come forward and tell us everything. I think the time is right for a full account of this situation."

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