Tooele burn plant to get $50M fix for heavy metals By Dawn House The Salt Lake Tribune The Army has called for major changes in the way it burns the nation's aging mustard agent stockpile at the Deseret Chemical Depot, which will add up to more than $50 million in plant modifications.     The changes are necessary because of heavy metals in mustard agent storage containers and munitions, discovered after operations began in 1996, said Alaine Southworth, depot spokeswoman.     Under the plan, all bulk containers of the chemical weapons agent will be sampled for mercury before being shipped for destruction at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. To dispose of the mercury-laden agents, a neutralization-bulk-container-washout system and a mercury filtration system will be added to one of the facility's two liquid incinerators.     Minor modifications also will be required in the plant's metal parts furnace to burn bulk containers that have not been contaminated by mercury and to dispose of all mustard-filled projectiles.     "It's a pretty significant effort," said Gary McCloseky, vice president of EG & G, which operates the incinerator for the Army. "It'll be the largest facility modification effort ever in an active chemical weapons disposal facility."     The $1 billion incinerator at the depot, which once accounted for 46 percent of the nation's total chemical weapons stockpile, has destroyed about 6,000 tons of GB agent, also known as Sarin.     The plant was retrofitted to burn 1,300 tons of VX, which attacks the nervous system. The Army plans to begin implementing the changes after the VX campaign is completed this summer.     Next up in the disposal schedule will be mustard gas, a blister agent that can dissolve human tissue on contact.     Jason Groenewold, director of the Salt Lake City-based Families Against Incineration Risk, said the modifications indicate that heavy-metals contamination is widespread throughout the mustard agent stockpile.     "If only a few containers were contaminated, the Army wouldn't have to go through this type of an overhaul," Groenewold said.     He said the change also indicates the Army is moving forward with neutralizing instead of incinerating a portion of its weapons stockpile. Groenewold is one of 19 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., to force the Army to end its incineration program.     The activists dispute the military's contention that incineration is the best available method, and are seeking to persuade the court to compel the Army to study alternative disposal methods, including neutralizing the chemical weapons.     Groenewold said a trial date may be scheduled by early summer.     dawn@sltrib.com