PORTLAND -- Twelve medicine bottles stood in front of Tony Kimball as he told federal Judge Dennis Hubel about the health problems he's faced since the Sept. 15, 1999, accident at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

"My ability to function in society is poor," said the Tri-City man during the second day of testimony in U.S. District Court. "I can't balance a checkbook or watch movies. I can't comprehend them."

Kimball, a former pipe fitter and professional bass fisherman, admitted that while he'd been a functioning alcoholic for 20 years, he'd never had health or mental problems before the depot incident.

Now, his lung capacity is reduced, he's unable to work, his wife left him and he suffers from depression and post traumatic stress disorder. And he tried to kill himself, he said.

Kimball is one of 49 depot construction workers suing the Army for negligence, alleging they were exposed to the nerve agent sarin and the blister agent mustard during the incident that caused the evacuation of the depot's incinerator plant while it was under construction.

The incinerator, built just a few hundred yards from where the depot's 3,717 tons of sarin and mustard are stored, will be used to destroy the Army's chemical weapons stockpile in Umatilla.

In February the judge ruled the Army was negligent in its emergency response during the incident for not immediately getting medical attention to the workers.

Hubel's ruling opened the door for this second phase of the trial, when the plaintiff's attorneys James McCandlish and Keith Dozier must convince the judge that the chemical weapons sickened the workers.

McCandlish is relying on the testimony of expert witnesses familiar with chemical reactions, monitoring and environment to support his theory that sarin drifted into the incinerator plant, exposing the workers.

Ken White, an environmental hygienist from Salt Lake City, testified although he can't prove sarin was the cause, it is the most likely scenario using a process of elimination.

White, who has performed environmental work at a similar chemical depot in Tooele, Utah, said that whatever affected the workers had to come from either within the building or from the outside.

White said he reviewed the four independent investigations of the incident done by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Army and their contractor, Raytheon.

The theory that the contaminant came from inside the incinerator building "didn't hold water," White said.

"The symptoms were simultaneous and affected a large area," he said. "For all to be affected, it probably had to come externally through the vents."

But Henry Miller, a U.S. Justice Department attorney representing the Army, claimed White didn't have enough information to come to his conclusion.

"At the time you prepared the report, you had no idea what parts of the (ventilation system) were hooked up?" Miller asked White.

"No," White admitted.

"Did you ever correlate the worker's injuries to where they were in the building?" Miller asked.

"No, I'm not aware that anyone did that," White answered.

White's testimony did reveal that the Army's claims that pepper spray had been discovered on the workers' clothing was later recanted.

White said there was a second report by the lab that did the initial analysis claiming there had been an error and that capsaicin, or pepper spray, was not detected.

"That leads to the external theory," White contended. "The most reasonable and likely cause was chemical agent."

Testimony continues today in the case that's expected to last two weeks.