Burner going off-line during Games

by Jeff Schmerker
Staff Writer

The Army's chemical weapons burner in Tooele County is essentially off-line during the Olympics.

Depot workers will process miscellaneous munitions, clean up, and re-brick the liquid incinerator, but chemical agent has been hauled out of the burner and locked safely away in the area's secure igloos.

Army officials had hoped to be all finished with GB nerve agent by the time of the Opening Ceremony Friday evening but ended up curtailing operations at dawn Wednesday " just before the Olympic Torch Relay passed near the main entrance to the facility " with about eight days left of GB burning, said depot spokesman Chuck Sprague.

Sprague wouldn't say how much GB is left to burn but said it would likely be completed during the eight-day break between the Olympics and the Paralympics.

"It did not happen," said Sprague. "During the 2002 Winter Games workers at (the burner) will continue maintenance operations in the plant. However, because of security concerns, the shipment of remaining GB agent for processing will be suspended until after the Games have concluded. Nearly 99 percent of the GB stored at (Deseret Chemical Depot) has been safely destroyed, including all the GB projectiles. ... and as a result the destruction risk has been significantly reduced."

The decision to shut down during the Games raised eyebrows among incinerator opponents, who said if the plant is indeed safe then shutting down should not be necessary.

"The decision to curtail operations during the Olympics is certainly appropriate," said Craig Williams, spokesman for Kentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group. "Nevertheless, it begs the question 'If it's not safe enough to operate this plant when visitors are in town why is it safe enough to operate this plant when local residents are in town?'"

Burner officials had said they would work feverishly to get rid of all the GB but added that the plant would not shut down during the Games if some GB was still left.

However, Williams said that Department of the Army officials at the Pentagon told the Tooele facility both not to speed up operations and not to process during the Games.

"In spite of a desire by the local operators to try and hurry through the remaining GB campaign," said Williams, "higher-ups within the Department of the Army put a stop to it for safety considerations."

Sprague said that the burner was on track to finish by today but that operators ran into trouble with GB-filled ton containers which also turned out to have traces of mercury in them.

During the Games break workers will decontaminate parts of the plant "a semi-regular occurrence" and re-brick the refractory of the liquid incinerator. Sprague said that spent decontamination solution and other elements involved in agent destruction end up caked on incinerator walls like molten glass and has to be peeled off.

Some waste will continue to be processed, Sprague added, including secondary waste, miniscule amounts of GB, empty bulk containers, and miscellaneous waste--all of which will be fed into the metal parts furnace.

Sprague added that the maintenance activities would keep the entire facility busy--except for the 18 depot workers who are volunteering at the Olympics.

"We are not sending anyone home," he said.