Questions on air monitoring systems, air hose safety and infrared technologies were discussed at a recent Utah Citizens Advisory Commission (CAC) meeting held at Tooele’s City Hall.

About 70 people attended the gathering which was held to update the commission on the current status of the Deseret Chemical Depot’s chemical weapons demilitarization program.

The audience, which mainly consisted of depot employees and officials, listened attentively to brief presentations offered by a variety of people before they asked their questions.

Thaddeus (Ted) Ryba, the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility’s (TOCDF) deputy project manager, gave an update on monitoring improvements and Col. Peter Cooper of the Deseret Chemical Depot spoke about upcoming trial burns, future depot closure plans, heightened security measures and well as daily safety meetings that are held.

Others reported the current status of the remaining chemical stockpile programs across the nation as well as TOCDF processing percentages.

Stephen Frankiewicz, EG&G’s general manager, happily reported that as of March 7 TOCDF had worked an estimated 2,646,824 hours (601 days) without a lost day injury and that no detectable agent had been released from plant stacks

After the formal presentations, the floor was opened for comment.

Mick Harrison, an attorney for the Chemical Weapons Working Group (a national organization opposed to incineration), raised concerns of worker safety

He claimed that air hoses that had been exposed to agent weren’t being taken care of properly and that workers were being contaminated.

"If during entry, a hose had contacted anything toxic or hazardous, even paint, it is discarded,” responded Ryba. He said there are very rigid procedures in place for the workers protection and that charcoal filters are also in place in a workers breathing apparatus for added safety.

But not so fast, said Harrison, who commented that “some (employees) don’t even check to see if those filters are in place.”

It was then that Gary Hunter, an Oquirrh Mountain Facility worker, stood up and said that he had worked at the depot for 20 years and had “never seen an instance where it was left out.” He said procedures are followed because, “we wear these, our buddies wear these, our co-workers wear these” and that they look out for each other.

Jason Groenewold of Families Against Incinerator Risk, presented the commission with some information he said came from the National Research Council.

He pointed out that the studies mentioned the possibility of having different agent monitoring systems installed. He said he would like to see more real time monitors installed and spoke of infrared detection technologies currently being used by the Army at sites other than stockpile areas. He requested that the CAC ask the Army about such technologies.

Cooper touched on part of Groenewold’s comments saying that such technologies had not been tested at TOCDF. However, he said that information on such systems had been gathered but must be presented to Congress before the Army can share the information with the CAC. He said this will likely happen at the next CAC meeting.

Tom Cramer, who currently works at the depot, also commented. He was told a few months ago that his concerns about agent monitoring could be raised in the March meeting of the CAC. He said that he didn’t feel he should have had to wait that long and so in the meantime he made arrangements with Cooper and others to discuss his concerns.

“He cares and we have been able to communicate,” Cooper said.

But Cramer also said he still had more questions. He said that if he could see a demonstration of how some of the particular data was created he would understand more.

Ryba said some of the information gathering techniques were presented during one of the briefs that very night.

Although David Yarbrough, who was recently convicted on seven counts of falsifying air monitoring data, attended the meeting, he didn’t address the CAC.

But he did tell the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin what he thought about some aspects of the assembly.

“The managers continue to support a poor sampling system and talk about basics while the professionals who operate it, do not trust it,” he said. “The system is not accurate, not dependable, and not safe.”

However, the U.S. Chemical Material Agency maintains that the systems are safe and that continuous testing and quality checks by independent organizations are performed.

The 13 members of the CAC will meet again May 20 at the Department of Environment Quality building located at 168 North 1950 West, Building #2 in Salt Lake City. Topics of discussion will likely include responses to the information submitted by Groenewold, comments on infrared monitoring systems and worker safety.

e-mail: kscott@tooeletranscript.com