Editor:

Again the army follows their history of cover-ups regarding the unsafe operation of the nerve agent incinerators throughout the country. The news article on the front page of the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin on July 20, 2004, was an admission intended to fool the public with silver-tongued words used over and over in the past. But each of us should put some thought into what was reported.

It was reported that the incinerator was spewing a "substance with VX nerve gas characteristics" on Tooele County. It isn't any safer to be shot in the head with a pistol than it is by a weapon with similar characteristics called a rifle, nor is it any safer to have the furnace stack spewing unknown, hidden and secretive substances with similar characteristics as VX on us, our children and our future.

Mr. Tim Thomas reported new bricks were installed about a week before. This statement suggests that "sensitive monitors" did not work until a buildup over several days overwhelmed the sampling systems until they had to alarm, just as with GB incinerator alarms in 2000.

Decontamination solutions were "agent free" and being incinerated at the time, it is probable that decon-solution freed VX in the incineration system but could not totally destroy the VX, as often happens in the VX system, and the impure VX going up the incinerator stack to Tooele County didnít analyze exactly perfect on the laboratory instruments. Especially skeptical is the well-known problems with reliability and accuracy of furnace stack agent sampling. Incineration is the least safe method of VX destruction.

The article included an insult to the intelligence of every reader from Charles Sprague when he mixed apples with oranges by saying even "perfume, weeds, and onions set off the alarms." Mr. Sprague, no amount of incinerated perfume, weeds, or onions will set off those VX alarms nor be confirmed by laboratory analysis as VX.

As reported in this newspaper, this is another open letter to go with dozens of unanswered letters and guest opinions that the army has ignored during the last two years. This time we add Mr. Tim Thomas and ask him to review and address every issue of the many that were contained in these articles prior to resuming VX incineration.

Most of all, we repeat that Mr. Thomas Cramer be allowed to observe and participate in the investigation and improvement of the stack sampling system prior to resuming the VX or HD incineration. Anything else is a fraudulent cover-up.

David Yarbrough
Marvin Montague
Thomas Cramer
Ron Gourley
Scott Andersen
Heather Yarbrough