12/10/2003

Associated Press

Emergency radios and sirens warning of a chemical spill at the Newport Chemical Depot sounded Wednesday in two eastern Indiana counties, but the alert was a false alarm.

The alert sounded three times for Vermillion and Parke counties, warning residents to take shelter shortly after 11 a.m., but there was no chemical spill, according to a statement from the Army, which operates the depot.

The emergency radios that broadcast the alert are controlled by Vermillion County, not the depot.

The Army stores more than 1,200 tons of VX nerve agent at the depot in Newport, about 30 miles north of Terre Haute.

Destruction of the nerve agent, scheduled to begin in January, has been delayed because the Army fired an Ohio subcontractor that had been hired to dispose of a toxic byproduct.