By Karen Hensel and Doug Garrison

There are renewed concerns over the safety of storing one of the world's deadliest chemical weapons in Indiana.

In Part One of Project Security, I-Team 8 exposed the security issues at the Newport Chemical Depot. In Part Two, we explore the vulnerability of the containers in which the VX is actually stored. We also look at the lives of those residents who share a neighborhood with a weapon of mass destruction.

After 9/11, it became difficult to ignore the threat terrorism poses to the VX stockpile in our own backyard. The 3,500 people living around the Newport Chemical Depot live with the hope that alert radios just might save their life.

"You hear the alarm and basically you look around and see what's happening,” said Jon Bussey, a Newport neighbor.

What's happening could be deadly important.  Bussey and his neighbors live near enough VX nerve agent to kill every person. They are in the immediate response zone, where it is too late to evacuate. 

"After you live out here…you don't even think about it. It's second nature - the alarms being tested,” said Bussey.

Inside, some Newport depot employees carry gas masks 24/7. It takes them nine seconds to put the mask on if the need arises.

The feds have sent Indiana millions of federal dollars for 15 years for the chemical stockpile emergency preparedness program. Indiana received nearly $22 million in just the last seven years.

For the counties, it has paid for new computers, communication systems, and new trucks. For the 3,500 residents living in the immediate response zone, it has paid for radios, duct tape and plastic.

I-Team 8’s investigation has learned there are no masks or protective suits for the citizens. Jon Bussey said he did not have gas masks or anything like that to protect himself and his family.

While other states housing chemical weapons have used the money for gas masks for civilians, in Indiana only depot employees and first responders have received them.

Jerry Hauer, former State Emergency Management Director and now a Washington, DC terrorism expert, bought masks for the Pentagon, the Capitol and Homeland Security employees.  He wanted to buy masks for Indiana residents 14 years ago.

I-Team 8 was told the county EMA directors do not see a need because residents would need an entire suit and not just a mask to survive. As for Jon Bussey, he said he wasn’t sure about where he was supposed to go in the event of an emergency.

Some feel the program goal of being ready and prepared has not been met. "If something were to go wrong, what are you going to do?" said Bussey.

Hauer says the failure of security preparedness is dangerous: "Complacency is our biggest enemy.  It's our biggest enemy as we deal with terrorism in general.”

Aging Containers
Making it worse are the aging containers. The VX has been stored in nearly 1700 of these containers for forty years. Paul Walker of Global Green USA says the tanks corrode over time. Hauer affirms this belief: “They were not built to last for 40 or 50 years.  They told us that."

Whistleblowers have sounded the horn on leaks at some of the other US chemical stockpiles. That’s important to note when you consider there is enough VX stored here to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools.

I-Team 8 has found other concerns. Although the commanding officer of Newport, Colonel Joseph Marquart, told News 8 his security rivals that of a prison, I-Team 8 walked the perimeter and found that no one stopped or questioned us.  The only barrier to entering the grounds is an old chain link fence topped with barbed wire.

The airspace is restricted to one mile above the depot. When we flew over legally, no one questioned us.
 
Military sources tell I-Team 8 air defenses would come from other states and require minutes to prevent a 9/11-style attack.

Nature can also attack. When Hauer directed State Emergency Management, he watched a tornado pass within a mile of the depot. If the VX were to be airborne and aerosolized, it would be deadly.  Just twenty pounds of it killed 6,000 sheep in a forty-mile path within minutes in Utah.

With 1,200 tons of VX sitting at home, Indiana's two senators say it's too dangerous to continue to debate what to do with it. When asked if he would want his own family to be living with an alert radio, Sen. Evan Bayh replied, “I don't think anybody should have to live under those circumstances.”

"I would not feel comfortable, but I don't feel comfortable having family living anywhere in the United States in the age of terrorism,” said Sen. Richard Lugar when asked the same question.